CONTENTS

S. Paper Title Page

No.
1. Theme Paper – NTPC Ltd. 1
2. Advanced Ultra-supercritical plants with 760 deg c steam temperature – EPRI, USA 1
3. Technologies to improve plant efficiency – JCoal, Japan 2
4. Strategies for Optimization of coal cost – NTPC, CC FM 2
5. Solar PV Plant – Best Practices – NTPC, Kaniha 4
6. Offshore wind turbines and hydrogen production using wind farms – NTPC, Simhadri 4
7. Reduction in Inverter Clipping losses by using battery storage – NTPC, RE-Engg 5
8. Integrated Solar Thermal Heat exchanger – NTPC, Dadri 5
9. Rooftop Solar Adoption – NSB, India 6
10. Design and Development of Solar Thermal Desalination Pilot Plant-NTPC, NETRA 7
11. Maintenance & Reliability – A layer approach – OSIsoft, USA 8
12. Reliability improvement by monitoring Ultra Low speed bearings – SKF, S Korea 8
13. Best practices in Lubrication system – Perma-tec, Germany 9
14. INNOVATIVE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES AND NEW O&M PRACTICES – SKF, AUSTRALIA 9
15. Digital retrofit for efficient power production – Uniper, UK 10
16. THERMACT experience in NTPC – AEL, India 10
17. NTPC safety analysis and measures taken to ensure safety – NTPC, CC Safety 12
18. 8P model for zero incident culture – NTPC, Kaniha 13
19. Safe Practices for effective O&M – JSW Energy, India 14
20. Impact of Ground & Environmental Radiations on Health & Safety in Power Plants – Environics, India 14
21. Use of Artificial Intelligence for Plant Safety – NTPC, Dadri 15
22. NTPC Digital Journey – NTPC, DI group 16
23. Mathematical modelling of Boilers for performance evaluation – TCE, Bangalore 16
24. Online performance monitoring of Cooling Tower – NTPC, Kawas 17
25. Multiple Technology Approach for Condenser Air-in-leak Intrusion detection – NTPC, COS &CenPEEP 17
26. Ramp rate – a way forward for better ROE – NTPC, Sipat&CenPEEP 18
27. Improvement of Boiler Efficiency and APC by prevention of Air Ingress – NTPC Kahalgaon& COS 18
28. Part Load optimization with low VM coal – NTPC, Unchahar 20
29. Diagnosis and solution of clinkering – NTPC, Vindhyachal 21
30. Flame stability factor for reducing flame failure – NTPC, CC OS 21
31. Part load operation – challenges & approach – NTPC, Simhadri 22
32. Post Synchronization Stabilization issues – NTPC, North Karanpura 22
33. Fuel oil & CFR optimization during steam blowing – NTPC, NPGCL 23
34. Estimating potentiality for central receiver tower for concentrated solar power – IIT, Kanpur 24
35. Herding behavior in financial markets – CSWVTU, Raipur 24
36. Automatic power factor improvement and fault maintenance system – KIET, Ghaziabad 25
37. INNOVATIVE STEPS FOR EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF FLY ASH – SVNIT, GUJRAT 25
38. Influence of fireworks on air quality - NIT, Raipur 26
39. Stress analysis of rotating disk made of functionally graded material – NIT, Raipur 26
40. Grid fluctuation management by Energy Storage – Jcoal, Japan 27
41. Augmented Reality – NTPC, Engg 27
42. Online cleaning of generator winding – NTPC, Singrauli 28
43. Safety enhancement & operational improvement in Swichgear design – NTPC, Engg 28
44. Asset management of power transformers – NTPC, NETRA 29
45. SMART O&M through digitalization – Singareni Thermal 30
46. IOT integration for Economizer Ash Flow monitoring – NTPC, Vindhyachal 30
47. Reliability improvement of vibration measurement – NTPC, Mouda 31
48. Upgradation of Seawater Pump house Control System – NTPC, Simhadri 32
49. Condensate throlling for improving FRC – NTPC, Korba 32
50. Reliable Monitoring of Combustion gases – OPGC, India 33
51. Remote inspection of air preheaters – LJUNSTROM 34
52. Inspection of Boiler Internals – OPGC, India 34
53. New Challenge to Boilers and its mitigation – NTPC, Barh 35
54. Operational issues and remedial measures of supercritical boilers – NTPC, COS 36
55. Gypsum utilization and Limestone procurement – NTPC, BRBCL 36
56. Welding Issues at Gadarwara – NTPC, NI-welding 37
57. Leveraging technology to enhance defense strategy with flexible operation – EPRI, USA 39
58. Cost effective flexibilisation of fossil power plants - EUtech, Germany 40
59. Software solutions for flexible operation of power plants – Steag, Germany 40
60. High temperature semiconductor strain gages for plant life management – EPRI, USA 41
61. Performance improvement through condition monitoring and advanced control system – Siemens, 42
India
62. Modernization of Steam Turbines with thermal upgrade up to 600 deg c – Siemens, Germany 43
63. Turbine alignment through digital mapping – Six D 43
64. Online blade vibration monitoring system – NTPC, Simhadri 44
65. Retrofitting of Dry Cooling System in thermal Power Plants – NTPC, Engg 45
66. Fatigue life estimation of gas turbine blades and discs – RVR Projects, India 46
67. Water quality improvement for better condenser & cooling tower performance – METTLER 47
68. Silicate scale and colloidal silica problem and remedies – RP-SG Group 47
69. Remediation of silica in process water through Electrocoagulation – NTPC, NETRA 48
70. SWAS reliability index/STP to process water – NTPC, OS 48
71. Chemistry intervention in recycling of plant Effluents – NTPC, Sipat 49
72. Sewage treatment & reuse in thermal plants – NTPC, Kaniha 49
73. Innovative coal ash utilization for roadbed material – Jcoal, Japan 50
74. Natural radionuclides from coal fired thermal power Station – NTPC, EMG 50
75. Geopolymer Concrete – NTPC, CMD Sect. 51
76. ZLD & Waste water management – NTPC, EMG 51
77. Limestone sourcing and Gypsum Utilization – NTPC, Engg 52
78. Compliance for 100% Fly Ash Utilization – NTPC, Ash Utilization 52
79. O&M best practices – NHPC Perspective – NHPC Ltd. 53
80. Life Cycle Management of Gas Turbines – Life Prediction Technologies Inc., Canada 53
81. System improvement through continuous learning – NTPC, Koldam 54
82. High thrust bearing temperature resolution – NHPC, Parbati 55
83. R&M of Hydro plants – KPCL, Karnataka 55
84. O&M strategies for cost management – KPCL, Karnataka 56
85. Best FM Practices – Sagta, China 57
86. Coal transportation issues & way forward – NTPC CC FT 58
87. Coal source rationalization for reducing ECR – NTPC, Khargone 58
88. Safe unloading through wagon tipplers – NTPC, Simhadri&Mouda 60
89. Carbon Capture and Utilization – NTPC, Korba 60
90. Handling of mill rejects in Thermal Power Plants – NTPC, Mouda 61
 INTERNATIONAL O&M CONFERENCE - IPS – 2020 - ABSTRACTS

