Hot topics: Valves/piping, outage management, bearings, lubrication, insulation

The 2020 conference of the Steam Turbine Users Group (STUG) was conducted online for the first time this year, between November 11 and December 9—too late to review in this issue.

Here the editors summarize the presentations and key points made by users and suppliers from the 2019 meeting, and a couple from the 2018 conference—timeless content not covered previously by CCJ.

STUG: User presentations
STUG: Vendor presentations

By way of background, STUG was founded in 2014. What began as an annual conference focusing on GE A10 and D11 steam turbines for combined-cycle plants is now a meeting covering steamers of all makes and models used in the production of electricity.

The group operates under the Power Users umbrella, an organization run by users for owner/operators to enable the sharing of experiences, best practices, and lessons learned focusing primarily on design, installation, O&M, overhaul, upgrade, and safety.

A quick look at the names and affiliations of the steering-committee members below tells you if there’s one meeting that can get you up “up to speed” on steam turbines, this is the one:

• Eddie Argo (2020 Chair, Southern Company.
• Jess Bills, Salt River
• Gary Crisp, NV
• Jake English, Duke
• Jay Hoffman, Tenaska.
• John McQuerry, Calpine.
• Matt Radcliff, Dominion.
• Lonny Simon, OxyChem
• . Seth Story, Luminant.

To dig deeper on the topics covered below, access speaker PowerPoints on the Power Users website at www.powerusers.org, which are available to registered owner/operators only. If you don’t already have a “library card,” register today. It takes only a few minutes.