Electrify Europe 2018

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CCPP Start up Improvements for Economic Power Generation in Challenging Business Environment (Room Lehar 2)

Energy markets with high infeed of power from renewables typically lead to a severe change for the fossil plants in these markets, as the number of operating hours as well as the operating profile is strongly affected. Further increasing renewable generation is leading to periods without CCPP dispatch for several weeks or months. Many combined cycle power plants (CCPP) which were designed for middle or base load changed to cycling mode or even temporarily mothballing with the need of highly flexible start and operation modes. Operational staff is facing increasing challenges to ensure safe and economic operation. Slimming of staffing levels and the skill drain from retirement of aging workforce operation, maintenance and engineering even worsens the situation. To face these already existing and upcoming challenges a variety of improvements has been discussed and is co-developed from OEM and operating company. The improvements cover flexibility increase (e.g. start-up time reduction) and efficiency improvements (e.g. remote performance consulting) as well as operating staff training and remote support (e.g. remote operational advisory). The application of state-of-the-art technologies and integration in daily CCPP operation enables tangible results. An actual application and use case shall be presented with the customer Mark-E. It demonstrates that improvement of economic power generation of the in-service CCPP fleet is possible with new market environment. Continuously comparing plant performance / operational behavior with specific requirements by analyzing operational data and verifying improvement potential with design layout facilitate identification of improvement potentials. Measures are discussed between OEM and customer and implemented quickly for testing in daily operation. After validation these measures are permanently realized for economic and flexible power generation.