Power Management and Water Conservation

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Power Management and Water Conservation
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• The use, reuse and recycle mantra is now pointing
  to water conservation and the time ripe for its
  adoption in the Power Management sector. The
  enormous amount of water required for steam
  generation, ash handling, and cooling purpose in
  a power station enables it as the most essential
  contender for implementing water conservation
  strategies in their power plant.
• The power managers are increasingly concerned
  about effective wastewater recycling system in
  the power plant which handles and recycles the
  water used for the ash handling system of the
  thermal power plants. The cooling water unit
  consumes around 70 of total water consumption in
  any thermal power plant, followed by ash handling
  and flue gas desulfurization system. A saving of
  17 of water is estimated just by upgrading the
  cycle of concentration in the circulating cooling
  water system.

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Opportunity areas discovered in the Power Industry

• The power plant managers are looking for the
  possibility of a dry cooling system instead of
  direct cooling systems in a power plant that is
  capable of saving millions of cubic of water
  every year in a coal-fired thermal power plant.
  This technology has already been adopted and
  successfully implemented in some of the NTPCs
  thermal power plants which leads to a huge cut in
  their daily water consumption.

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Changing scenario in the domestic context

• The water conservation strategies adopted in any
  power plant play a key role in the sustainable
  management of power stations. Upgrading plant
  managers with innovative technologies and
  policies in this regard are vital nowadays as
  Indian power plants are believed to be lagging in
  terms of technology adoption and are struggling
  with outdated generating equipment. The
  initiative of some of the thermal power companies
  like NTPCs to train their power plant
  professionals in the explicitly designed power
  institutions/courses like MBA in Power
  management are promising and perhaps fortify the
  efforts of India in enhancing water conservation
  and greenhouse gas emission control in power
  plants.