Cape Canaveral Next Generation Clean Energy Center Owned and operated by Florida Power & Light (FPL) 1200 MW, 3 × 1 combined cycle powered by Siemens SGT6-8000H gas turbines, located in Brevard County, Fla Plant manager: Chris Mabou Challenge. In Florida, the supply of natural gas through pipelines can be limited during severe weather events, […]
Gas assist when starting on fuel oil at Cape Canaveral Read More »
Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis (MD&A) recently completed the major inspection and refurbishment of a 1 × 1 combined cycle at the Hermiston Generating Plant that successfully returned the facility’s turbines and generators to full and reliable operation. The project began with the full major inspection of a late-1990s-vintage, 170-MW 7FA gas turbine—including the robotic inspection
HERMISTON GENERATING PLANT, UNIT 2: Successful complete CCGT major outage with OOEM Read More »
Case studies on generation M&D, predictive analytics, capacity/fuel demand forecasting As a follow-on to its popular 2023 webinar series, Primex presents a new and improved series to help power plant managers understand machine-learning basics and learn how this rapidly evolving technology can improve power plant availability, capacity, and efficiency. Each webinar includes a 20-30 minute
Webinar Series: Machine learning improves CCGT availability, capacity, and efficiency Read More »
February 19–23, 501F Users Group Annual Meeting, Reno, Nev, Peppermill Resort & Spa. Details/registration at www.501fusers.org as they become available. Chairman: Ivan Kush, Cogentrix Energy Power Management. Contact: Jacki Bennis, jacki@somp.co. February 19-23, 501G Users Group Annual Meeting, Reno, Nev, Peppermill Resort & Spa. Meeting is co-located with the 501F Users Group conference. Details/registration at
Powerplants built over the past several decades are packed with instrumentation, transmitters, and computers. This extensive automation has allowed reduced staffing levels while introducing challenges for effectively analyzing and acting on degrading conditions that may occur long before alarm levels are reached. Many combined cycles use all, or portions of, remote monitoring and diagnostic (M&D)
Fairview: Successes attest to the value of remote M&D Read More »
Fairview incurred several plant trips following commissioning because of valves hanging up and/or key parameters being overlooked until it was too late for the Mark VIe control system to keep the unit in service. After a handful of failed starts, staff began to discuss how plant operation could be made more reliable and profitable. Most
Fairview: Better DCS screens improve starting reliability Read More »
Soon after commissioning, staff discovered that a single point of failure of the ammonia-injection control valve could create an emissions exceedance, limiting the plant’s response and output, as dictated by state environmental permitting. An hourly NOx exceedance was experienced less than one month after commissioning because of a faulty flowmeter indication. It limited the amount
Fairview: Redundant ammonia injection equipment reduces probability of NOx exceedance Read More »
Challenge. Shortly after commissioning, CPV Towantic noticed its oil/water separator (OWS) effluent flowmeter was inaccurate, requiring the outlet valve to remain closed until the instrument could be repaired or replaced and certified. Primary concern was that the OWS is responsible for removing oil from the wastewater stream prior to its discharge (Fig 1). To keep
Challenge 1. While CPV Towantic was in the process of its Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) recertification (from the pre-construction initial submission) and was seeking PE certification for the EPA submission, the certifying professional engineer expressed concern with the (1) so-called shed roof around the 1.5-million-gal diesel-oil tank’s secondary containment, and (2) lack of
Towantic gets SPCC certification, reduces oil-spill risk, increases safety—all at once Read More »
Challenge. The annual cost of providing casualty and property insurance to protect facility owners from significant financial hardship in case of a loss event can reach into the millions of dollars. Annual insurance inspections help “rheostat” this cost in either direction. The more areas of concern the insurance engineers and the inspectors have, the more
Towantic: Implementing insurers recommendations reduces site risks, saves on premiums Read More »