Theme – Optimization of Generation Cost and Integration of Renewables

Session- 1 : Optimization of Generation Cost and Integration of Renewables

OPTIMIZATION OF GENERATION COST AND INTEGRATION OF RENEWABLES

Aloke Gupta, NTPC, COS, Subodh Kumar, NTPC CenPEEP, V S Venkatesan, NTPC RE,
S Banerjee, NTPC OS SIIS, Pankaj K Mittal, NTPC CC-FM, Balaji M, NTPC RE

Indian electricity business environment is undergoing rapid changes. Surplus generation capacity,
increasing penetration of renewables in the grid and ambitious plan for renewable capacity addition,
flexible operation of the thermal units because of renewables (reduction in minimum thermal load,
ramp up – down, reserve shut down), changing global approach towards thermal generation because
of environmental considerations, transition from regulated business to market based tariff, RRAS, SCED,
increasing competition etc are some of the characteristics of the changing environment. Stringent
environmental norms are forcing Utilities to equip its plants with environmental equipment like FGDs etc.

Renewable power tariff has come down rapidly due to technological developments and large volume
and is very well competing with thermal tariff. Increased competition in the thermal generation, other
measures by regulators like SCED, RRAS etc and technological developments are expected to reduce the
cost of electricity. However, flexibilization of the thermal units due to large scale renewable penetration is
expected to increase the cost of electricity. Further, addition of environmental upgrades would also result
in the increase of the tariff.

This paper looks into various changes taking place in the electricity business environment and its impact
of cost of electricity. The paper also shares various measures and initiatives being taken by NTPC to
optimize cost of electricity generation under current and future business scenario.

ADVANCED ULTRA-SUPERCRITICAL PLANTS WITH 760 DEG C STEAM TEMPERATURE

Horst Hack, EPRI, USA, Robert Purgert, Ram Narula, Energy Industries of Ohio, Ohio, USA

A United States-based consortium, comprising federal and state government entities, power generation
industryand non-profit research organizations is currently executing an advanced ultra-supercritical
(A-USC) Component Test (ComTest) project. This effort aims to address the technical gaps in moving
to the next step toward A-USC commercialization in the U.S., which would include the construction of
an operational A-USC commercial scale (~300 MWe) demonstration power plant, supporting steam
temperatures up to 760°C, as a stepping stone to utility-scale power plants. The advanced nickel based
materials being used in the present project were identified and tested as part of an earlier 15-year effort,
which incorporated laboratory and field tests to examine various material candidates that would be
suitable for both A-USC steam generators (boilers) and steam turbines. The current phase of the ComTest
project includes the fabrication of key nickel-based alloy components, which would be used in future
utility-scale coal-fired power plants, of up to 850 MWe capacity, operating with steam temperatures of up
to 760°C (1,400°F) and pressures of at least 238 bar (3,500 psia).

Under Phase 2 of the ComTest project, key full-scale components and subassemblies are being fabricated,
using nickel-based alloys (e.g. Inconel 740H and Haynes 282 alloy) for the highest temperature areas. The
project team is fabricating a representative full-scale superheater-reheater assembly that comprises the

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headers and intermediate heat exchanger tubing, a section of steam generator membrane wall panel,
full scale steam turbine rotor forging, steam turbine nozzle carrier casting, extruded piping and forged
fittings. ASME Code approvals are being pursued for new materials, welding processes, and pressure relief
valve designs, which would allow power plant designers to incorporate the advanced materials in new
plant designs.

TECHNOLOGIES TO IMPROVE PLANT EFFICIENCY

M. Ozawa, K. Murakami, Yamada F., J Coal, Japan

Coal, being an abundantly available and economically advantageous fuel, will continue to be
important,constituting a crucial part of energy mix in India and Japan as well as many other emerging
economies. In the context of, it is necessary to improve economic efficiency and reduce CO2 emissions
as a highlyefficient power generation facility. It is also important to reduce NOx, SOx, and dust so that
the equipment isfriendly to the local environment. In addition, it is important to maintain efficiency while
considering long-termuse.

