Abstract for:Simulating the Water Usage at a Coal-Fired Power Station

System dynamics was used to model the consumption of raw water at a coal fired power station by conducting a water balance across each process that uses water such as the cooling system, ash handling, demineralized and potable water production. The results have undergone validation by comparing the simulated data with the empirical water usage data. The simulator runs for 24 months at a monthly resolution.  Results obtained from the model runs showed that a 20% increase in the water treatment effluents, which can be attributed to inefficient water treatment processes, will result in a 9% increase in ash water and 2% increase in raw water usage. It was also observed that raw water for fire range usage has increased and this has flooded the power stations drains.  Water savings can be achieved by efficiently managing the raw water usage which includes fixing leaking pipes, efficient water treatment processes and by implementing a system to account for water consumption at each process in the coal-fired power station.