Shahid Mofatteh Power Plant's dry cooling tower was inaugurated on Tuesday by President Hassan Rouhani during his trip to Hamedan Province on the occasion of Iran's Government Week (Aug. 24-30), managing director of Bakhtar Regional Electricity Company said
According to Shabihi, Bakhtar Regional Electricity Company made use of indigenous technology and local experts to implement the project in 34 months at an estimated cost of $16.7 million, IRNA reported.
This project will decrease power plant's water consumption in each unit from 3 million cubic meters to 600,000 cubic meters. In other words, it will save 2.5 million cubic meters of water per annum.
The new 2,500-ton cooling tower is 133 meters long and has an aluminum shield. 28,000 cubic meters of water circulates in the tower per hour with the help of two pumps, the power of each is 1,900 kilowatts. As many as 120 heat convertors have been used in this tower.
In a dry cooling system, instead of using water to lower cooling water temperature, air is passed over the cooling water by one or more large fans. Running those fans can require a significant amount of electricity, which makes this system less suited for large plants that require a lot of steam such as those powered by coal or nuclear energy. They can, however, be used to support the thermal portion of combined-cycle natural gas plants.
The project to supply Shahid Mofatteh Power Plant with wastewater from Hamedan City was also inaugurated on Tuesday by the president.
Conservation of underground water resources, power supply during peak hours and storing water for crisis situations are among the advantages of the project.
"It is the first time wastewater from treatment facilities are being utilized in power plants on a large scale," Shabihi was quoted as saying.
Shahid Mofateh Power Plant is located 47 km northeast of Hamedan. With a design capacity of 1,000 MW, it has 4 units, the first of which was commissioned in 1995 and the last in 1997.
