What you shouldn’t miss at the upcoming Power Users Annual Conference featuring five user group tracks

2024 Combined Conference overview for CCUG, STUG, GUG, PPCUG, and LCPG

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The 2024 edition of the Power Users’ Mega Event—incorporating the annual conferences of the Combined Cycle (CCUG), Steam Turbine (STUG), Power Plant Controls (PPCUG), and Generator (GUG) Users Groups, plus the Low Carbon Peer Group—is only a few weeks away (August 26-29) at the Arizona Grand Resort, in Phoenix.

Don’t miss what many users believe is the industry’s most comprehensive conference/vendor fair and networking opportunity for supervisory personnel, engineers, and technicians involved in plant operations and maintenance. Gas and steam turbines, generators, HRSGs, control systems, and emissions controls are all high-profile presentation/discussion topics on the agendas of the five participating groups.

The organizers expect more than 200 users at the Phoenix conference, plus a slightly higher number of vendor representatives.

Bear in mind that registering for any one of these user-group meetings gives you access to all.

The five groups come together for meals, the vendor fairs on Tuesday and Wednesday, August 27 and 28, from 7-8 a.m. and 12-2 p.m., and the Wednesday evening offsite event sponsored by Diamond Sponsors GE Vernova, MD&A, and Rexroth.

Keep up on program developments, both prior to and during the meeting, by visiting www.powerusers.org.

Another plus for attendees: All conferences associated with Power Users now offer PDH certificates to cover your P.E. license and company training requirements.

The technical program for each user-group meeting was developed by the all-volunteer steering committee of engineers and managers identified in the sidebar—many with decades of relevant experience. A preview of the presentations scheduled for the week beginning August 26 follows.

Most sessions are user only. Non users wanting to participate must be approved by the steering committee to gain admission. Presenting vendors are allowed in the room only when it is their time to present.

Expectation is that most of this year’s presentations will be made available to owner/operators through the Power Users website a few months from now. Slide decks from 2023 and earlier meetings already are accessible to registered users. If you are not registered, sign up now at www.powerusers.org: It’s easy and there’s no charge.

Monday, August 26. The CCUG technical program begins at 8 a.m. with a two-hour workshop conducted by Babcock Power on (1) HRSG issues to be aware of when transitioning from baseload to cycling service—including component replacement, and (2) condenser performance—including the effects of water treatment on these heat exchangers.

In the second half of the morning’s program, Shell Oil Products hosts a workshop on the fundamentals of lubrication.

The afternoon program kicks off at 1 p.m. with the presentation of CCUG’s annual Individual Achievement Award, which recognizes industry professionals who have demonstrated excellence throughout their careers in the design, construction, management, operation, and/or maintenance of generating facilities powered by gas turbines.

The Turbine Inlet Cooling Association follows with the presentation of its annual award recognizing plants using innovative inlet cooling technologies.

Committee member Steve Hilger, plant manager, Dogwood Energy, gets the afternoon technical program rolling in high gear as moderator of the Safety Roundtable. CCUG Vice Chair Robert Mash, plant manager, River Road, retains the safety theme with his presentation on HRSG steam-drum door leak remedies.

Dealing with terrorism and its possible impacts, which would not have been a power-industry program topic only a few years ago, is addressed by the FBI following the afternoon break. The day concludes with presentations on the importance of testing and cycling your electric system and learning proactively about safety.

Tuesday, August 27. First topic after the morning session of the vendor fair from 7 to 8 a.m. (breakfast included) is AIG cleaning, tuning, and upgrades, covered by Andy Toback of Environex and Christina Suarez of Groome. Case studies on attemperator replacements, presented by Bill Kitterman of SVI Bremco, is next.

Remainder of the morning program: HRST’s Jordan Bartol on corrosion under insulation; Emerson’s (Flexim GmbH) Dennis Funk on attemperator leak detection; and Tetra Engineering’s Peter Jackson with case histories concerning the reliability of high-energy piping.

Hilger chairs a roundtable on cold-weather operation, including lessons learned, following lunch and the two-hour afternoon session of the vendor fair. Next, Scott Cavendish of Independent Turbine Consulting shares steam-turbine case studies and best practices, with EBI’s Mohsen Tarassoly bringing attendees up to date on what they need to know (and why) about IEEE’s standard for metal-enclosed bus.

