O&M

Too-frequent sootblowing can damage boiler components and place a big load on plant efficiency, but not enough of it can be just as big a problem. A sootblowing optimization system can help you find the “sweet spot.” With the increasing demands placed on today’s coal-fired power plants worldwide, operators are continuously looking for the best […]

Even without regulatory considerations, there are good reasons for virtually every coal-fired power plant to improve its heat rate. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) has looked at dozens of methods for improving heat rates and evaluated their applicability and costs. Part 1 of this two-part series explains the basics of heat rate improvements and […]

What do a power plant, a hospital, a police station, and a remote mine have in common? They all have essential assets requiring uninterruptible power, commonly powered by an engine generator as primary or backup power. Engine generators, often termed “gensets,” combine an electrical generator and an engine. They supply electrical power where normal utility […]

Plant engineers at Eskom’s Majuba Power Station in South Africa have been continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency and reliability. The six-unit, 4,000-MW, supercritical coal-fired plant was experiencing an efficiency decrease of 5% to 7%, which plant engineers determined was caused by poor performance of the actuators on their condensate level control valves (CLCVs). […]

Cold temperatures are nothing new, but extreme winter weather has been in the headlines more and more in recent years. Many of us had never heard the term “polar vortex” before last winter, but earlier

A sustained Arctic blast composed of freezing rain, record snowfalls, and high winds hit 22 states, from Mexico to New England in early February 2011. The extreme weather severely affected the power generation

During the Jan. 3–12, 2014, polar vortex that brought record-setting cold temperatures and severe winter weather to much of the U.S., nuclear plants not only survived, but thrived. According to the Nuclear

Twice this year, PJM flirted with blackouts when brutal winter storms (dubbed a polar vortex) struck the Eastern U.S. in January. The cold weather set a new winter peak demand record of 141,500 MW on Jan. 7

The upcoming implementation of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) is putting pressure on coal-fired power plants to develop and implement compliance

Although industrial lubricants typically account for only 1% of plant operational costs (Figure 1), the lack of proper lubrication products, techniques, or applications can have a much more severe effect on