Edgewater’s edge: A finely tuned staff
The Edgewater Generating Station, located in Sheboygan, Wis., has much in common with the Lansing plant: both began service with now-retired units in the 1940s and both have baseload units that are dispatched to serve areas with constrained transmission access. Both have also benefited greatly from the Generation Excellence program, as evidenced by their top-place EUCG ranking, which is all the more impressive because the competition included a number of other very well run plants.
Edgewater operates three coal-fired units today. Unit 3 is a 78-MW cyclone unit built in the early 1950s. Unit 4 is a 330-MW cyclone unit that went commercial in 1969, followed by the 395-MW pulverized coal Unit 5 that entered service in 1985. All three units use a common, centralized control room. Control systems are continuously upgraded by the plant staff, which also handled the Unit 3 and 4 DCS conversion. All three units also now burn PRB coal. All are equipped with secondary overfire air modifications by RMT (www.rmtinc.com), originally developed through Alliant Energy’s Combustion Initiative Program to reduce NOx.
Alliant has made the economic decision to operate all three units continuously, and it takes the MISO-offered system power price at minimum load during off-peak hours rather than cycle the units every night. Unit 5 was originally designed as a peaking plant with a minimum load of around 50 MW, which is often reached at night. The decision whether or not to cycle units over the weekend is dependent on MISO marginal pricing. However, because the units serve a transmission-constrained region of Wisconsin, the plant typically provides baseload power and is constrained only by periodic coal delivery disruptions during the summer.
Patrick Hartley, Edgewater’s plant manager, identified his highly motivated work force as the secret of the plant’s success. Edgewater relies heavily on a cadre of highly skilled, experienced hourly foremen and technicians in the craft group (Figure 7). Plant operations is organized into five crews on 12-hour shifts, each with a technically knowledgeable salaried shift supervisor. There are only 12 salaried positions, including the five shift supervisors, among the staff of 120 who operate the plant.
7. Self-motivated staff. Don Singer is a master maintenance technician on second shift at Edgewater. Courtesy: Alliant Energy
Safety is always on a plant manager’s mind, and Hartley is no exception. His plant hasn’t experienced a lost-time accident in more than 500 days. Edgewater’s safety committee is organized with representatives from each department plus the plant manager, the administrative assistant, and the plant environmental and safety specialist; the chief union steward is also a standing member (Figure 8). That committee is charged with making the zero-injuries corporate policy a reality at Edgewater.
8. Focused on safety. The Edgewater Generating Station safety committee. Back row (L to R): Mike Cichocki, Coal Yard Supervisor; Jerry Strouf, Senior Environmental and Safety Specialist; Joy Hoffman, Administrative Assistant; Jason Mills, Maintenance Technician; and Don Yanna, Equipment Operator. Front row (L to R): Paul Schlegel, Equipment Operator; John Hodzinski, Maintenance Electrician; and Pat Hartley, Plant Manager. Courtesy: Alliant Energy
Day-to-day maintenance requires periodic contractor assistance in specialized areas, although the plant does have its own “R” Stamp program for repairing tube leaks. The decision to develop this in-house capability came at the conclusion of a recent tube failure–reduction program. A task force examined the root cause of tube leaks and developed specific projects to address nagging tube leak problems that were reducing plant availability. This project has more than paid for itself many times over.
A process performance engineer on the staff is responsible for maintaining the right combustion stoichiometry and optimizing performance of the three steam generators. Burning PRB coal has also challenged the plant with learning how to balance erosion versus cleaning frequency with sootblowers in certain areas of the boiler. In other locations, additional sootblowers were added, as were boiler cleanliness probes for better monitoring of boiler performance. Coal combustion by-products, such as bottom ash, are sold to a contractor for recycling, and the slag from the cyclones is sold to road-paving contractors.
Hartley also emphasized the pride the staff have in their plant and what the plant has accomplished. Edgewater has a long history of service to its community, beginning in the 1930s, and the staff take pride in passing down not only their experience, by training new operating staff members, but also the plant’s heritage and history to the next generation.
In addition to the three coal-fired units, the plant operates and maintains two remote simple-cycle combustion turbine sites. The Fond du Lac, Wis., site has four ABB 11 N1 units rated at 83 MW each; two other units at the Sheboygan Falls, Wis., site are GE Frame 7 units rated at 147 MW apiece.
No-excuses excellence
The preeminent common trait shared by the two Alliant Energy plants profiled in this article, and probably all Alliant plants, is a culture of excellence that’s engrained in the DNA of every employee. It doesn’t matter if the employee happens to be a union member, technician, or member of the management staff, each person has a part to play if the plant is to be successful.
A razor-thin plant staff is not uncommon today. What is uncommon are staffs that can consistently focus on excellence in operations and maintenance regardless of the staffing and budgeting constraints now common in our industry. Congratulations to the Lansing and Edgewater Generating Stations staffs for safely walking that tightrope.
Email
Comments
Print
Reuse