Wednesday, August 28. Jeff Chann, GE Vernova, launches the morning program (following breakfast and the vendor fair from 7 to 8 a.m.) with his thought-provoking presentation, “Unraveling the Forces Reshaping the Evolution of the Power Industry.” GE Vernova speakers hold the podium for the remainder of the morning with these topics:

Combined-cycle forced-outage drivers.
Powerplant lifetime extension: Running your plant for the next 20 years.
Transformer inspection and testing.

GE Vernova continues after lunch and the afternoon session of the vendor fair with “Turbine to Generator Alignment.”

Remainder of the afternoon features these half-hour presentations:

Top-Five SCR performance issues on combined-cycle units, Vaughn Watson, Vector Systems.
Generator fleet update, Colleen Crawford, Siemens-Energy.
Full element steam-turbine modernization approaches for existing combined cycles, Michael Smiarowski, Siemens-Energy.
Generator outage management: What’s your contingency plan? Jamie Clark, AGT Services.

Thursday, August 29. Power Users’ Combined Conference concludes after the morning session’s seven half-hour presentations:

Outage management, planning, and execution, Jon Mongold, CCUG steering committee.
Testing motive steam drain-pot valves and level indicators as required by ASME TDP-1, Chris Black, Lockton Companies.
Manage or shut down? Brady Parscale, NAES.
Establishing a drone program for your company, Aaron Kitzmiller, GUG steering committee.
How to keep inlets running during extreme events, Bob Reinhardt, Donaldson.
Roundtable moderated by members of the CCUG steering committee: How to temporarily deal with plant failures while you work on permanent solutions.
Safety-valve testing, inspection, and maintenance, Jonathan Miller, CCUG steering committee.

CCUG steering committee, 2024

Chair: Brian Fretwell, director of mechanical services—engineering and construction, Calpine
Vice Chair: Robert Mash, plant manager, River Road Generating Plant, GE Power Services
Phyllis Gassert, program director, operations excellence, Talen Energy
Steven Hilger, PE, plant manager, Dogwood Energy Facility, NAES Corp
Jason Jauregui, production lead, Woodbridge Energy Center, CAMS
Aaron Kitzmiller, principal engineer, Fayette Power Co, Luminant
Jonathan Miller, maintenance manager, Arcadia Power Station, CLECO
Jon Mongold, maintenance manager, Hill Top Energy Center, NAES Corp
Ben Stanley, VP operations, Diamond Generating Corp

Monday, August 26. The GUG technical program begins at 8 a.m. with a morning-long training program on generator protective relaying, presented by Doug Weisz, Hubbell Power Systems/Beckwith Electric.

The afternoon program includes the following:

Generator winterization, Eric Graftaas, PE, Midwest Reliability Organization.
Generator core and parallel ring exchange, Sam Boshell, Calpine.
Generator vibration case history, Juan Green, Duke Energy.
Demystifying epoxy resin systems, Chris Klein, Astro Chemical.

Tuesday, August 27. Jamie Clark of AGT Services kicks off the technical program after breakfast and the morning session of the vendor fair from 7 to 8 a.m. with a presentation on condition assessments of GE hydrogen-cooled generator stators and related decision-making. Former GUG chairman, Kent Smith, follows with case studies on electromagnetic interference monitoring for his client, Cutsforth. Chris Breslin of EOne takes attendees to the morning break with “Generator Overheating Detection and Response with a GCM-X.”

Three more presentations bring the group to lunch and the opportunity to visit the vendor fair for two more hours. The presos:

Rotating rectifier redundant protection overview, series versus parallel, Jacques Leger, WEG.
Importance of testing and cycling your electrical system, Nathaniel Smith, TEMS.
Identify and resolve vibration caused by resonance, Danny Besmer, WEG.

The Tuesday afternoon program featured the following presentations:

Safety differently: How your organization could learn proactively, Matt Barnes, MD&A.
Generator failure discoveries, Howard Moudy, NEC.
Generator fields: Common issues that can extend your outage, Jamie Clark, AGT Services.
Damaged main-lead field copper with multiple main-lead styles, James Joyce, MD&A.
Stator endwinding concerns, Howard Moudy, NEC.

