Patent ID: 8539750

Claim:
A power generation system comprising: a steam turbine; a HRSG comprising (i) an evaporator coupled to receive condensate from the steam turbine, and (ii) a superheater coupled to receive output from the evaporator, the HRSG configured to generate steam for the steam turbine with thermal energy received from a combustion turbine; a flash tank positioned to (i) receive water heated in the HRSG, (ii) output a first portion of the received water as steam, and (iii) output a second portion of the received water as water; a flow line connected to pass the steam from the flash tank to a combustion chamber in a combustion turbine in order to selectively provide power augmentation; a water tank for receiving relatively cool replenishing water for input to the steam turbine system and thereby compensate for a deficincey in working fluid resulting from diversion of steam to the combustion chamber for power augmentation; and a heat exchanger coupled to receive the hot water from the flash tank and configured to receive and heat the relatively cool replenishing water from the water tank with the relatively hot liquid output from the flash tank, wherein the heat exchanger is coupled to provide the heated replenishing water to the steam turbine.