DOOSAN WINS FRENCH BIOMASS DEAL FROM E.

ON Source Doosan Power Systems has been awarded a major biomass conversion and turbine upgrade project for E.ON's coal-fired Provence power plant in Gardanne, France. The project will help to create France's largest biomass-fired power plant to date as part of the E.ON Group's strategy to deliver "cleaner, higher performance energy". The new unit will generate electricity from the combustion of wood, including forest chips, green residues and recovered timber, and will be converted from the existing coal-fired Provence 4 unit. It will provide 150 MW of power with base production of more than 7500 hours per year until 2034. Doosan Power Systems will convert the 20-year-old coal-fired circulating fluidized bed boiler (CFB) and renovate the steam turbine. The project will be led by German CFB specialist Doosan Lentjes, which supplied the original CFB technology and key components for the plant in 1992. At the same time, the company's turbine specialist, Doosan Skoda Power, will replace the inner steam path of the existing steam turbine to match the new output and enhance plant efficiency. Life-time extension works will be undertaken by Doosan Babcock on the remaining equipment so that the plant is well placed to deliver reliable performance for a further 20 years. The assembly of the new equipment will be subcontracted locally to ADF, a French group located in the FosBerre basin that specialises in the maintenance of power generation facilities. Quartzelec completes rotor refurb for Ghanaian power plant UK electrical engineering group Quartzelec has completed a six-month refurbishment and rewinding programme for a failed generator at Takoradi power station in Ghana. The rotor on the T240-370, 154 MVA generator suffered a double earth fault resulting in severe arcing damage, so Quartzelec was brought in by independent power producer TAQA. The damaged rotor, which measures 8 metres in length and weighs 36.5 tonnes, was substituted with a new spare rotor purchased from the OEM to allow the unit to continue operating. Two deep excavations - one of 250 mm and the other of 300 mm axially - were found within two of the forging slots where material had vapourised at the site of the earth faults. In addition, more than 10 per cent of the copper winding on the rotor had either been melted away or become distorted and therefore was unrecoverable. Steve Cooper, business development manager of power generation at Quartzelec, said: "With a replacement generator costing in excess of 2 million ($3 million), the client was looking for a technically competent yet commercially viable solution to re-establish full generating capacity." The rotor components were transported to Quartzelec's new, purpose-built facility in Rugby, UK, where further inspections were carried out. This resulted in a complex weld repair being carried out on the two damaged slots in order to salvage the forging. A series of replication tests were then conducted. Arcing damage along the slot dovetail was also machined off, increasing the dovetail dimensions and a new set of the retaining rings, snap rings and wider wedges were procured. The rotor was then rewound using about 80 per cent of the existing copper and a new design of insulation system. New endwinding packing blocks were also designed, manufactured and fitted. Siemens unveils geothermal steam turbine Siemens has unveiled a new steam turbine for geothermal power plants. The SST-500 GEO serves the power range up to 120 MW and follows the SST-400 GEO turbine, which was introduced in 2011. The SST-500 GEO is a single-casing, double-flow condensing turbine. As a derivative of the SST-500 and SST600 turbine families, it combines the casing and auxiliaries of the Siemens SST-500 and SST-600 turbines with the geothermal features and steam path technologies developed, tested and applied by Siemens Energy Services. The SST-500 GEO steam turbine can be deployed in geothermal plants with a varying range of steam conditions, being designed for both single and double flash applications. Markus Tacke, chief executive of the Industrial Power Business Unit of Siemens Energy said the introduction of the SST-500 GEO "will enable us to participate in the geothermal growth we currently see in regions such as the eastern coast of Asia, the western coast of the Americas and parts of Africa".

