Condenser Performance Improve-ment is becoming an increasingly important issue for both nuclear and fossil fueled generating systems. Condenser performance deficiencies can easily increase heat rate by 100 BTU's per Kw-hr and often by as much as 400 BTU's per Kw-hr. Condenser performance deficiencies can also limit plant load during summer operation.

HES offers the utility industry a unique combination of expert skill, experience and technical resources in the area of condenser performance improvement.

HES's Condenser Performance Improvement approach includes thorough root cause evaluation of apparent performance deficiencies and cost effective corrective action implementation. The evaluation process can be extensive, i.e. a condenser performance test. However, when HES's evaluative approach is implemented this is usually unnecessary.

The first step in a Condenser Performance Evaluation is a visual examination, instrument and instrument sensory point review and discussions with station personnel. Performance data is obtained and a parametric sensitivity analysis is performed using HES's performance prediction computer code. This evaluation specifically identified and lists potential root causes in the order of greatest to least potential impact magnitude.

Thereafter, the actual projected impact of these potential root causes are evaluated and quantified by various tests and analyses which include:

• Basket tip relocation to low turbulence areas and with tubing routing to prevent water leg buildup.

• Circulating water outlet tail pipe traversing to identify temperature in accuracies due to thermal stratification.

• Tube sampling to identify the fouling nature and its heat transfer resistance. The former is usually accomplished by various spectroscopic analyses and the latter via heat transfer resistance tests performed before and after descaling.

• Helium leak testing to locate the quantify air in-leakage.

• Circulating water flow tests by dye dilution, ultrasonic and other techniques.

• Air binding tests via traverses or thermocouple grids mounted on the outlet tubesheet. Once the root cause(s) are identified, the most cost effective corrective action(s) are selected.

• Evaluation of alternate cleaning methods.

• Side stream assessment of alternate chemical treatment methods for microfouling control.

• Evaluation of chemical treatment methods for macro-fouling control, e.g. the zebra mussel.

• Evaluation of all practical bundle modifications, including rebundling (Modular Replace-ment).

• Evaluation of pump and intake structure modifications.