Throughout the country, China is constructing numerous power plants of varying types. But the country’s concerns go beyond meeting the ever-increasing demand for power generation. There is growing pressure — internally and externally — to minimize environmental impacts. SPX is working on both fronts.
As new power plants are constructed and older ones retrofitted to increase efficiency or improve environmental outcomes, SPX is helping to meet some of these competing needs with custom-engineered cooling systems and components — many differentiated by their environmentally friendly designs and technologies.
Dry Cooling Saves Water Resources
SPX currently has several new dry cooling systems in development throughout Asia, including for the Salaqi and Haibowan (Inner Mongolia) power plants, the Midong (Xinjiang) power plant and the Hequ ( Shanxi) power plant. (See the press release announcing the project.)
The dry cooling systems are being designed to help reduce water consumption by approximately 90% as compared to other types of cooling systems, in line with the efforts and policies of the Chinese authorities to save water resources.
Key Components Improve Nuclear Plant Safety
SPX is also working with Westinghouse Electric to meet the growing demand for power generation in China. (See the press release announcing the project.)
Westinghouse is under contract to build numerous nuclear power plants in China using its AP1000 pressurized water reactor (PWR) design. The AP1000 is an advanced 1154 MWe nuclear power plant that uses the forces of nature and simplicity of design to enhance plant safety and operations and to help reduce construction costs.
Critical to the functioning of the AP1000 design are squib valves, which provide the last means of a nuclear plant to shut down when all other systems have failed. SPX is engineering and manufacturing these specialty valves and will also provide training and technical expertise for the new plants.