Japan’s thermal power generation technology started with introduction of technology from overseas in
late1940s and early 1950s. The pressure and temperature gradually increased, and a 175MW unit with
RH with16.6 MPa and a steam temperature of 566/538 ° C started operation In 1959. Later, higher steam
conditionswere developed, and in 1968, a supercritical pressure unit with a pressure of 24.1 MPa and a
steam temperature of 538/566 ° C was completed, followed by the construction of a thermal power plant
forsupercritical pressure operation.

In 1980s, the development of further high-efficiency coal-fired powerbegan. In 1993, the first USC, a700
MW unit with a steam pressure of 24.1MPa and a steam temperature of 538/593°C came tooperate.
After this, thethermal power plant quickly switched from supercritical pressure to USC,and the steam
temperature continued to rise to 600°C, 610°C, and 620°C.The latest coal-fired USC plant with 630°C
(steam condition) class is under construction in Japan.

Japan has developed power generation technology that are of higher efficiency than USC coal-fired power.
One is A-USC and the other is IGCC. Two IGCC units are already in commercial operation.

In order to use thermal power generation facilities stably over a long period of time, detailed operation
andmaintenance (O & M) efforts are important. In Japan, periodic inspections of power generation facilities
areobligatory, and each electric power company and manufacturer are working together on O&M. For
this reason, there are fewunscheduled outages, there is little decrease in efficiency, andpower plant can
operate in a stable manner. Recent introduction of IoT enables Japanese utilities to optimize and enhance
O & M,improve performance, and improve operability at their powerplants.

STRATEGIES FOR OPTIMIZATION OF COAL COST

M. Prasanna Kumar, Pankaj Kumar Mittal, NTPC, CC FM

Coal is an important fuel in the global energy mix and contributes over one third of global electricity
generation. Various scenarios show that with growing energy demand around the world, coal continues
to play an important role in global energy mix for the years to come. In India, coal contributed for about
55 % of the installed capacity and 80% power generation during the year 2018-19. There are around 1055

2
billion Tonnes of proven coal reserves worldwide. With ~ 9.6% of world’s proven coal reserves, India will
remain a coal based energy supplier for long period of time in future.

GoI is committed to go for Renewable power (Solar, Wind, etc) in a big way. GOI has set an ambitious
target of reaching 175 GW Renewable Energy (100 GW Solar Energy) by FY22. Solar Capacity has increased
370% in last three years. In FY 18-19, Generation from Renewables has increased ~ 25% as compared to
FY 17-18. The projections of renewable growth in India may be a big challenge for coal based generation.
However, since RE power is not available round the clock and with a fact that we have huge coal reserves,
thermal power will still be a primary source of electricity for sustained power generation & Grid stability.

However, with increased penetration of renewable energy in the grid and competition from renewable
power generation, focus on bringing down the coal based generation cost for being competitive has
become imperative. Fuel constitutes a major component of power generation economics and thus the
Power stations with high fuel cost and in turn the generation cost are vulnerable to being pushed out of
market as they cannot compete with power stations with low fuel cost and in turn low generation cost.

To optimize coal cost at power stations, various initiatives have been taken by NTPC like Rationalization
of coal sources, coal diversions under flexible utilization of domestic coal, reduction of costlier E-Auction
and MoU coal, maximizing coal supplies to pithead stations, putting all out efforts for ensuring supply of
quality coal to different power stations with minimal loss of quantity, supply of coal with no extraneous
matter, taking up with CIL/MOC/MOP for ACQ enhancement and various other issues to get quality coal
at economical rates. However, due to various constraints like limited availability of domestic coal and
transportation logistic issues, Stations are facing issues like generation loss, fixed cost recovery issues and
non-availability of generation schedules.

In the present dynamic and competitive power generation scenario, coal based stations face array of
issues across supply chain from sourcing to logistics management, bulk handling, coal yard management
and quality management. Effective fuel management would in long way help to optimize the resources
and reduce the cost of generation. This paper focus on the various steps being followed for optimization
of coal cost and put forward the strategies for coal source selection, quantity and quality management
issues for NTPC stations to reduce ECR and maximize generation.

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 Session- 2 : Renewable Energy

SOLAR PV PLANT – BEST PRACTICES

Rajiv Agrawal, NTPC, Talcher Kaniha

Whenever a system is handed over for operation and maintenance during normal useful life, the basic
principles for maximizing it’s life and utilityremains same, irrespective of technology and application.

O&M of solar PV systems is also no exception. Adhering to basics such asTraining and orientation of
manpower/ associates, maintaining sparesinventory, following preventive and overhauling schedule,
maintaining records and reports, following PTW system, using technology, doing basicday to day work
with commitment , works well.

This paper brings the Authors in field experience, which has been veryrewarding in terms of improving
the Performance and generation of 10 MW Solar Photovoltaic plant at Talcher Kaniha commissioned on
28.03.2014.

This write up is purely based on field experiences and is not comprehensive in terms of other available
solutions. This document is an effort to consolidate the practices being followed here to make sure that,
we maximize the performance of the system w.r.t. it’s design capability.

ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF OFFSHORE WIND TURBINES AND

HYDROGEN PRODUCTION USING WIND FARMS

Nishant Kumar Sharma, NTPC, Simhadri

In present scenario whole world is concerned to reduce usage of fossil fuels (i.e. petroleum, natural gasand
coal). Today energy demand for a major part of world is met by conventional fuels and new avenuesare
being found out as these resources are also getting depleted at a very fast rate. Global warming hasbecome
a major problem as it is causing irreversible changes in our environment like melting of glaciers, rising of
sea level & increase of average earth temperature.

One of the new techniques for energy generation today is production of energy by offshore wind turbines,
this paper covers economic analysis of offshore wind turbines and conversion of that energy to hydrogen.

Offshore wind turbines presently have higher capital costs when compared to their onshore counter
partsbut ultimately in longer run and after improvement in technology they will be the future of renewable
energyin the world.

The major advantages of having offshore wind turbines are:

1. Taller and longer blades which will have longer sweeping area and hence higher power output.

2. Normally offshore sites have higher wind velocities when compared to onshore sites and hencebetter
power generation

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3. As cost of the site will not be a major issue very large wind farms are possible

Thus we can see that although cost of wind farms will be nearly 2.5 times the cost of their onsite
counterpartbut as the power generation capacity is high breakeven is possible in nearly the same time.

Wind turbines of 5 MWe capacities are being used in offshore wind turbine farms which is only a dream
foronshore site due to many site factors like noise, required wind speed etc. Research is being done for
goingfurther deep in oceans using floating wind farms which would help in building larger wind farms.
Windturbines bigger than 5MWe are in research stage and will be a reality soon.

This paper also shows an insight into energy storage options using this wind energy by converting
electricityinto hydrogen which can be used for either transportation or as energy packets in different
sectors like agriculture and process industries. Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu state of India is chosen as a
site in this paper for doing necessary evaluations.

AVOIDING POWER CLIPPING LOSSES BY INVERTER HAVING HIGH DC-TO-AC

LOADING RATIO IN GRID CONNECTED SOLAR PV PLANT USING BATTERY
ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEM
Shashi Shekhar Giri, NTPC, RE- Engg

This paper presents a MATLAB model simulation as a solution to capture and avoid energy losses due
to power clipping by Inverter having high DC to AC loading ratio in grid connected solar PV plant using
voltage controlled bidirectional DC-to-DC converter interfaced with Lithium Ion battery. Battery is
connected on DC link of grid connected solar PV plant. Complete topology is modeled in MATLAB®.
Model uses a unidirectional DC-to-DC converter with MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) for Solar
PV Interface and Voltage Source Inverter to inject power into the grid from Solar PV or Battery. If the
power from Solar PV is higher than the capacity of Inverter, some PV power is diverted to the battery in
Buck mode of voltage controlled bidirectional DC-DC Converter. This avoids PV power clipping and loss
of energy by inverter due to inverter capacity limitation. When Solar PV generation is less than Inverter
capacity, power from the battery is discharged into the grid through same bidirectional DC-DC converter
in Boost mode and Inverter. Model is simulated in MATLAB and results are validated.

DE-CARBONISATION OF GENERATION THROUGH AN INTEGRATED SOLAR

THERMAL HEAT EXCHANGER
Neel Kumar Sharma, Shishir Dubey, Abhinav Chitranshu, NTPC Dadri

To combat the looming disaster of climate change in the incumbent post-machine age era, ithas become
an imperative for heavy industries including power plants to cut their greenhousegas emissions. In an
effort to test one such power production de-carbonisation technology, NTPC Dadri has installed an
Integrated Solar-Thermal heat exchanger as a pilot project that isfirst of its kind in Asia and only second
in the world. Rather than solar photovoltaic technology,the project uses solar thermal technology to
leverage its comparative advantages such as lowarea requirement, high thermal efficiency and very low
startup time etc. The project consists ofsolar reflectors, which accumulate sunlight to impart energy to
a working fluid. The working fluidtransfers energy to feed water through a heat exchanger installed in

5
parallel of a high pressureheater (HPH) in a 210 MW coal based unit. The process employs solar power to
save steamused in the HP heater and de-carbonises production.

The paper discusses the technical as well as the operational aspects of the installation. It alsoshares
the lessons learnt through the commissioning phase of the project as well as themodifications and
the problems in the original design. Although some seasonal and operationalconstraints hindered the
full-fledged operations and the project was not run for a considerabletime to assess its efficiency and
economic viability, based on the limited hours of operation thepaper shares the efficiency aspects of the
project. During this winter season when sufficientDirect normal irradiance (DNI) was not available for
operation, the auto tuning of the reflectorsand the feed water flow valves has been carried out. During
the upcoming summer season theproject is expected to run smoothly and the full picture of operational
benefits will be seen.Finally the paper discusses the way forward for the project and its possible replications
in powerplants and other heavy industries.

A POLICY DILEMMA TO ACCELERATE ROOFTOP SOLAR ADOPTION

AMONG INDIAN METRO HOUSEHOLDS
Dr. Mohan Lal Agrawal, NSB, Noida

On September 24, 2019, the Prime minister of India and a global supporter of sustainable and renewable
energy (RE), Shri Narendra Modi raised RE target to 450MW in India. Earlier the target was 175MW. Among
the renewable energy sources, rooftop solar in India contributed as much as 2.5GW energy by end March
2018 but it fell woefully short of the target of 40GW and the vision of 100GW set by the National Solar
Mission. Indian households and especially urban and metro households are assumed to be the readiest
target adopters of rooftop solar, but their adoption is also woefully short.

