Early experience with fast-start combined cycles positive say plant personnel

Posted on October 14, 2013 by Team CCJ

The Combined Cycle Users Group (CCUG) has been closely following the development of a series of large generating plants designed for faststart/fast-ramp service since the organizations first meeting in San Antonio three years ago. What sets these new combined cycles apart from others in the fleet are heat-recovery steam generators equipped with HP sections that permit operating flexibility not possible with conventional drum-type HRSGs. The ability to bring a unit into service quickly can significantly reduce fuel consumption and emissions of NOx, CO, and VOCs normally associated with startups. There are similar benefits for faster shutdowns as well. Siemens Energy Inc is the nations leader in fast-start technology with two plants operating in California (Lodi Energy Center and El Segundo Energy Center) and two more in Texas in final design/early construction (Panda Temple Power Project). The Oakley Generating Station under construction in California will be the first fast-start combined cycle using technology from GE Energy. The fast-start session at the user groups 2013 meeting in Phoenix, September 3-5, chaired by CCUG Vice Chairman Steve Royall, director of fossil and solar O&M for PG&E, featured presentations by the following engineers: Dr Gerald Feller, principal expert engineer, Siemens. Michael DeBortoli, PE, plant manager, and Rafael Santana, O&M manager, Northern California Power Agencys Lodi Energy Center. Marc Kodis, senior project engineer, NRG Energy Incs El Segundo Energy Center. Fellers presentation opened the session and focused on the design highlights and benefits of the Flex-Plant technology that underpins the Lodi and El Segundo combined cycles. DeBortoli, Santana, and Kodis summarized O&M experience at those facilities from the deck plates. Three of the points made by Feller were these: Flex-Plants provide an unrestricted full-ramp-rate gas-turbine start to put power on the grid as quickly as possible. Bottoming cycle is capable of fast start/fast ramp. For a hot start, full steam-turbine bypass can be achieved in less than an hour. The

entire plant can load-follow with the gas turbines at maximum ramp rate. The OEMs Clean-Ramp system holds NOx and CO emissions out the stack at permit limits while load following at full ramp rate. Feller said that for hot/warm starts, Flex-Plants reduce transient NOx emissions by 87%/91% compared to conventional plants, CO emissions by 93%/96%. Lodi Energy Center, the nations first fast-start combined cycle, is a nominal 300-MW, 1 x 1, F-class unit with a rated efficiency of more than 57% (Fig 1). It has the Siemens designation Flex-Plant 30 and the ability to deliver 200 MW to the grid 30 minutes after starting the gas turbine (SGT6-5000 FD3). The Lodi boiler is a Nooter/Eriksen triplepressure HRSG with a Benson HP section (Fig 2).

1. Lodi Energy Center 2. Benson HP section in Lodis HRSG Other facts on the Lodi design include the following: Cycle chemistry is AVT(O) with oxygen injection, feedwater/condensate pH control is by ammonia injection, condensate polisher assures high-quality demin water. Drum inspections verified that proper cycle chemistry was being maintained (Fig 3). Condensate pumps discharge to boiler feedpumps which supply LP and IP drums and the Benson HP section. Kettle boilers are installed in the IP and LP circuits.

 Plant is heavily instrumented. It is said to have as many analyzers and system drains as a conventional 3 x 1 combined cycle.

3. Condition of the LP and IP drums met inspectors expectations Lodi began commercial operation Nov 27, 2012. Through July 2013 the unit had accumulated 163 starts, averaging 18.9 hours per start. Service factor during the first eight months was 52.8%, in lock-step with the 53.5% compiled by F-class cycling units industry-wide in 2012 as reported in Strategic Power Systems Incs ORAP database. The plant was operating or on standby 89% of the time from COD through July. Availability numbers were well above 99% for four months, with the cumulative availability since startup at 98.5%; reliability was 99.7%. Major plant equipment generally met expectations. Relatively minor issues included falling lower acoustic baffles in the HRSG (attributed to cycling and insufficient support), a leaking weld in the lower header of the HRSG preheater, high-temperature trips across the IP exhaust during steam turbine rolls, etc. Apparently, the biggest headaches were associated with the treatment of recycled water, something that Dan Sampson cautioned about during his CCUG presentation. Clarifiers were identified as problematic. As with virtually all new plants, it takes time for a complex combined cycle to find its groove. Equipment and controls tuning consumes a significant number of man-hours during the first few months of operation. At Lodi, effort was expended on achieving faster GT ramp rates, reducing CO emissions, and revising steam-turbine control curves to achieve faster starts and loading. Lodi did an especially good job of reducing CO emissions by making fuelfraction and IGV adjustments, increasing the ramp rate, operating inlet bleed heat on startup, etc. Thanks to such enhancements, production of CO dropped by 350 lb/start.

Looking ahead, the plant plans to upgrade the gas turbine during the first Hot Gas Path inspection to ramp faster than the 13.4 MW/min now allowed. El Segundo Energy Center, which was dedicated the week after the CCUG meeting, consists of two intermediate-duty Flex-Plant 10 power blocks with a total installed capacity of 560 MW (Fig 4). The SGT6-5000F gas turbines are designed to ramp at 30 MW/min and provide 300 MW to the grid 10 minutes after pushing the start button. The entire plant must be operating to satisfy AGC control requirements. The single-pressure non-reheat HRSGs were supplied by NEM and are of the companys DrumPlus design, which combines the advantages of drum-type and once-through HRSGs. The conventional steam drum, which would be susceptible to fatigue damage in a fast-start application, is replaced by a knock-out vessel and external separator bottles (Fig 5).

4. El Segundo Energy Center 5. DrumPlus HP module for El Segundos HRSG This smaller-diameter drum has a relatively thin wall to accommodate thermal stresses. Because of the reduced volumes of both steel and water, DrumPlus has the dynamic capabilities of a once-through unit; however, it has considerably more water inventory to provide a higher degree of operational flexibility. Also, DrumPlus does not require the condensate polishing system recommended for a once-through boiler. A few aspects of plant design of interest are power augmentation capability, an attemperator capacity rated at 25% of full steam flow, and

a nitrogen blanketing system that automatically releases the inert gas to the drum when pressure drops below 2 psig. Nitrogen is supplied by an onsite system. As with Lodi, El Segundo has invested heavily in tuning. The first objective was to tune the gas turbines for fast start. This took several iterations of effort. Valves in the steam bypass system and the steam turbine also were a focal point of the overall tuning effort