Fuel Variability and Dry

Low NOx Gas Turbines

Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline Technical Conference
July 15th, 2008

Peter So
CALPINE Calpine Turbine Maintenance Group
 Peter Sos Background
CALPINE

z BS of Mechanical Engineering
z State of California Professional Engineer, Mechanical
Engineering
z 14 years of industry experience
z Ex-GE Field Engineer, startup engineer, Dry Low NOx tuner
z Involved with early DLN 2.0 / DLN 2.6 startup activities
z Manage a group responsible for controls and tuning support of
Calpines GE 7FA fleet, total group experience just short of
50 years
z Steering committee member of GE 7F Users Group and past
co-chairperson

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 Topics for Discussion
CALPINE

z Calpine Overview
z DLN Compare to Conventional NOx
z DLN Systems Key Issues
z DLN Systems Combustion Tuning Basics
z GE DLN System at Westbrook
z Calpines Experience
z GE Wide Wobbe System Many Unanswered
Questions
z Summary
z List of Issues

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 Calpine Overview
CALPINE

z Calpine is the largest natural gas consumer in the United

States and has substantial experience with operating F/G DLN
technology gas turbines

z 82 power plants - 24,000 MWs

z 91 F/G technology gas turbines with DLN combustion systems:

{ 47 GE 7FAs 1,319,772 operating hours

{ 40 Siemens 501Fs 1,543,789 operating hours

{ 4 Siemens 501Gs 103,289 operating hours

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 Calpine Overview TMG
CALPINE

z Calpine Turbine Maintenance Group formed in 1992

z Self perform Combustion Inspections, Hot Gas

Path, Majors amongst other maintenance activities

z Staff of close to 60 and growing

z Self perform combustion tuning activities since

early 2000

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 DLN Compare to Conventional NOx
CALPINE

z Dry Low NOx - lower exhaust NOx levels (as low as 5 ppm vs
25 ppm)
z Benefits of DLN:
{ Lower emissions

{ Less maintenance effect on combustion and hot gas path

parts
{ Lower operating cost of water/steam

z Challenges of DLN:
{ System more sensitive to variables (i.e. fuel quality,
ambient temperature)
{ Narrower operating range due to emissions limitations

{ System more complex, experienced O&M staff required -

Troubleshooting is difficult

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 DLN Systems Key Issues
CALPINE

z Importance of Fuel Specifications:

{ Gas turbine design based on historical fuel quality
{ OEM specifies limits to range of operation
{ Outside of these specifications - reduced reliability and parts
damage
z Wobbe Index (WI) range
{ One of several interrelated gas quality parameters
{ Even within OEM range - limited adjustability to changes
{ Outside of historical fuel range fuel impacts unknown and may
require equipment changes
{ Outside of OEM/historical range additional cost, downtime
WILL occur
z Rate of change:
{ As important as WI range
{ Historically not much variation in gas quality - rate of change
has not been a concern
{ Gas turbines designed in anticipation of a limited rate of change
{ Siemens has always specified rate of change criteria
{ GE not initially, but does now with Wide Wobbe OpFlex system

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 DLN Systems Combustion Tuning Basics
CALPINE

z Four criteria:
{ Combustion dynamics

{ Emissions permit requirements

{ Lean blow out stability concerns

{ Performance Depending on circumstance

need to optimize for MWs, BTUs and/or

turndown
z Tuning for fuel quality:
{ Need to experience actual gas quality to

properly tune
{ Tuning in anticipation of gas is hit or miss

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 GE DLN System at Westbrook
CALPINE

z Westbrook Energy Center 537 MW power plant

located just outside of Portland, ME
z Interconnected with M&N @ Joint Facilities
z 2 GE 7FA+e Gas Turbines with DLN 2.6 system -
designed for 9 ppm NOx
z Stack NOx permit with SCR is 2.5 ppm
z DLN 2.6 fuel system includes 5 control valves, 14
combustion cans, 64 individual fuel nozzles,
hundreds of individual injection points

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 GE DLN System at Westbrook (cont.)
CALPINE

Diagrams/Pictures Courtesy of GE - GER-3568G

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 GE DLN System at Westbrook (cont.)
CALPINE

Diagrams/Pictures Courtesy of GE - GER-3568G

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 GE DLN System at Westbrook (cont.)
CALPINE

z DLN 2.6 System is highly sensitive

z Great precision and fine tuning required at all
times
z Determining the exact adjustment needed takes
substantial amounts of time and requires
information on multiple variables (i.e. fuel quality,
ambient temperature)
z Typical tune adjusts schedule by 0.5-3% which
equates to 0.005 to 0.034 inches change in actual
PM3 valve movement as an example

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 GE DLN System at Westbrook (cont.)
CALPINE

z Tuning at Westbrook and most Calpine sites

{ Remote tuning capable with onsite personnel -

provides quicker reaction to combustion issues

~ Continuous Dynamics Monitoring System

(CDMS) monitors and records combustion

dynamics
~ In-house tuning expertise

~ Computer infrastructure

~ Reflects a substantial capital investment at

Westbrook and across Calpine

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 Calpines Experience
CALPINE

z Small changes in WI can have substantial adverse

impact on combustion dynamics:
z Recent Experience
{ WI variation of +/- 1.3%

{ Combustion dynamic amplitudes increased 167%

to 260%
{ Resulted in undesirable combustion conditions

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 Calpines Experience (cont.)
CALPINE

6-11-2008
3.5

2.5
Dynamics (psi)

1.5

0.5

0
1330 1335 1340 1345 1350 1355 1360 1365 1370 1375

Wobbe Index
GT1 Dynamics GT2 Dynamics

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 Calpines Experience (cont.)
CALPINE

Lean blow out events at Westbrook

z 12/1/2007, 12/2/2007, 12/5/2007

z Unexpected gas supplier change
z BTU levels were lower than historical

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 Calpines Experience (cont.)
CALPINE

z Use of third party components

{ History of hardware issues with OEM parts

{ Non-OEM parts meet or exceed OEM

specifications
{ Use of non-OEM parts resolves hardware issues

and enhances turbine performance

{ Multiple supplier options - enhances parts

availability

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 GE Wide Wobbe System Many Unanswered
CALPINE
Questions

z GE Simulation and Field test is insufficient proof of

system performance:
{ Simulation Testing not real world experience

{Field Testing changing GEs Modified Wobbe Index

by fuel temperature does not reflect true WI change
z Not much history only 12 units with system. Fleet
leader has less than 8000 operating hours and has
experienced a WI range of only +/- 1.7% to date
z Even with Wide Wobbe OpFlex, GE does not guarantee
unit stability/operation outside of its current fuel
specification and imposes a +/- 4% per minute rate of
change

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 GE Wide Wobbe System (cont.)
CALPINE

z GE reluctant to guarantee system operability

with third-party design components
z GE proprietary software reduces operators
troubleshooting capability
z Each model system has to be individually tuned at
each hardware maintenance cycle
z 7 Lean Blow Out Events of Wide Wobbe OpFlex
control system on February 14, 2008

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 Summary
CALPINE

z GEs DLN system is very sensitive

z GEs Wide Wobbe system is still in development
and not a proven solution to fuel variability
z Limiting fuel quality variations to match OEM
specification is critical to reliable turbine
operations
z Wobbe Index range is just one parameter of gas
quality
z WI rate of change is an equally important
parameter

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 List of Issues
CALPINE

z WI range needs to be set consistent with OEM

specifications
z A WI rate of change is required consistent with
OEM specifications
z An adequate gas quality posting system needs to be
developed that addresses generator needs with
respect to data quality, timing and longevity

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