Owner/operators of Siemens Energy/Westinghouse Electric Corp 501F and 501G gas turbines co-locate at the Peppermill Resort and Spa in Reno, Nev, for their 2023 conferences, Sunday Feb 19 through noon Thursday Feb 23. The last time these two organizations shared the same in-person venue was in February 2020 at the Hilton West Palm Beach,

The 501F Users Group is a private community of owners and operators of 501F gas turbine/generators established to discuss the operation, maintenance, inspection, troubleshooting, repair, and optimization of their plants and equipment. Membership in the organization is limited to individuals who are directly involved in the construction or O&M of Siemens Energy, Westinghouse, and Mitsubishi

A Covid outbreak a week or so before the 2022 meeting was to start at the Hyatt Regency in New Orleans, February 20, dramatically reduced the number of attendees expected, both user and vendor. Recall that this conference was the group’s return to an in-person program following a virtual meeting in 2021. Since many owner/operators

The 501G Users Group is a small organization of well-connected engineers and technicians who have “grown up” together—so to speak—and very familiar with their colleagues’ plants and equipment. The first Siemens/Westinghouse 501G, installed by Lakeland Electric, began commissioning operations in April 1999, but COD wasn’t until March 2001—only one month before the second machine began

Challenges getting into the market because of high gas prices. Two big outage events: Row 1 blade failure and generator lead failure, the latter attributed to misalignment of the lead from the generator to the isophase bus. L-1 steam-turbine blade failure (generator drive end) damaged the L-0 row and tubes in the condenser impingement zone.

Takeaways from safety roundtables: Populate your plant safety committee with motivated personnel and use corporate guidelines to ensure job safety. Excavations frequently are required at relatively new sites for fixing underground infrastructure. Proper barriers for personnel protection are particularly important. Know where to dig, how to dig, and how to refill to prevent collapse. Conduct

If you didn’t know Steve Bates, who died suddenly November 30 (2022), at age 57, while on vacation with family, be assured it was a privilege. The plant manager of Vistra Corp’s Wise County 2 × 1 G-class combined cycle in Poolville, Tex, and chairman of the 501G Users Group, Steve was a technically competent,