Abstracts - VGB PowerTech Journal 7/2014

“Liability proof” organisation

Martin Davidsohn

“Liability proof” organisation? In these days? Don´t we have to worry about other things? This is an opinion often heard in these days of profound changes and new requirements to be faced by the power industry. Basic and particular liability aspects related to the management of utilities are presented from the viewpoint of a lawyer and consultant.

Destination Zero – from vision to reality

Matthias Eiden

The accident rate, measured as TRIF (based per 1 Mio working hours), was already reduced by 70 % in 4 years by focusing on safety leadership activities and setting of minimum technology-specific standards. The “Destination Zero Toolkit” provides specific guidance for different starting points on the journey to safety excellence. Basics on safety culture are explained. At the end of that journey every part of the business is to reach the final stage of the “Bradley Curve”.

How does the controlling of maintenance look like in the future?

Dimitrios Kalaitzis

Changes in the energy policy have also seriously changed the energy market. In this context it needs to be asked how to effectively control maintenance in the future? The article presents a cross-industry comparison regarding the developments in other industries, considering maintenance as value-adding part of the plant asset management and presents selected fields of action. In the future, management and control of maintenance will be more based on reliability and risk-based plant asset considerations. The digitisation of processes along the value chain and all life cycle phases of a plant are increasingly observed.

Designation of wind power plants with RDS-PP®

Jörg Richnow, Clemens Rossi und Helmut Wank

For efficient planning and construction as well as for the later operation and maintenance (O&M) of a wind power plant, it is necessary to structure this plant and to assign clear and unambiguous alphanumeric codes to all assemblies and components. The designations according to RDS-PP® (Reference Designation System for Power Plants) have been established for wind power plants for nearly 10 years. The Application Explanation VGB-B 116 D2, issued in 2006, was completely revised according to market requirements, technical developments in the wind power industry and changes in international standards. The new edition was published as VGB Standard VGB-S-823-32 in March 2014 reflecting the state of the art of the designation requirements for wind power plants.

Requirements and operation of decentralised power plants in the changing power market

Norbert Hönings, Niels Hornig und Sebastian Steinbach

E.ON plans and realises distributed industrial power plants on the basis of contracting schemes. Target is to reduce energy costs without investment by the customer himself. Gas turbine CHP plants are very flexible and offer many possibilities for the operator to adjust optimally to a constantly changing energy market. This aspect is becoming increasingly important due to the increasing share of renewables. However, the economic situation for CHP plants has deteriorated significantly, due to the current market situation distorted by the subsidised renewable power generation.

Industrial power plants: modernisation or replacement plant engineering – framework conditions and future development

Dirk Briese und Jens Gatena

For a number of years, a trend towards decentralised power supply, partly due to the “Energiewende” and other reasons, could be observed. In Germany currently around 200 industrial power plants with a respective installed capacity of over 10 MWel exist. About one third of these plants were built between 1990 and 2010. Plant operators therefore face the question, if they should modernise the old assets or build new installations in the coming years. Whereas a modernisation bears cost and time advantages, amongst other things, higher efficiency and improved flexibility can be achieved with new plants.

Maintenance and repair of gas-powered heat and power plants

Ulrich Berns

Gas-powered heat and power plants produce power and heat at the same time and provide an overall-efficiency of more than 85 %. They are an important element of a flexible and decentralised energy supply. A particularly crucial point in the lifecycle of the engine is the major overhaul. It entails high costs and a long downtime. At the same time, it provides the opportunity to prepare the installation for the next lifecycle considering current requirements.

Once through steam generators in combined cycle applications for dynamic grid operation

Ralf Bräuer und Bernd Gericke

It is generally demanded that modern power plants are highly efficient while also being able to change the load rate very quickly (fast cycling) and the ability to operate on a very low part load. In combined cycle plants bottlenecks are in the downstream plants such as boilers and turbines. Once-through steam generators are the ideal solution for these requirements due to the lack of thick-walled materials. The boiler presented was developed within the scope of a US-Navy Programme together with the Department of Energy (DOE). Yet some 200 plants are being successfully operated worldwide.

