Modification of Wayang Windu Unit 1 Cooling Tower to Improve the CT Performance

Abstract

Unit 1 Cooling Tower (CT) in Wayang Windu Geothermal Power Plant has been operating since 2000. There were excellent works had been conducted by Star Energy Geothermal (Wayang Windu) team in order to improve the CT performance while assuring the excellent CT operation reliability. The first project was replacing the CT fan stack with higher fan stack in 2011. The Unit 1 CT performance test revealed data of decreasing of approach temperature as much as 1.44°C, increasing of range temperature as much as 1.92°C, and increasing of CT effectiveness as much as 5.17%. The impact was equivalent to net generation improvement of 1.44 MW. The second project was replacing the existing low reliable CT gearbox with more reliable gearbox and the increasing number of fan blades to improve the CT performance during CT upgrading project from 2014 till 2017. The CT upgrading project improved the CT thermal performance and the impact was equivalent to net generation improvement of 0.40 MW.