O&M

  • Maintenance Planning and Execution Standards and Best Practices

    The equipment and facilities supporting today’s critical infrastructure are vital to modern society. This article provides testing and maintenance tips to ensure systems are kept in top condition. Power

  • Using Planning and Partnerships to Avoid Downtime

    The technology and materials within hydropower plants have advanced substantially over the last century. This has required plant owners and operators to take a more proactive approach to maintenance and

  • Advanced Nuclear Reactor Designs to Get Digital Twins

    Nine projects will get $27 million in federal funding to develop digital twin technology for promising advanced nuclear reactor designs—including Kairos, Xe-100, BWRX-300, and the SSR-W—and help achieve a ten-fold reduction in their operations and maintenance (O&M) costs. The funding announced by the Department of Energy (DOE) on May 13 will be furnished under the […]

  • Wärtsilä signs 15-year operation and maintenance agreement for El Salvador power plant

    March 4, 2020 — The technology group Wärtsilä has signed a long-term operation & maintenance (O&M) agreement with Energía del Pacífico for a 378 MW power plant in El Salvador. The 15-year agreement was signed in Q4 2019 and will take effect when the plant commences operations at the end of 2021. Wärtsilä will start […]

  • Keeping Track of O&M Costs and Processes in the Field

    Cost. The dirtiest word in clean energy—especially with operations and maintenance (O&M) costs set to rise globally to $17 billion in 2020 in the wind industry. Part of saving on O&M costs means taking a look at the inefficient processes that skilled workers are doing as part of O&M procedures to optimize their time. A […]

  • Siemens to maintain and digitalize Shuweihat S2 power plant in Abu Dhabi

    18-year service agreement for Shuweihat S2 IWPP in Abu Dhabi Digital services and extended intervals for optimized maintenance cost Comprehensive cybersecurity solutions to reduce cyber threats Siemens today announced it has signed an extension of a multi-year maintenance service agreement with Shuweihat S2 Operation and Maintenance Company (S2O&M). Under terms of the contract, Siemens will […]

  • Hydropower Bill Overwhelmingly Clears Senate, Heads to President’s Desk

    The U.S. Senate has cleared a major water infrastructure bill that contains several provisions promoting hydropower development, sending it to the president’s desk. The Senate passed S. 3021, “America’s Water Infrastructure Act of 2018,” on October 10 through a bipartisan vote of 99–1. Because the House of Representatives unanimously passed the bill in a voice […]

  • A Modern Gas Power Plant Thrives on Ancient Wisdom

    Built and developed in accordance with the principles of vaastu shastra, this 1.5-GW “mega” gas power plant in India imbues positivity and proactivity into all aspects of plant operation. It has resulted

  • Maintaining Nuclear Plant Ice Condensers: A ‘Cool’ Responsibility

    Although nuclear plant ice condensers are rare—only seven sites throughout the world have them—the theory behind these passive heat sinks is quite novel. In fact, some next-generation plant designers have built upon the concept and incorporated passive accident intervention schemes into their plans. A nuclear plant ice condenser is a passive, static heat sink that […]

  • Reducing Nuclear Plant Operations and Maintenance Costs Through Online Monitoring

    The Electric Power Research Institute’s full spectrum of online monitoring-related research offers nuclear power plant operators guidance for monitoring program implementation. The research results are used

  • ASME Operation and Maintenance lnservice Testing Program Ensures Nuclear Component Operational Readiness

    Originally embedded in the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code , today the Operation and Maintenance of Nuclear Power Plants standard for inservice testing of pumps

  • GE Power Inks Its Largest Services Deal Ever

    GE Power signed a landmark deal to provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services for 10 power plants with a combined capacity of 11 GW. Sonelgaz SPE, a state-owned utility in charge of electricity and natural gas distribution in Algeria, owns the facilities. The agreement includes technology upgrades designed to enhance energy efficiency—allowing more than 420 […]

  • SOLV deploys QOS Energy’s O&M management platform to improve performance across 1 GW solar portfolio

    San Francisco, USA, March 22, 2017. SOLV, the leading independent solar O&M service provider in America and a division of EPC contractor Swinerton Renewable Energy, has begun deployment of QOS Energy’sQantum® software to monitor and support the operations and maintenance of more than 1 GW of solar PV plants in the United-states. Qantum® is an innovative cloud-based analytics platform that […]

  • EthosEnergy awarded $8m five year operations & maintenance contract by Quantum Utility Generation

    Houston, TX – EthosEnergy has been awarded a $8m, five year contract for full operations and maintenance (O&M) by Quantum Utility Generation for their Nevada Cogeneration Associates #2 plant in Nevada, US. The contract is for full care, custody and control operations, and maintenance including mobilization. This will be the fourth plant in the Quantum […]

  • Boiler Tube Failure Thermohydraulic Analysis

    Eskom operates 23 power stations in South Africa with a total capacity of more than 42 GW. It supplies about 95% of all the electricity used in the country. One of its coal-fired power stations was experiencing frequent boiler tube fatigue failures in the hopper section—the bottom part of the boiler—of all six units. The […]

  • DOE Report Highlights Triumph, Trouble for Wind Power Sector

    U.S. wind power is becoming more widespread and costs are generally on the decline, but the sector is troubled by policy uncertainties, a new report from the Energy Department says.   After a lackluster year in 2013, wind power capacity additions in the U.S. rebounded nearly 8% in 2014, driven by recent improvements in the […]

  • The Wind Sector’s Elusive Quest for Quality

    Despite wind power’s going “mainstream,” original equipment manufacturers and end users struggle to pin down quality standards for ever-evolving wind turbine component technologies. As more utilities embrace wind power, the U.S. wind turbine market has expanded tremendously over the years. It has proliferated into numerous facilities that specialize in the roughly 8,000 component parts that […]

  • Balancing Risk, Reliability, and Safety at Plants Slated for Retirement

    When the decision is made to retire a power plant, the work of getting there is just beginning. Maintaining safe and reliable generation requires strong leadership, clear communications, and heightened attention to operations and maintenance, staff morale, and post-shutdown plans.   For utilities and other generators facing the challenge of winding down operations at an […]

  • Advanced Bearing Technology Eliminates Subsynchronous Steam Turbine Vibrations

    A facility’s steam turbine ranks at, or at least near, the top of the list of vital power plant equipment. Without it, the thermal energy in pressurized steam can not be converted to rotary motion, which is

  • Proper Lubrication Practices Improve Plant Operations

    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

  • Managing the Changing Profile of a Combined Cycle Plant

    With the growing need for operational flexibility across the power industry, the combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) fleet is increasingly being subjected to load-following and cyclic operation. This change in

  • Preventing Failure of Elastomeric Expansion Joints in FGD Systems

    Fossil-fuel-based power generation plants with wet scrubbing systems use slurries of sorbents to remove sulfur dioxide from their emissions. These highly abrasive slurries accelerate wear on the expansion