Jellyfish ingress: A threat to the smooth operation of coastal power plants

Coastal areas are often preferred for setting up power stations due to the easy availability of sea water for condenser cooling. In such coastal power stations, there are instances of plant shutdown due to excessive accumulation of fouling debris inside the cooling circuits. Recently, there have been a few instances, when jellyfish in large numbers entered the sea water cooling system of the Madras Atomic Power Station (MAPS) at Kalpakkam, Tamil Nadu, India causing plant shutdown. While moderate ingress of jellyfish leads to a reduction in the plant efficiency, large arrivals may even lead to forced shut down of a power plant. The present study deals with the ingress of jellyfish in MAPS cooling water system and its impact on the power plant operation.