After opening drum doors for inspection, replacing manway gaskets typically calls for plant staff to tighten the manway bolts to a given torque to hold the manway cover in place while the drum is below operating pressure. The seal around the manway is formed when the pressure from the steam inside the drum provides enough […]
Eliminating the risk of hot-torqueing steam drum doors Read More »
Dogwood Energy Facility, Pleasant Hill, Mo, like many other combined cycles, opens its steam-drum doors on a routine basis to perform internal inspections. While properly aligning and closing the doors at the end of an inspection is a challenge in and of itself, the larger challenges and risks often are associated with making sure the
Checking HRSG drum door gaskets: An open and shut case Read More »
The Power Cycle Chemistry (PCC) working group of the International Association for the Properties of Water and Steam participated in the 2019 IAPWS annual meeting in Banff, AB, Canada, Sept 29 – Oct 4, where it announced the availability of several new Technical Guidance Documents (TGDs) and provided updates on the development of others. The
Plant digital systems are not necessarily top of mind when acquisitions are undertaken, reminds Tyler Ward, VP security of Infinite Group Inc (IGI), Rochester, NY. That includes cybersecurity. Organizations are not only inheriting equipment, employees, finances, and practices of the other party—but also the cybersecurity practices (good or bad) and accompanying potential cyber risks. Yet very few
Make sure cybersecurity issues don’t overwhelm an acquisition Read More »
During the 7HA Users Group Conference second day, “GE Day,” high-level managers kicked off the event by proclaiming “significant progress in [corporate] restructuring,” HA technology investment is up in 2019, and “we are moving from financial metrics to operating metrics, and users should feel this going forward.” GE officials shared progress on several issues discussed
GE Day @ 7HAUG: Some permanent solutions in place, other root-cause analyses on-going Read More »
Now in its second year, the 7HA Users Group Conference fosters an open and transparent dialogue among users and the OEM on all aspects of the turbine, so that technical issues can be resolved and best practices shared. Because the 7HA fleet is relatively young, the user group’s steering committee has structured the event to
7HAUG 2019: Progress with centerline issues; non-drive-train topics dominate discussion Read More »
Two recent unrelated field events at separate sites had a common factor: A single point of failure originating in one device out of a redundant set. Together, they offer an opportunity to tighten up start sequences and avoid failures to start, noted Abel Rochwarger, chief engineer, Gas Turbine Controls Corp. The first case involves a
Disparate ‘no starts’ offer chance to review for single points of failure Read More »
How to reduce the time to analyze operating data—and do it remotely Monitoring and diagnostic tools typically allow plant personnel to visualize trends and store historical data for future analysis. Most also provide the capability to create notifications by email, alarms, and perform comparative calculations of current versus expected performance. However, some tools are not
Alstom Best Practices: Chihuahua Read More »
Condition monitoring system facilitates maintenance decision-making A challenge at Orlando Cogen, a 1 × 1 combined cycle powered by a GT11NMC Alstom engine, was to determine if a wireless condition monitoring system (CMS) could help the 25-year-old plant affordably improve efficiency and/or operational effectiveness through better planning of O&M activities. Plant personnel led by James
Alstom Best Practices: Orlando Cogen Read More »
Many Alstom owner/operators were left with a feeling of “abandonment” following GE’s purchase of their OEM four years ago. Cost-cutting reduced Alstom’s field-service capabilities and spare-parts inventory to the bone at a time when GE was reconfiguring its aftermarket organization and developing “cross-platform” capabilities to serve both Alstom and Siemens owners. Recall that a vibrant
Alstom owners gain widespread support from third-party vendors Read More »
