A new concept of power plant heat-sink system is presented which employs the combination of a conventional wet-tower and a conventional dry-tower. The purpose of this cooling system is to reduce wet cooling-tower makeup-water requirements in water-short areas. The dry tower operates all year around while the wet-peaking tower is used only above certain ambient dry-bulb temperatures. The two cooling circuits serve separate sections of a conventional, surface-type, steam condenser. Thermal performance analysis is presented for various combinations of cooling systems ranging from 100 percent wet to 100 percent dry. Annual makeup-water requirements are calculated for various sizes of towers located in 18 selected cities of the U.S.A. ranging from north to south and east to west.

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Cooling towers are an important component in many of today’s large steam-electric generating plants and the power industry is looking forward to an even greater use of this equipment in the future. Certain problems and difficulties presently confronting the tower purchaser and user are reviewed in the light of the purchaser’s requirements and the user’s operating experiences. Maintenance cost data for 50 cooling towers totaling 2,600,000 gpm capacity are presented. The effect of tower thermal-performance deficiency on station capability and heat rate is discussed. The paper is concluded with a prediction of what the cooling-tower industry has to look forward to from the power industry as regards future cooling-tower sizes for both nuclear and conventional, fuel-fired power plants.