Maximizing Power Plant Safety: Preventing Costly Catastrophes via Proper Processes, Equipment, and Automated Generator De-Gassing
Hydrogen poses significant challenges to owners, operators, and maintenance personnel from the standpoint of safety, risk mitigation, and demands for increasing efficiency. As such, the Generator Hydrogen Auxiliary System demands close attention, requiring proper maintenance, monitoring, and upkeep to ensure safe plant operation. Recent catastrophic events have reinforced the critical importance of safety and risk mitigation strategies in power plants worldwide.
Operational challenges such as increased load cycling, shortages of experienced and well-trained maintenance personnel, preparing for emergencies, and extended time between outages place additional stress on these critical systems.
Best practices in generator purging and leak detection will be covered, as well as a review of the critical auxiliary equipment associated with the generator purging process and important considerations for automating the purge process.
- The need for more information in resource challenged times, touching on training issues: cycling, increased run times
- The need for safety, including well written SOP’s, equipment rated for hazardous locations, safety equipment
- Latest in advances in gas supply, gas manifold instrumentation, and automating the degas process
Christopher Breslin earned his BSME from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. His career has focused in manufacturing and engineering-based organizations, beginning with Howmet Casting, SKF Bearings, IMAR Group, and Atlas Copco before joining Environment One Corporation in 2005.
He began his tenure at E/One as a manufacturing engineer and quickly transitioned to manufacturing manager in the Hydrogen Systems business. He leveraged his prior outside sales experience to develop forecasting and transitioned to the sales team.
Known as an expert source for information pursuant to critical hydrogen auxiliary equipment serving large steam turbine generators, Christopher has presented at the GE 7EA user group; Siemens 501 User Group; EUEC; EPRI; and for various utilities across North America.
Moderator
Darrell Proctor joined POWER in 2017. He has years of experience in the energy and publishing industries, including as a writer, editor and energy data analyst for Ponderosa Advisors and Bentek Energy (S&P Global/Platts). He was an assistant business editor and assistant news editor as well as Technology Editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Colorado, and also was a senior editor at the St. Petersburg Times in Florida. He is a graduate of Franklin College of Indiana.