P3™ Power Plant Predictive Maintenance Analyzer

In 2007 a major mid-west utility with a 690- MW unit, found and repaired leaking cycle valves  with  P3™  (SteamPAC).    This  improved the condenser’s back-pressure allowing them to realize a reduction in overall heat rate resulting in a savings of $1.6 Million in 2008.

Today’s aging fossil fuel plants need a comprehensive predictive maintenance (PdM) instrument to combat high repair costs, long lead time replacements & limited down time. MISTRAS has just the instrument – the Power Plant Predictive Maintenance Analyzer (P3™), combining multiple diagnostic tools into one system including individual software suites to make testing valves, bearings, SF6, steam traps and more as easy as touching a software icon.

The    P3    detects    partial    discharge    and/ or bouncing particles on gas insulated substations & components. Ideal for detection, characterization and area location of Electrical& Partial Discharge, Mechanical & Thermal problems.

Application Solutions

Steampac through Valve loss Measurement

SteamPAC, a technology package with a powerful formula for estimating leak rates, is typically used in fossil fuel plants to survey the entire inventory of steam valves and traps while in service. This results in positive impacts on Heat Rate and CO2 stack emissions.

Thermal  efficiency  in  a  plant  is  the  amount of  steam  produced  versus  the  amount  of steam  that  ultimately  reaches  the  turbine. Each leaking valve along the steam path contributes to a reduction in efficiency. These losses require more fuel to provide the same energy at the generator, increasing costs and emissions.

Dry Flow testing

P3  can  quickly  check  for  flow  in  a  pipe  or other equipment. Coal feeder tubes and Trona injection systems are examples of where Acoustic Emission (AE) is used to identify if a system is working properly. This is a non-invasive method for identifying problems (i.e.: clogging and improper particle size) in a specific pipe to help eliminate emission problems.

For Example: SteamPAC loss, Typical 400 MW pulverized coal Boiler there can be a savings in fuel cost with increased thermal efficiency… At $14/ton of coal, fuel cost savings is $1100/hour ($26,400/day) by reducing loss of steam through normally closed valves – reduction of 84 tons of CO2/day.

Bearing lubrication

Over lubrication at a pipe can cause bearing failures.  By using AE to listen as the bearings are being lubricated, proper lubrication can be detected and bearing failure can be prevented.

Data transfer and Management

Transferring  data  from  your  P3  to  a  PC  is made easy by simply connecting to any USB or compact flash memory. Trending and graphing of data can be displayed using Excel or AEWin™, our powerful or graphing program.