O&M

A September 2005 power outage that affected two million people in the California Southland was initiated when workers cut live electrical wires after consulting erroneous design drawings, but it was exacerbated by a number of extant problems with local generation and protection configurations.

Today’s power plant owners face many challenges, including the aging and degradation of equipment. Steam turbines at times may be condemned due to operating inefficiency or rising vibration levels. In such cases the options may be few because the turbine may require a full or partial rotor section replacement. The good news is that a rotor section replacement can be performed in a relatively short time, depending upon the original rotor configuration. Here’s one example.

"It’s déjà vu all over again," said Yogi Berra. The Hall of Fame catcher could easily have been predicting the coming resurgence of natural gas – fired generation. Yes, a few more coal plants will be completed this year, but don’t expect any new plant announcements. A couple of nuclear plants may actually break ground, but don’t hold your breath. Many more wind turbines will dot the landscape as renewable portfolio standards dictate resource planning, but their peak generation contribution will be small. The dash for gas in the U.S. has begun, again.

Transformers, which are prone to leaking, are an excellent example of where using the right materials and techniques can quickly reduce cleanup costs and potential environmental damage from a fluid leak. Transformer leaks are most commonly caused by degrading cork gaskets or holes in the radiator fins or the steel tank. Often these leaks are slow drips, but occasionally a catastrophic leak will occur, spilling hundreds of gallons of mineral oil into the environment and causing the transformer to short-circuit, causing further health and safety concerns. These dangers, coupled with transformers’ isolated locations, make inspection, repair, and maintenance a major challenge.

Oil skimmers are very effective in removing oil from wastewater before discharge but are also perhaps the most efficient and economical approach.

There are four approaches to measuring fly ash content and, therefore, the quality of fuel combustion in a boiler. Before choosing one, you should understand their relative levels of complexity and accuracy.

Erosion can significantly reduce the operational life of boiler components. Abrasion-resistant ceramic parts can be a sound alternative to expensive metallic parts when replacing boiler components.

When the Łagisza power plant began commercial operation in late June 2009, it marked the beginning of a new era in the evolution of circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology. At the heart of this 460-MW plant is the world’s largest CFB boiler, which is also the world’s first once-through unit supercritical CFB boiler.

A fiberglass-reinforced plastic (FRP) Halar stack liner was installed at Vattenfall’s 300-MW Unit 2 at the Nordjylland Power Station in 1995. The 112-meter-high (367-ft) stack, protected from corrosion by the ECTFE liner, is still in excellent condition and has not required any repairs during more than 13 years of service. (ECTFE is short for ethylene chlorotrifluoroethlyene polymer, marketed under the brand name Halar ECTFE [Halar] by Solvay Solexis.)

Rebuilding aged feedwater heaters can make better economic sense than buying new ones, because rebuilding reduces capital cost and plant outage expenses. At one Texas generating station, rebuilding saved one-third the cost of a new feedwater heater while improving the plant’s heat rate.