So why are they not playing? Why doesn’t the promise of truncated carbon emissions and a greener world
work? More importantly, why aren’t the economic reasons – the lower power cost and hefty government
subsidy good enough for a solar buy decision? Or, is there a third, more overpowering, purchase trigger
which we haven’t deployed so far? Could this third trigger be to use stick as understood in the celebrated
‘Carrot or Stick’ persuasion?

‘Carrot or stick’ approach is an idiom that refers to ‘a policy of offering reward (incentives) or punishment
(penalties) to induce good behavior’. It is a well-known and practiced variation of what we term as the
Reinforcement Theory of Learning and Motivation. Reinforcement Theory of Learning and Motivation
is quite controversial also since it explains human learning to animal learning behavior and ignores the
higher order learning- the theory of reasoned behavior housed in the cognitive theory of learning and
motivation.

Literature review yields both success and failure when Carrot or stick approach of human learning and
behavior is deployed to influence consumption and adoption. Understanding the drivers of the use intent
for the rooftop solar panels and promoting through an appropriate persuasion approach, may unlock the
adoption of this promising green technology and accomplish the National Solar Mission for policy makers.

This policy paper reviews the data relating to the diffusion of rooftop solar in Indian households especially
urban metros of India; revisits buying drivers towards the rooftop solar; critically examines the concept
and effectiveness of carrot or stick persuasion through relevant case profiles and finally, highlights a policy
dilemma since thus far, Indian policy strategists deployed state subsidies and incentives- the carrots, as

6
the sole tool to help diffuse and adopt rooftop panels. Transiting from carrot to stick though hard, is worth
trying, the researchers conclude.

DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOLAR THERMAL DESALINATION PILOT PLANT TO

GENERATE DRINKING WATER AT NTECL VALLLUR
Shaswattam, Shyamal Bhattacharjee, Swapnil Patil, NTPC NETRA

120 TPD Solar Thermal Desalination pilot plan is designed and erected at NTECL Vallur. It is the first kind of
its nature in India where GHI technology has been incorporated instead of normally used DNI technology
for solar thermal desalination. Multi-effect distillation system was used for water desalination. This has
not only eliminated the mechanical rotating parts for the tracking but also increases the efficiency of the
system. The desalinated water thus produced is passed through various filters to generate good quality
potable drinking water. There are many technologies available for desalination. All the technologies were
analyzed to find the most economical option which is also suitable to install and operate in remote place
with minim electricity and available manpower.

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 Session- 3 : Reliability improvement to mitigate Challenges in Power System

MAINTENANCE & RELIABILITY – A LAYERED APPROACH VIA USAGE-BASED,

CONDITION-BASED AND PREDICTIVE MAINTENANCE

Gopal Gopal Krishnan, OSIS oft, LLC

The paper details about a layered approach to maintenance through scenarios to illustrate the combined
use of process data and machine condition data for usage-based, condition-based and predictive
maintenance. Data sources include traditional plant instrumentation such as PLCs and SCADA, the newer
IoT devices, and from machine condition monitoring sources such as vibration, oil analysis etc.

Usage-based maintenance includes using operational metrics such as motor run-hours, compressor start/
stops, grinder tonnage etc. And, condition-based maintenance utilizes measurements such as filter deltaP,
bearing temperature, valve stroke travel, and others. Predictive maintenance can be using simple analytics
such as monitoring vibration (rms, peak etc.) to predict RUL (remaining useful life) or heat-exchanger
fouling to schedule cleaning etc. Paper will also reference and discuss predictive maintenance use cases
that require advanced analytics such as APR (advanced pattern recognition), anomaly detection, and others.
Paper includes references to the OSIsoft PI System functions/capabilities from end user testimonials.

RELIABILITY IMPROVEMENT BY MONITORING ULTRA LOW SPEED BEARINGS

K R Oh, SKF, Korea

Many decisions are made concerning the mechanical condition of power generationmachinery in daily
operation of a power plant. Often these decisions are made based onopinions and human feelings – not
facts. With respect to the machines which have Ultra LowSpeed bearings, it has been known as extremely
difficult to detect bearing defects andidentify type of the defect because the defect can be hardly picked
up by neither humanfeelings nor general monitoring technique.

In general, industry has defined machines rotating below 10 revolutions per minutes(rpm) asUltra
Low Speed(ULS) and Power plant has many critical applications using ultra low rotatingbearings.These
bearings are often in dangerous or hard to reach locations, have high replacementcosts without counting
production loss. Some machines either allow the bearings to run tofailure or replace them after a out-of
service checkings after a defined number of hours.Both approaches can lead to implicated risk and costs.

There’s a few techniques designed for this Ultra Low Speed applications in the industry. Thisincludes
visual inspection and wear gap measurement as out-of service checking, andgrease analysis and vibration
analysis as in-service techniques. Because of industry mythwhich vibration monitoring isn’t appropriate for
bearings rotating at Ultra Low Speed, greaseanalysis has been widely adapted as the in-service technique.

However, grease analysis requires sampling of grease and several more steps to receiveanalysis reports.
In addition, there’s always question of reproducibility of sampled grease.Since vibration technique has
been known as the most effective way of monitoring in termsof cost, reproducibility and credibility,
implementation of vibration monitoring for Ultra LowSpeed machinery can bring huge benefit in risk
management and cost saving.As the technology leader of bearings over 100 years and vibration monitoring
for decades,SKF developed Ultra Slow Speed monitoring solutions for power plant’s applications such
asAir Preheater, Continuous Ship Unloader(CSU), Stacker/Reclaimer.

