Impact of Non-Steady State Operation on Cooling Water Consumption at Coal- and Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants
- Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education (ORISE), Oak Ridge, TN (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States); Stanford Univ., CA (United States)
- National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
Increased renewable energy penetration in the electricity grid in coming decades will result in more frequent cycling at thermal power plants. Simultaneously, thermal power plants may face water scarcity with declining availability of cooling water. Therefore, to enhance thermal power plants’ resiliency to water shortages it is important to understand how non-steady conditions due to cycling will impact cooling water consumption and withdrawal intensity. Non-steady operation at power plants has been previously shown to decrease power plant thermal efficiency. Energy balance models have also demonstrated that a decrease in thermal efficiency is expected to increase cooling water consumption intensity. Furthermore, past work has used operating hours data to show idling and cycling gaps where cooling systems operate more than corresponding generators. As a result, an increase in cycling behavior may impact cooling water consumption and withdrawal intensity. This study uses data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to quantify the impact of cycling cooling water consumption intensity for recirculating cooling systems and withdrawal intensity for once-through cooling systems using energy balance and statistical approaches. In a novel application of a fixed effects model to study the effect of temperature on cooling water consumption and withdrawal intensity, this study finds temperature was consistently expected to increase consumption intensity and withdrawal intensity. Non-steady state conditions do not increase cooling water consumption intensity with statistical significance across unit types. However, additional validation of cooling water data is required to confirm these observed trends due to the sensitivity of these findings to model form and concerns with data quality of the dependent variables, cooling water consumption and withdrawal.
- Research Organization:
- National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA, Morgantown, WV, and Albany, OR (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Fossil Energy (FE)
- DOE Contract Number:
- FE0025912
- OSTI ID:
- 1901808
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/NETL-2021/2884
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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