Especially in the case of power plants with expensive air-cooled condensers, this can mean considerably lower costs.
Live steam flows greater than that in the example shown shift the optimum toward higher live steam pressures, since the volume flows also are larger. The live steam pressure selected is thus less important for larger steam turbines than for smaller installations. For that reason, it is advantageous in large combined-cycle plants with several gas turbines to select a live steam pressure that is above the optimum. The reduced volume flow that results makes it possible to employ piping and valves with smaller dimensions. The trend is the opposite when the flow of live steam is reduced. The optimum live steam pressure also depends on the total amount of live steam: increasing the amount