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RELIABILITY & IMPROVEMENT IN AVAILABILITY OF CRITICAL ASSETS BY CARRYING OUT BEST
PRACTICES IN LUBRICATION MANAGEMENT

Tony May, perma-tec GmbH & Co. KG, Germany

There are hundreds of rotating machine elements in power plants. Equipment must function reliablyunder
the most difficult operating conditions. Up to 80 per cent of machine failures are due to mechanicalwear
caused by dirt contamination.
To help reduce downtime automatic lubricationsystems discharge lubricants to the right point atthe right
time and in the required amount. Dirt,dust, vibrations and high temperatures can befound in many areas
of a power plant and itsequipment, e.g., in blower & fans, conveyorsystems, electric motors and coal mills.
Forinstance, conveyor belts have many differentlubrication points that require regular lubrication. These
points are often difficult to findor are difficult to access due to highcontamination, which increases the
maintenanceteam’s exposure to hazardous areas.
Over-lubrication and lubrication starvationdirectly influence the service life of a bearing. Theformer causes
damage to contact seals andexcessive lubrication consumption. On the otherhand, lubrication starvation
results in increasedfriction and wear, and creates the risk of dry runs.Automatic lubrication with perma
systemsensures constant supply of an ideal quantity. Theservice life of roller and sliding bearings can
beconsiderably extended by applying lubricant tothe appropriate point in the correct amount atshort
intervals. With manual grease gunlubrication it is almost impossible to meet therequired relubrication
intervals due to the lack ofmanpower. This often leads to premature wear or bearing failure.
Lubrication types :perma’s range of lubrication solutions areoptimally designed with technology, efficiency
andworkplace safety in mind. The automatic lubricationsystem releases lubricant to the right point at the
righttime, in the required amount and with optimal quality.Mixing is also prevented because only the
lubricantfrom the lubrication system is applied to the lubricationpoint.
Installation or retrofit :The conversion of existing manual lubrication points to automatic lubrication
in power plants is usuallypossible without great effort. perma offers a wide range of accessories and
mounting solutions to install itslubrication systems. perma lubrication systems can be used in all types of
applications such as conveyors,electric motors, pumps, fans and blowers. Automatic lubrication systems
can be mounted directly at thelubrication point while remote or indirect mounting is also possible using
grease lines.

INNOVATIVE TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES AND NEW O&M PRACTICES :

-DIGITAL MAINTENANCE, THE SKF WAY
SenthilVel, SKF, Australia
Through digitalization, the entire industrial business process is going through phenomenon transformation,
disrupting and the entire value chain. SKF has been on the forefront of digitalization, focusing on improving
rotating equipment performance. SKF has been investing in research and engineering to develop
next generation of innovative technologies to improve the way maintenance is carried out on rotating
equipment’s, helping drive improved safety, increased productivity and an efficient circular economy.

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 APPLYING A DIGITAL RETROFIT TO A POWER STATION TO CREATE EFFICIENCIES IN
POWER PRODUCTION: LESSONS LEARNED AND BENEFITS REALIZED
Peter Saddington, Pete Davies, Uniper Technologies Ltd, Nottingham
At Uniper our world as an energy generator has changed drastically in the last 10 years. In Europe theinflux
of renewable energy has caused us, as a business with a conventional generation portfolio, torethink how
we generate electricity commercially. This has led us as a business to operate more flexibly.In order to
do this we have used digital tools, using analogue and digital inputs, to inform how we runour assets to
ensure the flexible operation is delivered in a safe, commercial manner.By creating and implementing a
new industrial IoT platform, Enerlytics, this digital retrofit of our powerplants has given us the ability to
create a number of efficiencies that support base load and flexibleoperation.
We identified several key areas that would benefit us the most:
C – Capacity, A – Availability, R – Reliability, F – Flexibility, E – Efficiency, C – Costand applied this based on
the market conditions for each plant individually.
Advanced Condition Monitoring allows us to better understand the condition of our equipment, flagsissues
when a data anomaly is shown, before it becomes a loss of generation problem, and allows usto run with
known issues until the next planned outage, while managing them effectively, ensuring weare available
when the money in the market is there.
By creating performance reporting and measuring tools we have been able to standardize our
reportingacross the fleet, allowing a more manageable stream of information to make decisions from at
fleetlevel.By applying a standardization and process to safety, technical, environmental, reputational and
financialrisks we have moved to a risk-based investment structure enabling Uniper to maximize return
oninvestment.
We have also modernized our thermodynamic tools to feed into the performance reporting, to allow usto
make better decisions around whether we keep running or come offline, as well as identifyingunknown
problems on site by comparing current running conditions to the ideal or expected runningconditions.
We have been able to use the outputs of all of these applications to feed into an optimized
maintenancestrategy, that has allowed us as a business to ultimately remain profitable and cashflow
positive.Alongside these efficiencies, we have learned that there is a true human element to any digital
project;and have had to work with our staff in order to get them to adopt the digital tools and use them
to theirfullest capabilities.
Ultimately, we now know how important each application is to both conventional and flexible generationand
are able to advise others on this journey. Renewables are coming, but conventional generation isneeded
to deliver a safe, reliable energy transition. Digital solutions can deliver a measurable benefitto a power
generator, but each asset is different and will see varying benefits. Importantly, it’s better to‘do’ than ‘be
done to’; by this, we have learned it is much easier and better for business to take theinitiative, rather than
wait for the market to change and play catch up.

