TE MIHI GEOTHERMAL POWER STATION – HOTWELL PUMPS – A TALE OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
- Key words
- Hot Well Pump, Vibration, Cavitation
- Conference
- New Zealand Geothermal Workshop
- Year
- 2017
- Session
- Session 5.1: Production
- Language
- English
- Paper number
- 90
Full text
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Abstract
The Te Mihi geothermal power station hotwell pumps (HWP) are a special duty “closed can” design of pump used to extract condensate under vacuum from a direct contact condenser and return it to the cooling tower (CT).
During procurement the Engineer Procure Construct (EPC) contractor pursued a variation with the pump Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) for the closed can material selection. With the change in material, the can shape was modified from a typical Hydraulic Institute type of design and this affected the hydraulic performance of the can.
This case study reviews a number of lessons learned for design impacts from an apparently small change.
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