Challenge. Shortly after commissioning, CPV Towantic noticed its oil/water separator (OWS) effluent flowmeter was inaccurate, requiring the outlet valve to remain closed until the instrument could be repaired or replaced and certified. Primary concern was that the OWS is responsible for removing oil from the wastewater stream prior to its discharge (Fig 1). To keep […]
Challenge 1. While CPV Towantic was in the process of its Spill Prevention, Control, and Countermeasure (SPCC) recertification (from the pre-construction initial submission) and was seeking PE certification for the EPA submission, the certifying professional engineer expressed concern with the (1) so-called shed roof around the 1.5-million-gal diesel-oil tank’s secondary containment, and (2) lack of
Towantic gets SPCC certification, reduces oil-spill risk, increases safety—all at once Read More »
Challenge. The annual cost of providing casualty and property insurance to protect facility owners from significant financial hardship in case of a loss event can reach into the millions of dollars. Annual insurance inspections help “rheostat” this cost in either direction. The more areas of concern the insurance engineers and the inspectors have, the more
Towantic: Implementing insurers recommendations reduces site risks, saves on premiums Read More »
Challenge. CPV Towantic is an outdoor facility. The OEM-provided generator collector-house assemblies allowed moisture to collect around brushes and rigging during heavy rain events (Fig 10). Generator field resistance to ground was alarming, and in one case tripped the generator. Initial thought was moisture was coming in around the brush inspection door. After much investigation
Custom weather protection for collector-house assembly reduces trips, water damage Read More »
The most recent HRSG Forum, conducted virtually July 21, 2022, broadly addressed high-pressure (HP) evaporator deposits, and specifically under-deposit corrosion (UDC), a leading cause of HRSG tube failures (HTF). The first presentation, by Barry Dooley, Structural Integrity Associates Inc, focused on why UDC occurs, how to detect and analyze it, and its role, along with
Experts address why, when, and how to deal with HP evaporator deposits Read More »
With outage season in full swing, Greg McAuley, CTO of TRS Services and lead consultant at sister company GMW Consulting, shares his decades of industry experience below in the post-outage checklist he developed for owner/operators of gas and steam turbine/generators. Post-outage reviews and records are particularly important, McAuley says, because you already paid for the
What do you do when your gas turbine experiences a forced outage (FO), or as Sulzer’s Jim Neurohr and Michael Andrepont put it, a “bump in the night”? Hopefully, your plant already has a plan in place for such emergencies, and they hope you’ll call Sulzer and let them put their full-service shop in LaPorte,
Who ya gonna call the day after a ‘bump in the night’? Read More »
In addition to the best practices published on CCJ Onsite earlier this week, here’s a new batch of ideas owner/operators of any gas turbine can employ at their facility. ESSENTIAL POWER NEWINGTON (EPN), managed by Tom Fallon and operated by Cogentrix Energy Power Management, is a merchant facility that runs primarily on natural gas, and
EMPIRE GENERATING COMPANY, managed by Chet Szymanski and operated by NAES Corp, uses gray-water effluent from a local municipality’s sewage treatment plant as incoming process water for both the steam-generating and cooling-water systems. Water quality, specifically total dissolved solids (measured as conductivity), varies greatly depending on the time of year and the quantity of water
Best practices shared by colleagues at plants powered by 7F engines Read More »
Brent Converse, the plant engineer at Old Dominion Electric Cooperative’s Wildcat Point Generation Facility, has three decades of experience in the operation and maintenance of powerplant equipment—including advanced-class gas and steam turbines. Among the most important lessons Converse has learned over his career: “Stay ahead of the curve” on things having a significant impact on
Clean turbine fluids promote trouble-free operation Read More »
