CCUG

Diaphragms are a hot topic at most conferences where owner/operators gather to discuss issues with their steam turbines, such as the Steam Turbine and Combined Cycle User Groups operating under the Power Users Group umbrella. To get the most from these meetings, it’s important to know the basics of steam-turbine design, the differences among machines […]

The first thing to note about the GE presentations is that you’re probably going to want to listen to the recordings, if you’re approved to access them at the OEM’s MyDashboard website. A blizzard of information swept through the virtual room, along with a virtual army of presenters and technical support folks at the ready.

The annual conference of the Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG) was conducted online for the first time in 2020. The presentations summarized below took place during Week 3 of the conference and are available to owner/operators on the Power Users website. Access Week 1 (User presentations) and Week 2 (GE Day) recaps here. More to

Camfil Power Systems and Penn State joined the Gas Turbine Assn in March (2021) as Affiliate and Associate members, respectively, reports Managing Director Sal DellaVilla. They complement Mitsubishi Power, GE Power, Siemens Energy, Pratt & Whitney, Turbine Logic, Strategic Power Systems, PSM, Solar Turbines, and PW Power Systems in advancing the organization’s efforts to ensure

Riken Keiki Co’s OHC-800 (photo), a relatively new type of calorimeter, uses optical and sonic sensors to provide real-time monitoring with high accuracy. The instrument’s use in optimizing turbine and boiler air/fuel ratios make it of interest to O&M personnel at gas-turbine-based simple- and combined-cycle plants. Recall that competitor gas chromatographs provide highly accurate analyses

An owner/operator presenting on aqueous-ammonia (NH3) storage tank inspections at the CCUG2020 Week Four session said that according to the governing standard, API510, a “fitness for service” assessment should be conducted every 10 years (or half the remaining life calculated during the last inspection) for pressure tanks. The method results in a calculated remaining life,

EPRI Technical Executive Sam Korellis opened the CCUG2020 Week Four agenda with a review of EPRI’s cooling-tower (CT) fan-motor-drive and gearbox field evaluation program and its implications for CTs serving more than 800 units at about 300 powerplants. Many CTs are equipped with multiple fans which start and stop depending on load and ambient temperature.

The main messages from the presentation on fire suppression systems during Week Four of the CCUG2020 meeting, by ORR Protection’s Chuck Hatfield, are that NFPA Code requirements include the life (human) safety and reliability of suppression equipment, whether low- or high-pressure type; and that the industry is “moving away from CO2-based suppression to water-mist systems.” One

Steve Shulder, EPRI’s subject matter expert on water and steam chemistry addressed chemistry-related damage from flexible operations during Week Four of the CCUG2020 program. Thorough to a fault, most of Shulder’s slides are laden with bullet points, likely summarizing chapters of EPRI reports on the subject. It’s almost impossible to condense the 45-slide deck into

Hydro Solutions’ first presenter during Week Four at CCUG2020, Ares Panagoulias (“Innovations in vertical-pump vibration monitoring”), reviewed a relatively new, but proven, capability to monitor vibration of submerged vertical pumps using a single-axis piezoelectric accelerometer directly wired to a wireless transmitter with its own power source (Fig 1). Data go to a “cloud-based” app. Included