Technical and economic evaluation of gas turbine inlet air cooling in a combined cycle power plant

Climate condition has a strong influence on the gas turbine efficiency and power generation. Furthermore, the peak electrical consumption occurs in the summer by using air conditioning equipment´s. In other words, under high temperature ambient conditions, electrical demand is increased and the turbine output is decreased. This has been proved that turbine inlet air cooling can improve the power plant efficiency and production and consumption profiles approach together. Technical and economic feasibility study of different turbine inlet air cooling systems such as media and fogging systems, air and water cooled mechanical chillers and single and double effect absorption chillers, is the main purpose of this paper. In this study, the gas turbines of Kazeroun new combined cycle power plant which located in a west of Iran are considered. The highest and lowest improvement in output power (14.3% and 6.88%) occurs by using water cooled chiller system and media system, respectively. At the end, the most suitable turbine inlet air cooling system has been selected according to technical and economic point of view. Sensitivity analysis shows that the candidate system doesn´t have economic justification for a price less than 80 dollars per megawatt.