THERMACT EXPERIENCE IN NTPC

Swatantra Kumar, ABHYTECH ENERGYCON LTD.
A Nanotechnology powered combustion catalyst, developed in collaboration with IIT-Bombay, was
launched in the year 2002. Since then, THERMACT is being used in largenumber of Coal-fired power plants
using all types of Boilers (PF, AFBC, CFBC) and ofdifferent capacities (830 MW, 660 MW, 500 MW, 210 MW,
150 MW etc.). THERMACT isbeing exported to many countries.
THERMACT helps, not only in improving the combustion of coal, but also in “Removingthe existing
Clinker & Slag” from various parts and “Preventing” during its regularusage. Usage of THERMACT leads
to reduction in “Unburnts in Fly Ash & Bottom Ash”and also in Flue Gas Temperature. Regular THERMACT

10
dosing will help in SubstantialMonetary Savings and longer plant availability.
NTPC offered us an opportunity to get our product evaluated in two of its power plants.Accordingly, a 30
days trial each was conducted in 200 MW units of Farakka PowerPlant and Kahalgaon Power Plant under
the guidance and monitoring of CenPEEP. Inorder to ensure the correct and accurate results of the trial,
CenPEEP developed aScientific Trial Protocol, as given below:-
A. Load to be maintained between 175 to 180 MW during the evaluation period foridentical load
conditions for 4 hours of data recording every day.
B. No Pressure Reducing & De-superheating Steam (PRDS) supply from the unit duringthe 4 hours
testing.
C. No Continuous Blow Down (CBD) during the testing.
D. No Mill changeovers during the testing.
E. During the Pre-trial & Post-trial, Soot Blowing to be done 2 – 3 hours before thetime of testing
period on daily basis.
F. Coal samples to be collected every 2 hours interval during the test period
Brief summary of Trial Results for both the Power Plants, is given below:-
1) Farakka TPS
a) Trial Objective
Reduction in Gross Unit Heat Rate (GUHR)
Removal of existing Slag & Clinker and retardation of further deposits.
b) Pre-trial (without THERMACT) was conducted from 19th Feb. 2018 to 21st Feb.2018.
c) Post-trial (with THERMACT) was conducted from 22nd Feb. 2018 to 7th Apr. 2018.
d) MOMs were signed before & after the trials incorporating the detailed trialprocess & results.
e) Trial Results
I. Reduction in GUHR by 2.65%, II. Existing Slag & Clinker were removed, III. Slag/Clinker formation
process retarded, IV. Reduction in FGT by 6Deg C
2) Kahalgaon TPS
a) Trial Objective
Reduction in Gross Unit Heat Rate (GUHR)
Removal of existing Slag & Clinker and retardation of further deposits
b) Pre-trial was conducted from 23rd May 2019 to 30th May 2019
c) Post-trial was conducted from 31st May 2019 to 28th June 2019.
d) MOMs were signed before & after trials incorporating the detailed trial process &results.
e) Trial Results
Reduction in GUHR by 2.9%, Removal of existing Slag & Clinker, Prevention in formation of Slag & Clinker,
Reduction in FGT by 5Deg C,
These trial reports have established the efficacy of our Unique Technology. We wish to express our sincere
thanks and appreciation to Team CenPEEP, Farakka TPS &Kahalgaon TPS for giving us an opportunity in
conducting these trials following most stringent and accurate methodology.

11
 Session- 4 : Power Plant Safety
NTPC SAFETY ANALYSIS AND MEASURES TAKEN TO ENSURE SAFETY
Arin Bordoloi, Gavendra Shrma, NTPC CC-Safety

Occupational Health and safety at workplace is one of the prime concerns of NTPC Management and
utmost importance is given to provide safe working environment and to inculcate safety awareness among
the employees. Safety is part of our core values. We recognize all accidents are preventable; therefore,
safety shall be at the forefront of all our activities. The objective is to provide safe working environment
and strive for zero incidents at work. The safety policy is supported by safety rules and procedures are
applicable for all business activities carried out by NTPC.

NTPC has 3-tier structure for Occupational Health and Safety management, namely at Stations/Projects,
at Regional Head Quarters and at Corporate Centre. At corporate level, Corporate Safety Department
is responsible for making Policies / Guidelines on safety, review & monitoring regions and sites. Cross-
functional safety task forces, safe zones, safe plants schemes are functional at all projects/stations to
monitor unsafe working conditions at site and their rectification. For strict compliance & enforcement
of safety norms and practices by the contractors, safety clauses are included in General Conditions of
Contract/ Erection Condition of Contract.

Safety Policy: Safety is part of our core values. We recognize all accidents are preventable; therefore,
safety shall be at the forefront of all our activities. The objective is to provide safe working environment
and strive for zero incidents at work. This policy supported by safety rules and procedures are applicable
for all business activities carried out by NTPC.

NTPC Safety Trend & Analysis: Thee tools/processes are divided in two categories as given below:

1) Lead Indicators : As the name suggests , the indices which are practiced as Pro-active measures to
create safe workplace viz – Tool Box Talk , Deviation Capture , Safety Observation Visits , Rewards
& Recognition, Reporting of Near Misses, Training . Practice of these tools prepares people and
surrounding to be aware of the causes which may lead to an incidence. It also trains the weakest link
of the chain to be the strength of the team and incidences are avoided.

2) Lag Indicators : These indices appear and recorded as a result of deviations/incidences/non-

compliant behaviour and cost us in terms of time and money . Typical lag indicators includes fatal,
reportable, non-reportable, fire, first-aid etc Therefore, reduction in the indices should be targeted
in our endeavours.

NTPC safety uses real time SAP-CPM.BI tools to measure and analyse these indicators, which are further
categorised in details with in each parameter.

