Water Consumption Study for Navajo Plant

As suitable sites for very large steam-electric generating plants along natural waterways become scarcer, the use of cooling towers for purposes of cooling plant waste heat will increase. Water quantities available for withdrawal and consumption will also become limited, especially as electric production increases and the number of plants and their sizes increase. At the Navajo plant site near Page, AZ, the water source is Lake Powell, which is more than adequate for the proposed generating station. However, there is a limitation on the amount of water that can be obtained. This paper analyzes these problems, presents an analytical heat heat-and-mass balance method for accurately determining the evaporative losses for cooling towers, reviews the influential effects of plant site atmospheric conditions on cooling tower evaporative losses, and presents other factors affecting water consumption, such as type of plant (nuclear or fossil), unit size, steam conditions, and plant loading characteristics.