St. Charles Energy Center, a 745-MW, 2 × 1 combined cycle in Waldorf, Md, is owned by Competitive Power Ventures (CPV) and operated by Consolidated Asset Management Services (CAMS). Plant manager is Nick Bohl. Pocket guides invaluable to new employees Challenge. Powerplants can be intimidating to new employees, and bringing a new hire’s knowledge up […]
7F Best Practices: St Charles Read More »
The 7F Users Group and CCJ are working together to expand the sharing of best practices and lessons learned among owner/operators of large frame engines. One of the organization’s objectives is to help its members better operate and maintain their plants, and a proactive best practices program supports this goal. The editors presented a summary
7F owner/operators capture five top Best Practices Awards Read More »
With the 29th annual conference of the 7F Users Group at the Fairmont Dallas (Tex) Hotel, May 18-22, only a few months away, this might be a good time to register for the world’s largest meeting of frame gas-turbine owner/operators, assuming you haven’t already done so. About 250 users and 150 exhibitors are expected to
7F owner/operators share fleet best practices Read More »
Many combined cycle (CC) turbines working in more and more aggressive operating regimes face the added challenge of shrinking O&M budgets. From an accountant’s view, fewer operating hours for older machines equates to less need for O&M funds, however wrong-headed that may be from the deck-plates view. Thus, the hunt for less expensive but reliable,
Low-plasticity burnishing steps into limelight for turbine parts repair Read More »
Guest Commentary by Salvatore A DellaVilla Jr, managing director, Gas Turbine Association “Too much change in too short a period of time,” the definition of ‘Future Shock,’ was conceptualized, defined, and shared in a book by Alvin and Heidi Toffler, published with the same name in the 1970s. If we look at today’s energy market,
‘Future Shock’ — Where are we, where are we heading? Read More »
In what GE claims to be the largest gas turbine black-started by a modern battery, Entergy Louisiana has added a 7.4 MWh lithium-ion (nickel-magnesium-cobalt chemistry) unit at its Perryville power station to restart a 2001-vintage, 150-MW 7F.03 peaking gas turbine/generator should grid power be lost. To re-energize the grid, black starts typically require separate gas
Perryville adds big GE battery for 7F peaker black start Read More »
The turnkey digital front end (DFE) solution for aging, unreliable, or obsolete gas turbine load-commutated inverter (LCI) starting systems, described last year in CCJ ONsite, now has a user testimonial and operating experience supporting it. John Chaya, operations manager at Cogentrix’ Rock Springs (Maryland), reports that the installation by Turbine Controls & Excitation Group Inc
Starting reliability improvement: Rock Springs lauds start system retrofit Read More »
With a little luck, you’ll never experience significant rub damage to your rotors. By design, OEMs usually provide generous clearance between the rotor and non-rotating parts except where it’s unavoidable: bearings and seals. OEMs mitigate the rubbing risks associated for those close clearance components with smart material selection—such as Babbitt, brass, and nylon. Those features
Macroetching aids in removing heat-affected zones of rubs Read More »
Large-scale battery energy storage systems (BESS) continue to demonstrate their ability to meet specific functional requirements of grid operations and management under a variety of business models and ambient conditions. Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (Ladwp) is the latest to add a BESS, primarily for transmission-line stability. It follows several recent projects with
Latest grid-scale battery tackles T-line stability Read More »
By Jason Makansi, principal, Pearl Street, a Tucson-based consultancy All of us can point to truly memorable events and periods in our careers. A 10-day period that began with a tour and deep dive of Los Angeles Department of Water & Power’s (Ladwp) Beacon storage facility in the Mojave desert and ended with the catastrophic
