Mee Industries’ Fogging, Wet Compression Tech Plays Role in Rising Power Demand

As utilities work to meet rising power demand in the United States, folks are increasingly relying upon fogging and wet compression systems to extract additional power from assets already connected to the grid. By boosting gas turbine output and enhancing thermal efficiency, these inlet-air cooling systems help operators generate more electricity and offer a cost-effective method to bridge gaps created by longer turbine lead times and delayed new-build projects.

CEO Thomas Mee explains how his company, Mee Industries, is slightly modifying its wet compression systems to help meet rising power demand by installing modern tuning systems to manage a balance between fuel flow and turbine output. He also details how replacing or upgrading older, neglected systems can keep existing turbines online, allowing plants to increase capacity while maintaining reliable operation.

TURBO: Looking forward, how do you see fogging and wet compression evolving to meet rising power demand?

Mee: I believe there’s always room for growth. Wet compression requires re-tuning the gas turbine, so you must change the relationship between the fuel flow and the output of the gas turbine. Without getting too technical, some of the modern tuning systems—model-based tuners or controls—are better suited and require less tinkering to make the system work properly. We’re always looking for ways to improve our equipment.

TURBO: Lastly, how else is Mee Industries helping customers maintain and enhance their assets while they wait up to 7 years for newbuild turbines?

Mee: We upgrade existing, older fogging systems from Mee Industries and other companies as well. This has been somewhat popular lately because many users bought fogging in the early 2000’s—the previous power boom—and then neglected [the systems], which haven’t operated in a decade or longer, in some instances. We go in and replace the programmable logic controllers (PLC) with modern PLCs and upgrade the systems to bring them back online.

The demand in the United States is partially driven by data centers, and, in the future, we expect it’ll be primarily driven by data centers and the need to back up renewables, which have largely been ruled out in the past decade. For the past five years, there’s been a strong and increasing demand for systems like ours that can produce power quickly and inexpensively.

For more information regarding fogging and wet compression, please check out Part 1 and Part 2!