Alliant Energy’s Riverside Power Plant in Beloit, WI undertook a cooling tower upgrade project in 2015 to reduce the visible plume from the existing wet cooling tower at a combined cycle power plant. The plume was impacting yard operations at an adjacent Operations Center, several residences, and a high travel county highway. Several different options were investigated and EvapTech’s EVAPDRI wet-dry technology was ultimately selected for this demonstration test. This paper will discuss the challenges of the project and how they were resolved: operational results of the wet cooling tower in winter with significant plume impact, permit limitations, retrofit and installation of metallic heat exchanger coils in the existing FRP Cooling tower structure while in operation, water management issues while utilizing existing plant piping, startup and measurement of the effluent air and plume characteristics of the modified cell, permitting and planning of future activities to retrofit the entire cooling tower.
