Abstracts - VGB PowerTech Journal 12/2010

VGB Congress "Power Plants 2010"

Renewables, Nuclear, Coal and Gas - Technologies for a Low Carbon Future

The VGB Congress "Power Plants 2010" - the largest European technical Congress for electricity and heat generation - took place in Essen/Germany from 22nd to 24th September 2010 and was themed "Renewables, Nuclear, Coal and Gas - Technologies for a Low Carbon Future". Nearly 1,300 participants from 30 countries attended the plenary and technical lectures and had the opportunity to discuss the current topics of electricity and heat generation. VGB PowerTech also celebrated its 90th anniversary. The history of VGB and future perspectives for the technical association have been presented by Gerd Jäger, Chairman of VGB PowerTech.

Practical Reason in a Technical Culture - 90 Years of VGB

Carl Friedrich Gethmann

Speech on the occasion of the VGB Congress "Power Plants 2010" and the 90th anniversary of VGB. Considerations on the practical reason in a technical culture are ethical considerations. It must be realised that new technology has resulted in new types of conflicts: a tightened situation of acting in an environment of uncertainty, increased problems related to unequal distribution. In order to cope with these new problems, no new ethics is required but an ethical reflection on these problems.

The importance of further education - In times of demographical change using the example of energy industry

Marcus Schmitz

The demographical development in Germany has an impact on the economy. Especially the qualified manpower supply will change not only in our country, but also in all other Western industrial nations. Companies would be well advised, if they previously anticipated the consequences they will face, to check and adjust their human resource strategies, if necessary. The target is to have specialists and executive staff available, according to quantitative as well as qualitative needs. Further education plays a decisive role to meet a shortage of human resources.

Human resources as multiplier for a company's value

Manfred Bornemann

On the basis of concrete examples this article demonstrates how knowledge of employees is integrated into value-added processes and how the status quo can be evaluated and developed in relation to strategic requirements. It will be shown why human resources are the strongest means concerning the implementation of measurements for a company's development and for the achievement of entrepreneurial objectives, and which challenges exist for the development of human resources in an increasingly skill-intensive performance routine.

Knowledge Management - Preservation and maintenance of implicit knowledge within a company

Ulrich Schmidt

EnBW Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG operates in a more and more complex economical and political environment. This fact and ambitious growth targets are the reason for EnBW to activate more intensively hidden potentials of the staff and to strengthen their skills. The "intellectual capital" of EnBW becomes a key success factor and active knowledge management will be the key to save the sustainability of the company. For the implementation of knowledge management EnBW uses an integrated approach, which includes a cultural, strategic and operational level. Since 2006 the "Knowledge Relay" has been used in the EnBW group with great success.

E-Learning - today and tomorrow

Silvana Gelbke

Today, new technologies revolutionize the way of handling information, exchanging knowledge and learning. The definition of the term "e-learning" mostly comprehends teaching and learning using a range of electronic media (Internet, CD-ROMs). However, further differentiation is necessary to describe the entire spectrum of methods included in this term. These different approaches are reflected in their implementation by the companies presented.

Accurately fitting advanced training - Flexible simulator training by modular training course concepts

Katrin Sickora and Hans-Peter Cremer

Every employee of a power plant contributes with his individual expertise to the success of the enterprise. Certainly personal skills of employees differ from each other as well as power plants are different. With respect to effective simulator training this means that no two simulator training courses can be identical! To exactly meet the requirements of our customers KWS has developed modules for simulation training courses. Each module represents either a technical subject or addresses a topic in the field of soft skills. An accurately fitting combination of several of these modules to the needs of our customers allows for most efficient simulator training courses.

The virtual lecture hall - New prospects for distance teaching and learning

Heinz Wiengarn

First of all, the design of the technical solutions to be installed is in the center of all deliberations on teaching and learning in a "virtual lecture hall". These solutions must cope with the challenge to provide high quality knowledge transfer through technical media in the framework of distance teaching and learning. Secondly, a model demonstration of a short teaching sequence in the "virtual lecture hall" will take place. The audience shall be informed how knowledge transfer and communication develop through these information media. Particularly, the creation and application of information programs by interacting teachers and students in the framework of distance teaching and learning shall be demonstrated.

Maintenance for Wind Farms - Status and Outlook

Uwe Patzke und Klaus Pfeiffer

The paper points out the roles of various participants in the area of maintenance of wind turbines and gives a short survey of current maintenance problems. Trends on the way to reliability-based maintenance are shown regarding organisational aspects as well as special applications and data problems. Various experiences based on operational data from offshore and onshore wind farms are presented, partially extracted from the project "Increase of Availability of Wind Turbines" supported by the German Federal Ministry of the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, finished in 2010.

Steam Turbines and CO2-Sequestration

Jürgen Klebes, Sven Winter, Marinus Joormann and Brian Stöver

Amine based CO2 separation units resp. Post-combustion Carbon Capture plants (PCC) are an option for the separation of CO2 to reduce the specific CO2 emissions to less then 100 g/kWhel. These units are placed downstream the power plant process and need a high amount of process heat for the regeneration of the detergent. For a minimum loss of plant efficiency, the steam for the required heat amount is extracted from an extraction stub of the steam turbine at a sufficient pressure. These measures have a significant impact on the power plant and especially on the design and efficiency of the steam turbine.

The Heringen EBS Power Plant - Industrial Steam Supply from Waste

Harm-Peter Büchner

Industrial energy consumers, using big amounts of energy like electricity and steam for their production processes, are in generally decreasing their energy costs as low as possible in order to survive in international competition. At the plant site Heringen, Germany, Kali & Salz AG has been used in its own combined cycle power plant natural gas as main energy sources for generating electricity and process steam. For the underground mining of salt and its subsequent processing is in the works a year-round demand for electricity and steam. For the substitution of natural gas by E.ON Energy from Waste AG a substitute fuel power plant (RDF power plant) was built with a thermal capacity of 140 MW and steam production of up to 160 t/h in Heringen and put into operation.

Replacing Hydraulic Components in Gas and Steam Turbine Protection and Control Systems with Electrical Systems

Guido Nierade, Michael van de Linde and Detlev Müller

In the past, technical facilities and especially power plants relied almost exclusively on hydraulic components. Some factors have prompted a trend to modernise protection and control systems and replace hydraulic devices with electric or electronic components. The scope of these measures varies from plant to plant and depends on general requirements and the specific needs and wishes of the operator. This article explains how these retrofit projects can be standardised, covering all aspects from the design, installation and commissioning of the new systems through to operator training and subsequent servicing across different disciplines.

Ageing and maintenance management of electrical and I&C components

Werner Schroeder and Rüdiger Markhardt

Electrical and I&C components in power plants are in principle meant to reliably fulfill their function during the entire plant life. This is of outstanding interest for nuclear power plants. Therefore, methods and tools for the implementation of an effective ageing and maintenance management are presented, which yields the operator the freedom to decide upon the replacement of electrical and I&C components independently of manufacturers. Therefore, qualitative logging and evaluation of maintenance processes as well as the availabilty of the relevant technical documentation is essential.