Page 11 - Energize April 2022

NEWS

- Challenge: Inconsistency in the It becomes pertinent for the turbine manufacturer to actively engage with the customer
availability of biomass fuel (forest to understand their current needs and work on re-designing the existing turbine across all
waste, paddy waste, canola stalk, brands to meet the new parameters, which can ensure efficient functioning of turbines and
sunflower stalk and sweet corn stalk) thus lead to cost savings.
affected day to day operations. The
variation of fuel input affected the Case study 2
boiler load, which in turn affected the A renowned customer was operating their 8 MW European OEM turbine for more than 15
steam turbines operation. years. The turbine was operating inefficiently due to natural degradation. A review of the
- Solution: The turbine internals (rotor turbine design revealed that by modifying the parameters as per the current requirements, it
and blades) and turbine controls were was possible to ensure the availability of 1 MW of extra power.
designed to operate at lower loads The proposed solution was based on the idea of directing the additional steam to the
with optimum efficiency and lesser existing turbine with an upgraded steam flow path design. By simply altering the internal
maintenance. The steam turbine parts of the turbine (rotor with highly efficient blades, diaphragms, bearings and gear
generator (STG) delivery happened at internals) with the new design, the customer was able to achieve an enhancement of 9 MW
a record timeline of seven months, and power with lower specific steam consumption than the normal running condition.
erection and commissioning occurred As the civil foundation was not altered, the overall project cost was significantly lower.
within 35 days during pandemic Also, the turbine housing was retained. The turbine was commissioned and handed over with
conditions. a 1 MW power addition and process stabilisation, the payback period was less than a year.
- Benefits: The customer can now The benefits accrued by the customer, through enhancing the efficiency of their existing
run the power plant in varied fuel turbine, yielded faster return on investment (ROI) and reduced operational expenditure
conditions by overloading the STG set (OPEX) requirement.
wherever possible.
Bio-energy will become the prime source of fuel in the future. Biomass fuels help the
With the inflating costs, efficient turbine CHP and cogeneration systems generate sustainable power. The global power generation
operations have become necessary industry must cater to the needs and requirements of both independent and captive power
for saving costs and creating a positive producers, as the demand for biomass power is projected to grow.
carbon footprint. The turbine becomes
inefficient and increases the cost of power Contact Christo du Plooy, Triveni Turbines Africa, Phone 010 007-5245,
generation after being in service for long. mktg@triveniturbines.com

Megger Africa appoints local

senior applications engineer

avid D Bavin has joined Megger Africa as senior applications engineer.
Bavin has a National Higher Diploma Electrical Heavy Current from Technikon
DWitwatersrand, BTech Electrical Power Engineering from Technikon Pretoria and a
GDE from the University of the Witwatersrand.
He worked at Eskom for 18 years, starting his training as an electrical technician.
During his stint at Eskom, he worked in various parts of the power utility, including system
operations, quality of supply plant management, network performance enhancement and
standards implementation. David D Bavin
Bavin joined TE Connectivity as a sales engineer for overhead line hardware and finished
off, 14 years later, as the company’s energy sales manager for Southern Africa, before joining the African dream. In his new role, he will
Megger Africa this month. He will be based at Megger’s new offices in Umhlanga Rocks, be supporting Megger products and their
KwaZulu-Natal. applications.
“With the infrastructure we have today, we stand on the shoulders of our fathers and
grandfathers. We are reaping the benefits from their knowledge and effort to build the Contact David Bavin, Megger Africa,
infrastructure, so many of us take for granted today. In the latter part of our careers, it is our Phone 031 576-0360,
duty to impart what we have learned to others and to contribute what we can to a reliable Mobile 079 349-4428,
electrical network being built and maintained,” Bavin says. david.bavin@megger.com,
Bavin is excited and looking forward to working with Megger where he will help to grow www.megger.com

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