Wednesday, August 28. OEM Day. GE has the podium in the morning to discuss the following:

7FH2 fleet performance, operation, and improvements.
324 fleet performance, operation, and improvements.
Impact of sub-synchronous resonance and torsional interaction on powerplants.
Tutorial: Stator core electrical design.
Latest communications impacting the GE fleet.

Siemens Energy takes the podium following lunch and the afternoon session of the vendor fair to present on these topics:

Fleet major findings.
Importance of the grounding brush.
Generator product line update.
Retaining rings.
Stator endwindings.

Thursday, August 29. Power Users’ Combined Conference concludes after the morning session’s seven half-hour presentations, the first by EPRI’s Bill Moore and the remainder by members of the steering committee:

Recent EPRI projects.
324 phase-strap failure.
Rotor ground management and rewind.
Generator FME.
TLRI rotor ground faults.
Rewind case history.
Troubleshooting vibration.

GUG steering committee, 2024

Chair: Jeff Phelps, system generator SME, Southern Company
Vice Chair: Craig Spencer, director of outage services, Calpine
Doug Coleman, generator engineer, Duke Energy
Dave Fischli, director of engineering and programs, Duke Energy
Andres Oliveres, generator specialist, outage services, Calpine
Joe Riebau, senior manager, electrical engineering and NERC, Constellation Power
Jagadeesh Srirama, senior electrical engineer, NV Energy

Monday, August 26. Jeff Chann, GE Vernova, launches the morning program with his thought-provoking two-hour presentation, “Navigating power trends.” The STUG steering committee convenes an open forum and discussion session after the break; it is scheduled to take the remainder of the morning.

The afternoon program includes the following presentations by members of the steering committee:

KN rotor cracking.
EHC system issues.
Alstom unit chemical excursion.

Tuesday, August 27. MD&A has the podium for the first half of the morning, following breakfast and the vendor fair from 7 to 8 a.m. Presentations by its experts are the following:

Safety differently: How your organization could learn proactively.
Advanced steam-turbine sealing technology.
Valve outage preparation, fundamentals, and repair scopes.

After the break:

HP inner block, Dave Cox, Power Services Group.
ST case studies and best practices, Scott Cavendish, Independent Turbine Consultants.
Out-of-the-box solutions from Allied Power Group for aging fleets.

Sam Drinkwater of EthosEnergy is first up following lunch and the two-hour afternoon session of the vendor fair with “Extending the Operational Life of Steam-Turbine Blades.” Siemens-Energy closes out the day with these three presentations:

Steam turbine fleet experiences.
Full-element ST modernization approaches for existing combined cycles.
Steam-turbine implications of carbon capture.

Wednesday, August 28. EPRI will share its steam-turbine experience after breakfast and the morning vendor-fair session.

The second half of the morning program and the entire afternoon (except for lunch and the two-hour vendor-fair session) is reserved for the following GE presentations:

TILs and top issues.
Bolting and turning-gear best practices.
Interval extension with NGV—including NGV experience update.
ASP with casing replacement experience.
Update on improvement in outage execution for combined cycles.

Thursday, August 29. Power Users’ Combined Conference concludes after the morning session’s presentations by members of the steering committee and colleagues:

D5 cracked LP rotor and 10-month outage, Steven Weaver and Durane Bitsilly, SRP.
573-MW ST crossover tie-rod solution.
D11 valve presentation, Brandon Stewart, Southern Company.
D11 HP/IP replacement strategy, Steven Weaver and Gilbert Shupe, SRP.
BB43 HP/IP retrofit lessons learned.

STUG steering committee, 2024

Chair: Mark Johnson, Florida Power & Light
Vice Chair: Brandon Stewart, Plant Wansley, Southern Company
Jake English, Duke Energy
Jared Harrell, Taft Cogeneration, OxyChem
Jay Hoffman, Tenaska
Connor Hurst, TECO Energy Bayside Power Station
John McQuerry, Calpine
Jeremy Pou, Tennessee Valley Authority
Matt Radcliff, Dominion Energy
Seth Story, Luminant

Monday, August 26. Jeff Chann, GE Vernova, launches the morning program with his thought-provoking two-hour presentation, “Navigating power trends.”

MD&A takes over after the break discussing their capabilities and the following topics:

Case studies on upgrades to steam and/or gas turbine MHC to EHC.
Sequential tripping on steam turbines – Methods for implementing a correct sequential tripping protocol.