Adapting a biomass power plant with fluidised bed boiler for flexible use as a combined heat and power plant

Martin Mineur und Hartwig Söth

The Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz (EEG) [Renewable Energy Sources Act] offers among others incentives for biomass-fired power plants. Projects with the maximum supported electrical output of 20 MW were found to be particularly attractive. Such a biomass power plant was put into operation in 2005 at the Borsigstraße site in Hamburg, in which waste wood is burned in a fluidised bed boiler and the energy converted into electricity. The demand for heat grew at the location, therefore a concept was developed to provide additional steam from the turbine for the facility’s existing district heating network.

Process steam from biomass ranging up to 15,000 kg/h – cost-effective, sustainable, viable for the future

Thomas Schmidmeier und Antje Behnisch

The CO₂ neutral generation of energy and increasing fuel costs are the two central future challenges for energy-intensive industries. In addition to generating electricity and heat from renewable energies, industrial and commercial users have already obtained good results for several years with process steam from biomass up to 10 MW. The technology is mature, is subsidised with government incentives, and has a payback of two to three years.

Creating “Fuel Leaflets” for the prevention of negative impact on the boiler from minor fuel components

Wolfgang Müller, Dominik Schneider, Marie Kaiser, Joos Brell, Wolfgang Spiegel und Martin Pohl

For solid fuels, like biomass, lignite, hard coal and peat, used in power plants, a proximate and elementary analysis does not provide sufficient information, if problematic processes like corrosion and fouling in the power plant are to be minimised. The transfer of diagnostic measures derived at waste-fired power plants during the last decades should enable focusing on the important characteristics of fossil fuels, biomass and co-firing in relation to corrosion and fouling. These measures include mainly mineralogical investigations and online sampling by probes and support creating a “Fuel Leaflet” for each specific fuel, including advice for operational thresholds, risks for corrosion and fouling, etc. Minor components should be of major interest.

Prediction of Moabit CFBC boiler performance of wood co-firin

Martin Weng, Adlan Omer und Michael Evard

In the course of the ongoing changes in our energy system several alternative fuels are considered. Wood is a common substitution for coal. In the Moabit CHP plant in Berlin fuel substitution was evaluated. Therefore, the impact of the new fuel was simulated with computational fluid dynamics (CFD). Wood co-combustion is feasible. However, measures have to be taken to control erosion. In the meantime the plant was retrofitted and first operating experience is being collected.

Deployment of a motor management solution in recovery boilers

Matthias Borutta

A Swedish manufacturer of paper-based packing materials generates 58 % of its power onsite using biomass boilers. The efficiency of the power generation system is boosted through the deployment of a special steam cleansing technology with up to eight meter long automatic motorised cleaning lances. It removes soot at high steam pressure in combination with a patented procedure. An optimised motor management guarantees that the advantages envisaged will materialise.

Efficiency upgrading (retrofit) to older electric filter systems by new inner parts and modern high-voltage equipment

Wolfgang Kletsch

Electrostatic precipitators are often more powerful, if weak points are eliminated consequently. Typical filter efficiency losses for existing plants are caused by poor flow conditions, distance losses in the system, outdated technology of the discharge and collecting systems and weak high-voltage equipment. Basis of a successful filter retrofit is the analysis of weak points followed by a reconstruction programme. An extremely successful example resulted in a reduction of residual dust of more than 70 %.

Health and safety in the power industry – position and future challenges

Jochen Pillekamp

Since the very beginnings of power plant engineering, health and safety – also the cornerstones for the foundation of VGB PowerTech – are important issues for the business. VGB PowerTech has a separate committee, the European VGB Committee for Health and Safety, that is dealing with problems related to health and safety. Historical, current and future aspects of health and safety in power generation are summarised, commented and discussed, also against the background of changing general conditions.