Cooling Water Intake Model Study For Nsp's Sherco Unit 3 Electric Power Generating Plant

Abstract

Sherco Unit 3 is a coal-fired electric power generation facility under construction for Northern States Power Company (NSP), Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is located near the town of Becker, Minnesota, on the Mississippi River approximately 40 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Upon completion, it will join Sherco Units 1 & 2, which have been on-line since the mid 1970's (Fig. l-l). For condenser cooling, the plant uses a closed cycle cooling water system with forced draft wet cooling towers. To compensate for water losses from evaporation and releases' to the Mississippi River, an intake structure with two pumps of 15,000 gpm capacity each is located on the Mississippi River. With the addition of Unit 3, it became necessary to increase the water withdrawal capacity of the system. All three units will share the existing river intake facility.