Power Plant Cooling Water Simulator

Cooling Technology

Plant & Weather

Plant output 800 MW

Ambient temperature 20 °C

Water & Energy

Plant efficiency

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Heat rejected

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Water withdrawn

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Water consumed (evaporated)

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Extra fuel vs wet-tower baseline

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How it works

Every thermal power plant — coal, gas or nuclear — converts only part of its heat into electricity; the rest must be dumped somewhere, and that "somewhere" is almost always water or air. The condenser's temperature sets the plant's efficiency, and the cooling method sets how much water that condenser costs.

Q_reject = P_out · (1 − η) / η
η = η_design − k · (T_condenser − 35°C)
T_condenser ≈ T_ambient + approach (12°C wet/once-through, 25°C dry)

Once-through — pulls a huge volume from a river or bay, warms it a regulated ~8°C, and returns nearly all of it: massive withdrawal, tiny consumption.
Wet tower — recirculates a small volume but rejects heat mainly by evaporating it (~2260 kJ/kg latent heat): far less withdrawal, but almost everything withdrawn is truly consumed (lost to the atmosphere), plus blowdown to control dissolved-solids buildup.
Dry (air-cooled) — rejects heat straight to air through finned tubes, like a car radiator: withdrawal and consumption both collapse toward zero, but the condenser runs hotter, especially on hot days, so efficiency drops and more fuel is burned per megawatt-hour delivered.
Ambient temperature — raises the condenser temperature for every method, but hurts dry cooling the most, since it has no evaporative cooling to fall back on.

This is the water-energy nexus from the generation side: producing electricity from heat engines requires water, and the technology choice trades water security against thermal efficiency and fuel cost.

River / makeup water Evaporated plume Efficiency-penalty heat

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