Cooling tower optimization

Cooling towers that use fans to create draft can consume a large amount of power, which shows up as higher operating cost or lower plant efficiency. Multi-cell towers are often run as if every cell performed the same way. That assumption adds cost. Griffin’s cooling tower application uses the real behavior of each cell to set individual fan speeds in real time, cutting power use by 5% or more without giving up cooling performance.

Cooling towers matter in power generation, food processing, and many other processes. Where fans create the draft, whether the draft is forced or induced, fan power is a real operating cost. If the motors have variable-frequency drives or more than one power setting, fan speed can be changed. Many of those systems still run every fan at the same speed to hold a temperature setpoint, on the belief that every cell is equally efficient. Cell efficiency usually is not equal, and it changes with load and with other conditions.

The application reduces power consumption while holding, or improving, process performance. A 5% to 10% reduction in fan power was demonstrated on a 12-cell induced-draft evaporative cooler at a large power plant. Installation of the AI platform and the cooling tower application is typically complete in less than a week once the control-system changes inside the plant are in place. The I/O count is small, often under 50 points, depending on the size and scope of the tower. After a short learning period, usually two to three weeks, the benefit is expected within a month of installation.

Contact us to talk about your towers. Cooling tower brief (PDF).