Each SST-500 GEO turbine is designed uniquely for particular resource conditions by adapting the blade path within the standardized casing. As with all Siemens geothermal turbines, the SST-500 GEO is designed with an impulse type steam path, which due to the robust design has been proven by extensive experience in the after-market. Capstone targets CHP market in Poland Capstone Turbine Corporation is bringing its low-emissions microturbine energy systems to the Polish market for the first time and is targeting 10 MW of power by 2015. Capstone will market its solutions in Poland through Italian company IBT Group, Capstone's exclusive partner in Italy and Greece. Capstone full range of microturbines - from 30 kW to 5 MW - will be transformed into certified energy systems by IBT Group's new Polish sales network. The move is designed to capitalise on combined heat and power opportunities in Poland. Ilario Vigani, chief executive of IBT Group, said: "Strategically, Poland has a huge CHP growing potential as the government is strongly encouraging cogeneration systems in order to achieve the production of 47.9 GW of electricity by 2030. Having said this, the country is in the need of reliable technological know-how in this field." Clark-Reliance unveils 'sense the sensors' boiler technology Clark-Reliance Corporation has announced a new remote water level indication system for power and process boilers. The Eye-Hye SmartLevel system incorporates new patent-pending technology to intelligently monitor the condition of its probes which precisely sense the water level in the boiler's steam drum. When the probes require cleaning to remove residue and mineral build-up to maintain their accuracy, the system's smart technology notifies the control room that a probe column blow down is necessary. Jim Kolbus, Reliance product manager, said: "This system essentially is able to 'sense the sensors' and provide precise instructions to operators so they will know when probe cleaning is needed." "Properly cleaned probes provide the most accurate water level readings, which allows for optimal quality steam to the turbine, virtually eliminating water slugs. With the best quality steam, turbines last longer and an optimized heat rate can be achieved, a foremost goal of any power producer." Duke Energy's IGCC power plant starts commercial operation Duke Energy announced its 618 MW integrated gasification combined-cycle (IGCC) plant, in the US state of Indiana, entered commercial operations this month. The plant uses advanced technology to gasify coal, strip out pollutants and then burn that cleaner gas to produce electricity. "Coal has powered Indiana for more than a century," said Duke Energy Indiana's president, Doug Esamann. "But today's air quality standards require us to use that fuel in a cleaner, more efficient way. Edwardsport turns coal into a cleaner-burning fuel and enables us to continue using an abundant local resource." According to the company, this is the first time the technology has been used on this scale, and the plant is expected to build up to its long-term level of availability over the next 15 months. "Edwardsport replaces about 500 MW of older coal-fired generation that we recently retired or expect to retire soon due to new EPA regulations," Esamann said. According to Duke, the new Edwardsport IGCC plant will: Produce ten times as much power as the former plant at Edwardsport, yet with about 70 per cent fewer emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and particulates combined: Use excess steam that would normally be wasted to power a second turbine and increase plant efficiency and output; Reduce carbon dioxide emissions per MWh by nearly half compared to the plant it replaces;

Generate marketable byproducts. The plant will produce sulphur and slag for agricultural and construction materials. Any revenues from marketable byproducts will go to customers; and Use less water than a conventional coal-fired plant.

The Edwardsport is one of only two IGCC plants in the US that are operational, out of more than three dozen proposed over the last decade. Southern Company's 582 MW Kemper County plant is the other one. Duke Energy is the largest electric power holding company in the US, with more than $110 billion in total assets.

Metso wins turbine control system rebuild contract Vantaan Energia has chosen Metso to rebuild the gas turbine control system at its Martinlaakso power plant in Vantaa, Finland, with the aim to increase turbine reliability and availability. The new automation will replace the existing turbine control system that has reached the end of its life cycle. The delivery scope also includes overspeed and vibration protection for the turbine, changes to turbine hydraulics, field engineering, installation, factory assembly testing and operator training. A gas turbine simulation model will test the control application and also be used for training. The turbine controller will be integrated with the Metso DNA automation system, which now controls all three Martinlaakso power plant units. The rebuilt control system is expected to begin operation in November 2013. Once this project is completed, Metso will have modernised all of Martinlaakso turbines, which representa one gas turbine and two steam turbines. Vantaan Energia Oy is one of Finland's largest urban energy companies. It is owned by the cities of Vantaa (60 per cent) and Helsinki (40 per cent). The Martinlaakso power plant produces about two-thirds of Vantaa Energia's electricity output and most of its district heating. The total electrical capacity of the plant is about 195 MW and thermal capacity is 330 MW.

