For this natural gas power plant HRSG pump system, we provided the complete system for Kings Mountain Energy Center in North Carolina which is a combined cycle power plant. The natural gas power plant HRSG pump system supports the long term operations of the plant by pumping blowdown and high-water temperatures.

Kings Mountain is a suburban city in North Carolina that is within the Charlotte metropolitan area.

This city is located in Cleveland and Gaston counties and had a population of 11,142 at the 2020 census. It is about 7 miles north of the South Carolina border while being about 30 miles west of Charlotte.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center in North Carolina needed an HRSG blowdown pumping system for the power plant. The facility is a 475MW natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plant in Cleveland County. The energy center features an advanced Mitsubishi Hitachi M501GAC combustion turbine generator, a Vogt Power International supplementary fired heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) and a Toshiba America Energy Systems steam turbine generator.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center is capable of powering approximately 400,000 homes which benefits the surrounding communities.

Gemma Power, the owner, engineer, and contractor for the power plant construction contacted Romtec Utilities to request a quote for a private bid.

Having experience working with Gemma Power on previous projects, we provided a quote with our HRSG blowdown pump station designs and won the job.

This project also ran parallel to another HRSG project for Gemma at their Middletown Energy Center in Ohio.

Romtec Utilities provided designs and pricing for this project and several others, giving Gemma Power a single partner for all its HRSG pumping systems. After installation, Romtec Utilities sent an onsite technician to provide training to the operations personnel.

A new HRSG required three industrial pump stations to provide water for its processes. This HRSG blowdown pump station needed to handle extreme pumping conditions with water at a high temperature.

The pumps were engineered outside the wet well in a vertical configuration to prevent damage from exposure to hot, caustic water created in the HRSG blowdown process.

This system uses Goulds 7.5 hp pumps in a duplex configuration to meet the high pumping rate required to handle the blowdown water. In the wet well, Nolta floats are the primary level-sensing equipment, and a pressure transducer is used to provide redundancy and to monitor the temperature in the well.

It can pump up to 480 gallons per minute with a total dynamic head of 35’.

Romtec Utilities as a designer, manufacturer, and supplier of HRSG blowdown pump stations was pleased to be a part of this large project at the Kings Mountain Energy Center in North Carolina for Gemma Power. We have partnered with them on many projects in the past for various power plants needing HRSG blowdown pump stations for these critical pieces of infrastructure that help power the U.S.

Our experience working and designing these HRSG blowdown pumping systems helps us design infrastructure that will last through difficult, hot water pumping conditions.

HRSG pump systems are needed in natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants because the HRSG depends on a reliable water and blowdown network to turn gas-turbine exhaust heat into usable steam. In a combined-cycle plant, the gas turbine’s hot exhaust is sent through the heat recovery steam generator (HRSG), which recovers that heat to make steam for a steam turbine and boosts overall plant efficiency instead of wasting that heat to atmosphere.

Just as importantly, the HRSG process requires a constant, controlled flow of water.

Feedwater pumps move treated water into the HRSG so it can be heated, evaporated, and superheated through the economizer, evaporator, and superheater sections; without that controlled pumping, the steam cycle cannot operate reliably.

The Kings Mountain Energy Center in North Carolina is a strong example of what Romtec Utilities can provide to a pump station for an HRSG Blowdown scenario.

1. We provided the HRSG blowdown pumping system, along with design and engineering support, supply and manufacturing services, specification writing, site plan layout assistance, on-site construction advising, and start-up management.
2. We were the single partner for the HRSG blowdown pumping scope, which simplified coordination on a large and highly specialized power project.
3. The Kings Mountain system also shows the kind of engineering these applications require. Romtec Utilities HRSG blowdown pump system was designed to handle extreme pumping conditions, using pumps installed outside the wet well in a vertical configuration to reduce exposure to the hot, caustic blowdown water created by the HRSG process.
4. The HRSG blowdown system is not ordinary wastewater pumping; it requires equipment selected specifically for reliability, safety, and maintainability under harsh plant conditions.

HRSG pump systems are essential in natural gas-fired combined-cycle power plants because they support the water flow, blowdown removal, and harsh-duty fluid handling needed for the HRSG to convert turbine exhaust heat into steam efficiently and safely. At the Kings Mountain Energy Center, a 475 MW combined-cycle plant in North Carolina, Romtec Utilities supplied the HRSG blowdown pumping system and related design, engineering, and start-up support. This provided the plant with a single source provider who handles the design, engineering, manufacturing, and supply of the entire system. We also handle the warranty covering any issues that may arise, as the single source provider.

The HRSG blowdown system was engineered for hot, caustic blowdown conditions and helped the project by improving coordination, simplifying installation, and supporting reliable long-term plant operation.