Best Practices – Page 5 – Combined Cycle Journal

Tighter control of circ-water chemistry improves economics, safety at Ventanilla

Ventanilla Combined Cycle Power Plant Owned and operated by ENEL Generacíon Perú 427 MW, 2 × 1 SGT6-4000F-powered dual-fuel powerplant, located in Callao, Perú Plant manager: Dany Alcantara Plant background. Endesa SA, Spain’s largest electric utility, won a tender in December 1995 to take control of Empresa de Generación Termoeléctrica de Ventanilla (Etevensa), the genco […]

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Six plants earn Best of the Best honors in CCJ’s annual Best Practices Awards program

Best Practices / By Team-CCJ

The COMBINED CYCLE Journal and the steering committees of the industry’s leading users groups—including 7F, 501F, 501G, 7EA, 7/9HA, Western Turbine, CCUG, STUG, GUG, PPCUG, Frame 6B, Frame 5, 501D5-D5A, AOG, and V—collaborate to expand the sharing of best practices and lessons learned among owner/operators of large frame and aeroderivative gas turbines. Thirty-eight plants listed

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NERC CIP-003-9 response requirements: Roadmap to compliance and security

Best Practices, CCUG, Controls / By Team-CCJ

The third and final in the NAES, ABS Group, Network Perception cybersecurity webinar series covered NERC CIP-003-9: What Now? Response Requirements. While the NERC standard is still subject to revisions and tweaks in the coming months, there is enough “writing on the wall” for low-impact bulk electric system (LIBES) sites to begin the long slog towards

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Low-impact assets and NERC CIP-003-9: Should dos vs must dos

Best Practices, CCUG, Controls / By Team-CCJ

Perhaps the best way to think about how to respond to NERC-CIP-9, which seeks to protect the bulk electric system from a coordinated attack on smaller, low-impact assets which can result in a catastrophic event on the interconnected system, is this: Rather than think in terms of complying with the new standard, think about defending

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Latest NERC CIP addresses control-system supply chain

Best Practices, CCUG, Controls / By Team-CCJ

Just as plant owner/operators should “be prepared for an ever-changing cybersecurity attack surface, they should also plan to control their own destinies with respect to regulatory compliance,” noted a panel of experts during a webinar hosted by NAES Corporation titled “NERC CIP-003-9: What you need to know about the new requirements and how to comply.”

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Webinar Series: Machine learning improves CCGT availability, capacity, and efficiency

501 F&G Users Group, 7EA Users Group, 7F Users Group, Advanced GTs, Aeros, Alstom Owners Group, Best Practices, CCUG, Controls, D5-D5A Users, Frame 6, Generator Users Group, Generators, HRSGs, STUG, V Users / By Team-CCJ

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

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Nineteen 2023 meetings focusing on user information needs that you should consider attending

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

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Fairview: Successes attest to the value of remote M&D

Advanced GTs, Best Practices / By Team-CCJ

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)

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Fairview: Better DCS screens improve starting reliability

Advanced GTs, Best Practices / By Team-CCJ

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

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Fairview: Redundant ammonia injection equipment reduces probability of NOx exceedance

Advanced GTs, Best Practices / By Team-CCJ

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

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