POWER PLANT MONITORING, PERFORMANCE EVALUATION, AND RELIABILITY ANALYSIS USING SOFTWARE WORKSTATIONS

Reliability of power plant equipment is the primary concern for electric utilities. Failures of high-energy systems and rotating equipment have enormous social and economic consequences. Early detection and characterization of incipient failure mechanisms will thus increase plant availability. If a large power plant is unexpectedly put off-line by failure of a critical component, the utility must either start up dormant units, purchase replacement power at high cost, or force the public in lowering electricity demand. This paper describes an efficient method of using software to maximize plant availability and performance at low cost. Packages integrating functionally related software developed throughout the power industry are introduced. These packages or "workstations" simplify tasks such as troubleshooting equipment, designing a new transmission line, on-line monitoring of plant performance, or planning for future generating needs. Among several workstations described, the boiler maintenance workstation (BMW) is covered in more detail as it falls in the area of expertise of the author. BMW helps utilities estimate probability of tube failure over time, take corrective action to prevent future failures, plan life-time maintenance activities, develop independent ability to gather and analyze inspection data, train utility staff in boiler tube failure prevention, and prepare better management reports in less time. In an attempt to stress the importance of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) methods in improving the reliability/availability of power-plant equipment, an advanced inspection technique for carbon-steel boiler tubes is also introduced.