Commercial floating offshore wind project commences The first commercial offshore wind measurement campaign using floating LiDAR in European waters has started in the Irish Sea. FLiDAR NV has deployed one of its innovative LiDAR buoys for DONG Energy in the southern East Irish Sea. DONG Energy, a leading offshore wind developer, selected the FLiDAR equipment because of its high accuracy and cost effective data service. The partnership initially involves a one year measurement period in the Irish Sea. The technology has been developed by 3E, global renewable energy consultancy and software services provider, Offshore & Wind Assistance, the subsidiary of marine contractor Geosea focusing on operations and maintenance, and Leosphere, the world's leading LiDAR company. The FLiDAR equipment consists of a marine buoy equipped with a state-of-the-art buoy-adapted LEOSPHERE WINDCUBEv2 LiDAR held in a passive mechanical stabilisation system. It has previously been tested and validated in the North Sea and in the Irish Sea. The performance has been analysed and validated by third parties and has been proven to deliver wind data with accuracy equivalent to standard offshore wind measurements. Loccioni highlights coal cash and carbon savings Loccioni'S fossil fuel efficiency solutions POWdER and CINERIS allow monitoring and regeneration of the coal combustion process with, the company claims, "significant economic and environmental impact". POWdER is able to monitor coal powder fineness in real time, using the innovative and non-intrusive technology of acoustic emissions. CINERIS is designed to on-line measure the percentage of unburned carbon in fly ashes. Loccioni gives the example of a 660 MW power plant under ordinary working conditions, which thanks to a reduction of unburned carbon in fly ashes obtained by the integration of POWdER and CINERIS, could save

2800 tonnes a year of coal - a 280,000 ($373,000)per year fuel cost saving and the avoidance of 7000 tonnes of CO2 a year. James Walker promises 'fit and forget' reliability James Walker has launched a new version of its seals for high-volume water pumps such as those used to provide cooling water in thermal power generation plants. HydroSele CWP is modular in concept, with each component designed and precision manufactured to fit together perfectly around the shaft without the requirement for a total stripdown. The new system can be simply and quickly retro-fitted to pumps on site and when the integral sealing elements require replacement - life expectancy is a number of years - this can be easily achieved in a few hours. Once installed, the units provide 'fit & forget' reliability with no requirement for running maintenance or adjustment. For the operator not only is the spares stockholding requirement reduced to a simple set of elastomeric seals for each cartridge but with reduced maintenance requirements, longer service life and increased reliability, the overall cost of ownership of both pump and seal unit is significantly reduced. With thousands of hours logged on test rigs and units now in operational use on CWP applications at conventional power stations in the Netherlands, HydroSele CWP shows all the signs of repeating the success seen by the original design within the hydropower sector. Schaeffler steels itself for turbine business Bearings and condition monitoring specialist Schaeffler has co-developed a new, high-strength quenched and tempered steel specifically for wind turbine slewing rings that are subjected to extreme loads during blade and tower adjustment. Schaeffler says this new material allows full tempering and quenching of the steel and, as a result, provides outstanding strength properties, even with large ring cross sections. The stell featues zinc thermal spray surfaces, multi-layer painting and finished seal surfaces which Schaeffler claims can offer "the highest levels of reliability, bearing rating life and security against premature damage, such as fatigue of the raceways and surface corrosion". Due to the material properties and the applied surface protection, the bearings are suitable for use in ambient temperatures down to -40oC. Hempel offers quick-cure offshore wind turbine coatings International coatings manufacturer Hempel has launched HEMPADUR 47300, a new coating for offshore wind towers. Specially formulated for offshore towers, HEMPADUR 47300 is a low-solvent epoxy mid-coat that Hempel says offers vastly improved curing times for manufacturers. The coating can be handled just four hours after application at 20C, compared to an average of five hours for standard equivalent coatings. According to Anders Voldsgaard Clausen, group power generation segment manager at Hempel, the new product enables manufacturers to reduce production line bottlenecks and increase line speeds - which could lead to significant cost reductions. "The offshore wind energy industry is looking to lower costs in every part of the value chain," he explained. "The curing time of HEMPADUR 47300 means manufacturers can achieve a faster production flow. As a result, they can coat more towers each shift and use less energy to dry the towers - which will help drive down the cost of each unit."