Operational Improvement

Historically, the industry has spent large amounts of resources analyzing and repairing failures.  FGS's approach, on the other hand, is to place emphasis on preventative measures.  By preventing failure from occurring in the first place, resulting problems -- including loss of availability, replacement power costs, additional maintenance and overtime costs, and collateral damage to other equipment -- can be eliminated.  This approach provides added predictability to unit availability for the benefit of the system operators in scheduling backup capacity.

Using Multivariate Statistical Analysis and other state-of-the-art data mining techniques, we are able to better understand the actual operating conditions, control logic, and design parameters and limitations. A majority of the solutions are surprisingly simple and low in cost once the problems are properly analyzed.

The following are examples of operational improvement that FGS has achieved.

Case No. 1 – Following the back fit installation of a new SCR, operational procedure changes resulted in the elimination of NOx excursions and high ammonia slip during load changes.

Case No. 2 – Following a series of tests and analyses, an operational procedure change resulted in the elimination of severe boiler fouling and high superheater tube temperatures.

Case No. 3 – Combustion tuning and control changes resulted in the elimination of flame impingement, reduced superheat and reheat spray flow, reduced NOx and improved heat rate.

Case No.4 – New control logic was developed to resolve combustion instability and loss-of-fire due to severe coal quality variation.