Short-term Fixes Often Trump Major Component Replacements

摘要

Despite a sagging economy and lowered electric demand, the power must stay on. That means repairs and upgrades to fossil power generation fleet continue. Some are small and intended to meet short-term needs. By some definitions, small fixes can include heaters, super heaters, reheaters and small economizers. Turbine generators upgrades in some cases are needed to compensate for the additional parasitic load these environmental systems draw. Today's turbine technology can easily add additional capacity, reliability and increase the time between inspection. When uprating a coal plant steam turbine/generator, the generator must be analyzed to determine what the additional load will be. Generators often need rewinding once they reach about 40 years in age. Most generators were designed to run 30 to 40 years. Today, power asset owners are trying to run them another 20 or 30 years. Condensers represent another major coal plant component replacement that becomes necessary after two or three decades of service.