Category Archives: Generator Users Group
EPRI’s upcoming generator workshop promises users a high-value learning experience
The Electric Power Research Institute’s Turbine Generator User Group (TGUG) hosts two meetings annually—one in winter and the other in summer. The 2020 schedule is in the accompanying box. If you’ve never attended one of these conferences, which offer independent turbine and generator tracks conducted in parallel, perhaps you will next year. Electric Power Research […]
Protecting electrical insulation against moisture, dirt helps keep outages on schedule
The negative impact of moisture on electrical equipment has been a serious concern since the beginning of the industry. Most senior plant personnel have had experiences with low insulation resistance (IR) and low polarization index (PI) values that have extended an outage. One example provided by subject-matter experts Neil Kilpatrick, GenMet LLC, and James Michalec, […]
FFS applied correctly benefits water/steam cycle: less FAC, less iron
The sixth annual meeting of the European HRSG Forum (EHF), May 14-16, 2019, Athens, Greece, was a global event with representatives from 17 countries. There were more than two-dozen presentations on the agenda, plus a workshop on water chemistry. CCJ ONsite’s recent report on film-forming substances (FFS), a topic discussed at all recent HRSG conferences, […]
How to conduct a firing check on a fuel pump to confirm proper operation
Turbine Tip No. 5 from the PAL Turbine Services O&M solutions library applies to General Electric Frame 5 models L, LA, and M equipped with Oilgear fuel pumps, Frame 5N machines with New York Air Brake pumps, and 5P and 5PA gas turbines with Roper Pump Co equipment. This is a follow-up to Turbine Tip […]
How to make sense of a water analysis report
In successful powerplant projects, either in the early project bidding or the engineering execution stage, before designing any water distribution, production or treatment system, you must know the water. The only way to fully understand the water type and its characteristics is with a thorough study of the water analysis report, says Wendy Wong, a […]
Simple EMI test detects failing electrical connections, promotes high plant availability
There are numerous instrumentation systems used in attempts to assess the condition of powerplant electrical equipment. The library of papers about them is vast. But papers discussing detection of failing electrical connections inside generators or bus systems are limited in number, Consultants Clyde V Maughan and James E Timperley told the editors. The focus of […]
Transformer armor helps ensure high availability
You don’t hear much at industry meetings these days about physical security of power generation and delivery infrastructure and personnel. Cybersecurity topics get most of the attention. But that doesn’t mean work on physical security solutions has stopped. Certainly not. One recent development concerns transformer protection. Six years ago (Apr 16, 2013), you may recall, […]
