Combined-Cycle Plant HRSG Exchanger Supply

A combined-cycle power plant commissioning its second HRSG train needed auxiliary cooling exchangers sized against the actual duty cycle of a plant that would ramp up and down daily to follow grid demand, rather than the steady-state profile a baseload unit's original equipment package would have assumed.

Dolphin Group engineered the auxiliary exchanger package to HEI standards, with thermal design run against the plant's full daily ramp profile rather than a single design point — a cycling combined-cycle unit sees more thermal fatigue loading over its life than a baseload plant of the same nameplate capacity, and the exchanger design had to account for that duty, not just the peak.

• Verified tube-side and shell-side flow against the full ramp-rate profile, not just peak load
• Selected materials rated for the thermal cycling fatigue duty rather than steady-state service alone
• Coordinated delivery milestones directly against the HRSG erection schedule
• Hydrotested and documented each unit before dispatch to site

The package was delivered in line with the HRSG erection schedule and commissioned without a duty shortfall, giving the plant an auxiliary cooling system engineered for the cycling service it would actually see over its operating life.