Recipients of the 2013 Best Practices Awards were honored during a special session and luncheon at CTOTF’s™ 38th Annual Spring Conference and Trade Show, held April 7-11 at the Marriott Resort and Spa in Myrtle Beach, SC.
One of the biggest challenges facing owners and operators of generating assets in deregulated markets is the need to continually improve the performance of their facilities—to increase revenues and decrease expenses. One component of this goal of “continual improvement” is best practices. These are the methods and procedures plants rely on to assure top performance on a predictable and repeatable basis.
The Best Practices Awards program, launched in late 2004 by the CCJ, has as its primary objective recognition of the valuable contributions made by plant staffs—and headquarters engineering and asset-management personnel as well—to improve the safety and performance of generating facilities powered by gas turbines. There are two levels of awards to recognize the achievements at individual plants: Best Practices and The Best of the Best (BOB).
The top awards, as voted by a team of 10 judges selected from the Leadership Committee of the Combustion Turbine Operations Technical Forum™, went to six plants (italics in the summary listing below) in four of the eight awards categories for 2013 that attracted entries. The Best Practices program was modified this year by a joint CTOTF/CCJ working committee to encourage entries pertinent to industry-wide initiatives—such as fast starts, performance improvements, workforce development, and NERC CIP V.4 Compliance.
Another change was to recognize Best of the Best recipients by rank across all entries rather than by category, as had been the practice. The result: No BOBs were awarded for plant safety procedures, outage management, O&M mechanical, and natural-disaster preparedness and recovery, although several plants received Best Practices plaques in each of those categories. The scorecard used by the judges considers business value, degree of complexity, staff involvement, external coordination, and duration of value.
These are the plants recognized for their best practices in 2013:
- Fast starts: Newington Energy Facility, Encogen Generating Station, Holden Power Plant, and Osprey Energy Center.
- Natural-disaster preparedness and recovery: Bridgeport Energy, Dogwood Energy Facility, and Tenaska Kiamichi Generating Station.
- O&M electrical—including generators and transformers: Newington Energy Facility, Lea Power Partners LLC, and John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant.
- O&M mechanical—including major and BOP equipment: Newington Energy Facility, Lea Power Partners LLC, Dogwood Energy Facility, Johnson County Generation Facility, TermoemCali, Walter M Higgins Generating Station, Tenaska Lindsay Hill Generating Station, and John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant.
- Outage management: MEAG Wansley Unit 9, New Harquahala Generating Co LLC, and McClain Power Plant.
- Performance improvements: Effingham County Power, Johnson County Generating Facility, Klamath Cogeneration Plant, Central de Ciclo Combinado Saltillo, Athens Generating Plant, Faribault Energy Park, and John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant.
- Plant safety procedures: Effingham County Power, Sabine Cogen LP, Granite Ridge Energy, and Rokeby Generating Station.
- Workforce development: Effingham County Power, NV Energy Inc, Crockett Cogeneration LLC, and Dogwood Energy Facility.
NAES Corp was the most successful operating company this year, as it was in 2011 and 2012, with seven plants the company manages capturing 10 awards—including one BOB. Consolidated Asset Management Services (CAMS) was the second-most recognized operator with four plants receiving eight awards—including two Best of the Bests. TVA and Essential Power LLC led the owner/operators submitting entries, each earning three awards. Tenaska Inc and NV Energy were the only other recipients of multiple awards, with two each.
Sponsors of the 2013 Best Practices Awards program were Dresser-Rand Turbine Technology Solutions, Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions, Goose Creek Systems Inc, Pratt & Whitney Power Systems, Sulzer Turbo Services, and Wood Group GTS.
See the entries to the 2013 Best Practices Awards program
