VGB-Standards now online for Ordinary VGB Members

VGB PowerTech provides its Ordinary Members with an exclusive online access for the VGB Standards (VGB-Standards, VGB Guidelines, VGB Technical Instruction Sheets).

The documents are made available online as eBook (PDF file) through the new web site „VGBVS4OM“.

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Flexible coal-fired power plants – German experience sought after at GIZ workshop in Beijing

The "Technical Solutions for the Flexibilisation of Coal-fired Power Plants – Experiences from Germany" workshop took place in Beijing on June 9, 2017. It was jointly organized by the Chinese Electric Power Planning & Engineering Institute (EPPEI) and the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.

Speakers reported on their experiences with flexible power plant operation. The central message conveyed by the speakers was that the implementation of measures to make plants more flexible is less of a technical challenge than it is a commercial one. Stable framework conditions and a market design that honours flexibility are elementary prerequisites for sustainably transforming the energy system.

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Pilot project „Wind Turbines – Major Failures Statistics“

The VGB committees "Strategic Forum Wind" and "Performance Indicators" agreed to establish the pilot project "Wind Turbines - Major Failures Statistics". For half a year, unavailability incidents will be collected from selected wind turbines and main components of the participating companies (E.ON, Enel, EnBW, Innogy, RWE, Verbund and WSB). By means of an appropriate evaluation of the data, damage analysis as well as statistics across plants is built up. Long-term objectives of the work are for example failure rates of components, harmonization of definitions and indicators, standardization of evaluation methods and cost reduction.

Contact: Stefan Prost

VGB CONGRESS 2017: Session programme online

With the motto Generation in Competition the international industry for the generation and storage of power and heat will meet in the Congress Center West in Essen, Germany, 13 and 14 September 2017.

In the plenary lectures of the first congress day high-ranked, renowned speakers will deal with political aspects and important issues of the general political conditions related to future energy generation and supply.

The papers held in the sessions on the second day will provide an outlook and solutions for the technical aspects of future energy supply in Germany, Europe and worldwide.

An additional third section with short presentations on the issue of ”Digitisation” will round off the Congress programme. These presentations focus on dialogue and discussion following each presentation.

Make advantage of the early-bird discount until 30 June!

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Abstracts of Minutes

• Maintenance Management - 29/30 March 2017

VGB PowerTech Journal 4 (2017): Fluidised bed firing systems and Biomass

Editorial

Dr Oliver Then

Combining heat and power – generating double benefits

Some topics:

• Large-scale storage options under special consideration of 6 x 15 MW battery example (Wolfgang A. Benesch and Christian Karalis) Download ...
• Grid development and system security in times of the “energy turnaround” (Tino Schlemmer, Uwe Schmidt und Wolf-Dieter Diebels)
• Converting CFB boilers from coal to 100 % biomass combustion (Jan Žižka , Ludvík Pavlík and Hynek Lang) Download ...
• Innovative concepts for flexibilisation of power plant operation (Hellmuth Brüggemann, Frank Kluger and Gerald Schmidt)

Issue 4/2017

VGB-S-164-11-2016-08-EN - Recommendations for thermal/mechanical generator protection - Now available as eBook!

To detect incipient damage to generators in power plants, protective equipment is installed. For electrical protection, in 2012 VGB published recommendations in the VGB-Standard VGB-S-025 “Electrical Generating Unit Protection”. The VGB-Standard in hand, VGB-S-164-11, shows the protective measures that can be taken when thermal limits are exceeded or leaks and other malfunctions occur. These protective measures relate to so-called thermal/mechanical generator protection and cover generators for thermal power plants, hydroelectric power plants and wind turbines.

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VGB PowerTech Journal 5 (2017): Nuclear power and nuclear power plant operation

Editorial

Dr Tatiana Salnikova

Flexible operation of nuclear power plants – first steps for paradigm change worldwide?

Some topics:

• Cyber security in nuclear power plants and its portability to other industrial infrastructures (Sébastien Champigny, Deeksha Gupta, Venesa Watson and Karl Waedt) Download ...
• Retrofitting a spent fuel pool spray system (Christoph Hartmann and Zoran Vujic)
• Clearance measurement for waste ­concerning contained radioactivity (Marina Sokcic-Kostic and Roland Schultheis)
• Operating experience with nuclear power plants 2016 (VGB PowerTech) Download ...

Current Issue

Call for Papers - Submit your lecture for the Conference Maintenance in Power Plants

This biennial event is addressed to experts of the conventional and nuclear division, to experts of maintenance in power plants and service companies and to independent inspectors and commissioners of authorities, who are concerned with new developments in maintenance, inspection and repair. This conference is to discuss latest topics and to cultivate the exchange of experiences of experts of maintenance in power plants.

Paper submission is open now.

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Review: Symposium Health & Safety in Power Plants

The joint symposium Health & Safety in Power Plants of the German employer's liability insurance association and VGB PowerTech took place in Weinheim, Germany, on May 3/4, 2017.

Main topics of the symposium were:

• Chances of future prevention measures in power plants,
• Control options for optimised plant operation,
• Working and dangerous substances in power plants,
• Organisational measures for safe plant operation.

Beyond these topics and beside the supporting programme there was a busy exchange among the participating experts.
The next symposium Health & Safety in Power Plants will be organised by VGB PowerTech in 2019.

Contact: Guido Schwabe

Review: Materials & Quality Assurance

The 4th International VGB Workshop Materials & Quality Assurance was held in May 2017 at the EVN AG in Maria Enzersdorf, Austria. 64 participants from 14 countries and 4 continents took part in the workshop.

The lecturers talked about:

• Lifetime assessment, flexibility, periodic inspections,
• New materials, e.g. 12%Cr steels for flexible and efficient steam power plants,
• Modern welding technologies like electron beam and laser welding,
• Quality assurance, damages on the austenitic material HR3C, or in water circulation pumps.

The Zwentendorf nuclear power plant was visited. The evening event took place in Vienna.

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Review: VGB Conference Gas Turbines and Operation of Gas Turbines 2017

The VGB Conference Gas Turbines and Operation of Gas Turbines 2017 took place in Friedrichshafen on 7/8 June 2017. Considerable advances in research and development in the field of power plant and industrial gas turbines have led to gas turbine technology achieving a high degree of attractiveness both as core components of efficient, low-emission multi-function facilities and as drive systems for peak load systems and compressor stations. The efficiency of gas turbines and the lifetime of high-loaded components have been and are being improved in considerable development stages; in particular by improving the materials, cooling technology, thermal insulation, hot gas component corrosion protection, aerodynamic design of the compressor and the turbine, and process design.

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