The afternoon presents great opportunities to sit in on a wide variety of topics, including:

Using a 3rd party integrator to ensure control project success.
7F upgrades on turbine controls, excitation and static starter using third party vendors.
TTP Preserve™: A revolutionary tool for O&M site-level personnel.
Attemperator leak detection to prevent steam tube damage.
Roundtable: Topics you want to discuss during the next few days – including cybersecurity panel questions and upgrade questions.

Tuesday, August 27. This is GE Day with the OEM presenting a massive amount of material throughout the day. The topics:

Update on the control solutions and services business – including the integration of Nexus Controls and any product impacts.
Integration of BOP content into a control system (turbine versus DCS).
Lessons learned from upgrading legacy control systems and an overview of available migration solutions.
Working with your controls provider to deliver a smooth controls project.
Evolution of Auto-tune – improvement and enhancements.
Power plant operational flexibility: Achieving maintenance free peak fire.
Considerations for managing the lifecycle of your plant control system and the benefits of modernizing.
APM and dispatch: An update from GE Vernova software.
An update on GE Vernova fleet controls issues since last year – TIL / ETC / PSB.

A General Overview of the Root Causes and GE Vernova’s Plan to Address the Issues

Wednesday, August 28. ABB is presenting the first half of the morning, following the vendor fair and breakfast from 7 to 8 a.m. The topics:

Optimizing operator performance via a combination of control-room ergonomics and high-performance HMI.
Optimizing steam-turbine performance by way of advanced hydraulic and mechanical control upgrades.

Following the coffee break, AP4 presents on “OT Cybersecurity: Is your Plant Protected?” Siemens-Energy is on tap for the last presentation before lunch and most of afternoon (after the vendor fair). Its lineup includes:

Intelligent electrohydraulic redundant valve actuators.
Navigating the changing NERC CIP standards.

A panel of experts representing GE Vernova, Siemens-Energy, AP4, and ABB addresses user questions to close out the Wednesday program.

Thursday, August 29. AP4 Group along with Y&F continues throughout Thursday morning with the following:

DLN tuning and combustion systems
Case study: Mark Ve meltdown and others
Electric valves and IGV upgrades for GE gas turbines
Keys to effective control system project management panel

PPCUG steering committee, 2024

Chair: David Martorana, Tenaska
Vice Chair: Richard Chiafolo, Dominion Energy
Brian Hall, TECO Energy
Jason Justice, Southern Company
Peter So, Calpine

Monday, August 26. The Low Carbon Peer Group has not scheduled any events on Monday but welcome to attend any other sessions.

Tuesday, August 27. The day begins with breakfast and the first vendor-fair session from 7 to 8 a.m. Introductions and R&D strategy launch the group’s technical program at 8:30 with an open discussion on integrated resource planning starting at 9:15.

After the break there’s an open discussion on EPA’s 111 rule and policy. Collaborative pilot opportunities and “other technologies” (including combined heat and power) close the morning program.

Following lunch and visit to the exhibit hall from 12 to 2 p.m., the focus is on carbon capture and sequestration—including a CCS modeling discussion and GE presentation. Pilot and DOE project updates complete the day.

Wednesday, August 28. PSM opens the technical program with a presentation on hydrogen after breakfast and the exhibit hall from 7 to 8 a.m. The hydrogen theme continues with an update on Duke Energy’s DeBary project (green H₂) followed by GE’s thinking on that fuel and an update on relevant pilot projects. Siemens-Energy’s thoughts on hydrogen are next and a review of DOE’s hydrogen hubs program takes the group to lunch and the final opportunity to visit the exhibit hall.

Forward-looking technology assessments dominate the afternoon, with discussions on the nuclear option, fusion, and grid enhancing technologies, plus plans for a transmission subgroup.

Thursday, August 29. The forward-looking technology assessments theme continues with a focus on long-duration energy storage. Updates on projects supported by DTE, NYPA, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, Xcel Energy, and Southern Company dominate the program. An open discussion on LDES modeling completes the program.

LCPG steering committee, 2024

Dan Connors, American Electric Power
Todd Flowers, director of business development, Dominion Energy
Jess Kincaid, Bonneville Power Administration
Adam Reichenbach, lead engineer, Duke Energy
Bin Taddase, manager of plant performance, DTE Energy