Comparative analysis of cooling systems for energy equipment of combined heat and power plants and nuclear power plants

In the 20th century, the thermal power engineering in this country was oriented toward oncethrough cooling systems. More than 50% of the CHPP and NPP capacities with once-through cooling systems put into operation before the 1990s were large-scale water consumers but with minimum irretrievable water consumption. In 1995, the Water Code of the Russian Federation was adopted in which restrictions on application of once-through cooling systems for newly designed combined heat and power plants (CHPPs) were introduced for the first time. A ban on application of once-through systems was imposed by the current Water Code of the Russian Federation (Federal law no. 74-FZ, Art. 60 Cl. 4) not only for new CHPPs but also for those to be modified. Clause 4 of Article 60 of the Water Code of the Russian Federation contravenes law no. 7-FZ “On Protection of the Environment” that has priority significance, since the water environment is only part of the natural environment and those articles of the Water Code of the Russian Federation that are related directly to electric power engineering, viz., Articles 46 and 62. In recent decades, the search for means to increase revenue charges and the economic pressure on the thermal power industry caused introduction by law of charges for use of water by cooling systems irrespective of the latter’s impact on the water quality of the source, the environment, the economic efficiency of the power production, and the living conditions of the people. The long-range annual increase in the water use charges forces the power generating companies to switch transfer once-through service water supply installations to recirculating water supply systems and once-through–recirculating systems with multiple reuse of warm water, which drastically reduces the technical, economic, and ecological characteristic of the power plant operation and also results in increasing power rates for the population. This work comprehensively substantiates the demands of power engineering specialists that the ban on development and construction of once-through service water supply systems should be lifted and the proposals for new parameters, e.g., temperature and back pressure, for designing low-potential equipment of steam-gas and steam-power plants.