2016 Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG): Issue 1
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Combined Cycle Users Group 2016 conference highlights
Low-load impacts, solutions for HRSGs, SCRs
Heat-recovery steam generators (HRSGs) and the associated selective catalytic reduction (SCR) units often take a back seat to gas and steam turbines at combined-cycle facilities. That was not the case at the Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG) conference.
     Several users shared their experiences on HRSG and SCR O&M issues arising from cycling and low-load operation. Vendor and consultant experts added to the general bank of knowledge around performance, diagnostics, condition assessments, and engineering solutions.
  • What price low-load operation?
  • Ecomax™ for HRSGs
  • Twice-daily cycling
  • More frequent drum weld inspection
  • SCR impacts
  • A bird, a plane. . .a drone  more
Deck-level lessons from catalyst replacement projects
Complying with emissions regulations is usually binary. If you're out of compliance, you don't run. Catalysts for nitrogen-oxides (NOx) and carbon-monoxide (CO) emissions compliance don't last forever. And fresh catalyst isn't supplied from the marketplace overnight. Thus, the NOx control system-comprising the gas turbine's performance and exhaust levels, the catalyst itself, the ammonia supply and distribution grid, analyzers, exhaust-flow distribution, and sampling ports and methods-must be regularly monitored, inspected, and tested to anticipate when replacement is necessary before the unit is out of compliance.
  • Big-picture lessons learned
  • Sweat the small stuff
  • Bid-spec prep
  • Visual inspection more 
Meeting the challenges of soft-skills development
Plant personnel often think of training on equipment as "hard" skills development, and the people side as "soft" skills, yet most everyone implicitly recognizes that the two are symbiotic. The 2016 Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG) conference (San Antonio, August 22-25) focused on meeting the challenges of soft-skills development.
  • Benefitting from incident reviews
  • Finding gaps in physical, cyber security
  • Adapting to change-successfully
  • Reducing human errors
  • Using VPP as a management tool
  • Retaining, sharing plant knowledge  more
  

  
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