Combustion Turbine Inlet Conditioning: A State-of-the-Art Method of Increasing Generating Capacity Without the Addition of New Basic Generation Hardware

Abstract

While the market for electrical energy has increased at unprecedented rates, (both in the U.S. and other parts of the world), and the simultaneous advent of deregulation adds speculation to the mix, the ability of manufacturers to keep pace with new generating equipment orders has pushed deliveries from months to years. Additionally, as demand increases for new generating equipment, the inevitable market forces elevate prices to new levels. One obvious solution is to find a cost and time effective method to achieve more stable and predictable performance from both new generation equipment and existing generation equipment. The objective of this paper is to provide a simple guide for engineers, owners, manufacturers, and operators to select the design and concept for producing the maximum, stable and predictable additional capacity on new and existing generating equipment through the use of single lift modular packaged mechanical inlet chilling, or packaged chilling modules (PCM’s).