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O&M
Reducing Cycling Damage to Combined Cycle Steam Turbines
Cycling a combined cycle plant places additional stresses on all equipment, but the impacts extend beyond the gas turbine and heat recovery steam generator. Plant owners and managers are beginning to see
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Connected Plant
Facilitating Predictive Maintenance of Electrical Assets with Pervasive Sensing Strategies
Continuous condition-based monitoring of electrical conductors and insulation is an effective way to reduce required plant maintenance activities, cut operating costs, and prevent unplanned shutdowns
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O&M
Enhanced Boiler Defense Strategies for an Aging Coal Fleet
Cyclic operating conditions can be problematic for many coal-fired power plants that were designed to run as baseload units. Implementing a combustion and boiler performance management program can help ensure
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O&M
Strategies for Small Hydro Upgrades
Small hydro is becoming big business as ongoing technological advances make more small sites economic to exploit. Older plants can also see substantial output and efficiency gains by upgrading from decades-old
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O&M
Simplify Outage Planning to Increase Collaboration
Many elaborate planning tools are available to help managers prepare for power plant outages. However, there is something to be said for keeping things simple. One modest tool that some NRG Energy facilities
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O&M
The Oft-Neglected Isolated Phase Bus Deserves Your Attention
A power plant’s isolated phase bus is generally reliable, and therefore, maintenance is frequently overlooked. However, the system is too important to neglect. Assessing its condition during minor outages
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Environmental
Whether Man-Made or Not, Global Warming Is a Problem
I recently bought a house in southwestern Florida, but not without some reservations. Don’t get me wrong, I love the palm trees and sandy beaches, but what worries me is the area’s sea-level trend, as
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Connected Plant
Cybersecurity: Keeping Current on a Moving Target
What it means to have a secure energy generating facility has changed in recent years as the threat of cyberattacks grows. As the nation’s energy sector becomes increasingly interconnected, it is more
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O&M
Who Has the World’s Most Efficient Coal Power Plant Fleet?
A comparison of coal power plant fleets from China, the European Union (EU), Japan, and the U.S. by the International Energy Agency’s (IEA’s) Clean Coal Centre yields surprising insights into efforts these
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Legal & Regulatory
U.S. Nuclear: From Hope to Despair
A decade ago, the annual Platts nuclear energy conference in Washington was brimming with optimism over a coming “nuclear renaissance,” as licensing requests poured into the Nuclear Regulatory Commission