SPECIAL REPORT: 7F USERS GROUP
7F: Unwavering commitment to the industry at 20 years and counting
> The 7F Users Group hosted its 20th anniversary conference last May in Houston’s Westin Galleria, attracting about 250 owner/operators to the world’s largest gathering of F-class users and the equipment and services providers that serve them. more
Vendor Presentations
> Technical presentations by vendor representatives are an important part of every 7F Users Group meeting. Fifteen presentations are made during five 45-min sessions. more
7F: Preventing blowout trips of 7FAs
> One vendor presentation that got high marks from many users at the groups 20th anniversary meeting was Mitch Cohen’s “Understanding and Reducing Lean Blowout Trips of 7 FA DLN2.6 Combustors.” more
7F: Getting started, 1991
> The contributions of users groups to the commercial success of gas turbines cannot be overstated. These machines are relative newcomers to the power generation sector of the electric power industry and without a proactive and collaborative user community, the development of today’s large, efficient, reliable, low-emissions gas turbines certainly would have taken longer than it has. more
FEATURES
7F Webinar: TIL Updates
Implement recommendations in 1509-R3, 1638, 1795 to reduce operational risks
> Technical Information Letters (TILs), published periodically by GE Energy, offer recommendations to resolve equipment issues, improve gas-turbine O&M and reliability, and protect the health and safety of plant personnel. more
Generator Inspections, Failures
Get a grip on stator-core, rotating-field damage mechanisms
> Generator stator cores are deceptively simple devices. But there’s a lot that can go wrong with the 10 acres of insulated surface in a typical 200-MW unit. Rotating fields present their set of problems, some of which have led to catastrophic failures. more
WEATHER ALERT: Geomagnetic hurricane watch
Here comes the sun, and your plant is in its crosshairs
by Thomas F Armistead, Consulting Editor
> The solar energy that sustains life on this planet cycles through pulses of activity roughly every 11 years. The pulses are evident in a crescendo of sunspots, flares, and other eruptions as the orb builds toward what astronomers call the solar maximum, then the eruptions wane, returning in another dozen years or so. more
Future Generation
Gas-fired plants win big as wind energy confronts market forces
by Jason Makansi, Pearl Street Inc
> Saying that wind energy is becoming victim to market forces may appear oxymoronic, because the industry is supported by state renewable portfolio standards (RPS), the federal production tax credit (PTC), the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) new Order 1000, and various other loans and subsidies that flowed through the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) and other loan guarantee programs. more
HRSG Gas-Side Cleaning
The dollars and sense of clean boiler tubes
> Fouled finned-tube bundles in heat-recovery steam generators (HRSGs) can penalize your bottom line by hundreds of thousands of dollars on an annual basis, so it makes good sense to call in a qualified cleaning contractor-periodically (every year or two) or when pressure drop reaches what you decide is the “action-required” level. more
Small Valves
Eliminate leakage by drain, vent, block valves
> Many plant managers will tell you that much of the work required to make a new combined cycle a competitive generation asset doesn’t begin until after the facility is commissioned and the construction/startup crew drives out the gate and off into the sunset. more
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Web-Based Training Course
GENERATOR MONITORING, INSPECTION, MAINTENANCE
• Impact of design on reliability (Feb 17).
• Problems relating to operation (Feb 24).
• Failure modes and root causes (Mar 2).
• Monitoring capability and limitations (Mar 9).
• Inspection basic principles (Mar 16).
• Test options and risks (Mar 23).
• Maintenance basic approaches (Mar 30).
Plant O&M personnel will be more comfortable around generators, gain in ability to distinguish between what’s normal and what’s not, be better equipped to interact effectively with the OEM and other generator service specialists on maintenance issues. more
Updated 02/20/12. Dates, locations, and contacts for the industry’s leading forums for technical information exchange and professional networking. more
PLANT REPORTS
Goodsprings Energy Recovery Station
Renewables-era combined cycle meeting expectations
> When you mention the term “combined cycle” to colleagues in the electric power industry, they generally assume you’re referring to a gas turbine/generator coupled to a steam turbine/generator by means of a heat-recovery steam generator. more
Gas Turbine Historical Society
Jurassic turbine keeps on ticking
by Rodger O Andersen, DRS Power Technology
>Back in the Jurassic era, when your elementary school teacher used a mimeograph machine (and the scent presaged your college days), when a guy in a swim suit jumped off a cliff in Hawaii hawking a Timex watch on your rabbit-eared television, a Dresser Clark gas turbine came into existence. more
Harry Allen Generating Station
Fleet leader
> As NV Energy Inc’s President/CEO Michael W Yackira dedicated the 2 × 1 7FA-powered combined cycle at Harry Allen Generating Station last May, VP Generation Kevin Geraghty told the editors he believed the heavily instrumented plant would prove itself as the utility’s top performer. more
New Harquahala Generating Co
Report card: Straight ‘A’s
> Plant Manager Dean Motl and the staff at New Harquahala Generating Co LLC (NHGC), Tonopah, Ariz, always have the welcome mat out for the editors. more
User Group Roundups
Ovation Users
Ovation users glimpse the future, consider today’s solutions
> No sector of the electric power industry seems to change as fast as automation, control, and digital technologies. more
CTOTF
The total plant concept
> The CTOTF Spring Turbine Forum at The Williamsburg Lodge in Virginia’s Colonial Williamsburg, April 15-19, is coming up quickly. more
From the Editor
> No spring training; it’s user group season
Business Partners
> Industry updates, company news, more
Industry Brief – February
Insight and counsel on energy and electricity
by Jason Makansi, Pearl Street Inc
>During the President’s State of the Union Address, I was glad to hear him utter the words “Clean Energy Standard.” I continue to believe that this is the smartest policy mechanism for drastically minimizing environmental impact and having a hope in hell of achieving the domestic energy security every president has talked about since I was in high school (and readers, that’s a long time ago)… more
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