Addressing safety concerns: Various steps are taken in respect of mitigating safety concerns like guidelines
for contract Workers Pre-Employment Medical Check-up - Circular Issued to Sites, regular Pop-up alerts
regarding incidences, information of Incidences through e-mail to JVs. Safety mascot Kawach was
introduced. Safety mobile app, Web Page, SAP CPM.BI was initiated to communicate the safety information.
Awards like CMD Safety Award 2018-19, Swarn safety award 18-19. IOSH Training was conducted
through many batches. Safety Standards like Road safety, Work at Height, Mechanised Material Handling,
Confined Space, Electric & Gas welding and cutting prepared. Guidelines like Hazardous presence of
Drum/Container, Summer Preparation, Monsoon Preparation, medical health check-up of agency workers,
Monitoring Lead and lag Indicators. Technical Specification of all PPEs revised. Technical specification of

12
Arc flash protective suit prepared. Technical specification safety shoes revised in consultation with FDDI.
Safety film on confined space, 40 nos. of safety posters prepared.

8P MODEL FOR ZERO INCIDENT CULTURE

Gokula Nanda Swain, Chinmaya Sahu, NTPC, Talcher Kaniha

In the present scenario power has evolved to be one of the very basic necessities of human existence;
and this makes our organisation one of the most inevitable for the society. NTPC ltd. no doubt is a world
class organisation, which has its performance records at par with the very best organisations across the
world. A vast workforce contribute to successful operating of all the systems in the organisation, the
workforce that is directly associated as well as indirectly associated through its many outsourced vendors.
The organisation very well understands the essence of safety of both of its assets: the man and the
machine; and accordingly Safety has been one of the core values of the organisation. There have been
many systems put, so as to ensure safety of both the workforce and the machines. Both punitive and
appreciative measures are also there. The company has been one of the best places to work in; not just in
the country but in the global platform.

But then there are some disturbing facts, the workplace yet to become a safe place to work in, the proof
the fatal accidents over the years. So where does the gap lay?

There have been many studies and the findings, be it by Dupont, Henerich or even the National Safety
Council each conclude a common fact. Directly or indirectly the very cause of any accident is unsafe acts.
Someway or other the unsafe acts go around to form a grip and cause a catastrophe.

The next question that arises is, despite so many checks and balances how does these events occur.
Indeed there are lapses, and the lapses are due to the human front of the system. Plugging these cracks
or gaps in the system will only be possible by bringing about a change in the very culture. Developing a
culture, is not an immediate process but will take it time and constant backing up.

And the very process to build such a culture is by adopting the BBS through the “8P Model”

BRINGING ABOUT THE CHANGE: Life is too precious, and when it is lost, the void created is simply
unfillable. In a country like India, where the average earning of a person and the dependents on that
income is so much skewed, this damage is simply irreplaceable. But still, injuries occur and lives are lost
due to tiny unsafe acts. There are rules, and abiding by them would certainly prevent any sort of damage
to both life and property but still we tend to bypass them, be it the interlock bypass systems in case of
machines or be it the safety PPEs in case of humans. So a culture has to be developed so as to follow each
and every interlocks without a miss, to follow the POKA-YOKA concept: no mistake even by mistake. The
below mentioned 8P model has been formulated so as to bring in such a culture.

8P MODEL: The 8P model is a continuous cycle of improvement where the concept of 8Ps: each depicting
a Sanskrit word and the whole philosophy behind it, are to be followed so as to bring in the zero incidence
culture. The 8Ps are:

PARIKRAMA: We should first take a note of all the lapses and reach upto the root cause.

PRASHANSHA: any best practices, when found are to be duly appreciated.

PRARTHANA: in case of any deviance, they are to be urged not to deviate and are to be educated about
the harms that would be caused due to the deviation.

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PRASHASANA: there has to be some stringent measures to be taken so as to mitigate deviations done
knowingly.

PRATIGYAN: once a good practice is in place, an oath is to be taken by all that it is to be adhered to, no
matter what.

PARIVARTAN: the change is to be brought in step by step manner with the incorporation of each good
practice.

PRACHAR: the change is to be showcased and spread to others as well.

PARIKSHAN: continuous scrutiny is to be done and the feedback is to be incorporated in the cycle.

Paper details how these 8Ps are used for bringing safety culture in the organization.

SAFETY EXCELLENCE JOURNEY OF JSW ENERGY LTD., RATNAGIRI (CASE STUDY)

Tushar Pande, Ranjan Singh, JSW Energy, India

Safety at workplace is the topmost importance in Thermal Power Plants. Recent incidences of multiple
fatal accidents in various thermal power plants (like NTPC, Unchahar) has put the importance of workplace
safety in power plant across India. JSW Energy Limited (JSWEL) is one of top IPP operates 4x300 MW units
at village Nandiwade, Post Jaigad, Tal & Dist. Ratnagiri in Maharashtra State. JSWEL, Ratnagiri has adopted
the Safety first practice & accordingly Safety Excellence journey has started & is going on. This paper
shows the Safety Excellence Journey of JSW Energy Limited, Ratnagiri plant.

IMPACT OF GROUND & ENVIRONMENTAL RADIATIONS ON

HEALTH & SAFETY IN POWER PLANTS

Avinav Mukherjee, Synergy Environics Limited

Radiations both natural and man-made effects health of people as well as performance of equipment and
processes.

Geopathic Stress emanates from the Earth and occupies about 20% of its surface. Consequently 20% of
people and equipments are affected. These can result in higher stress levels, lower immunity as well as
higher breakdowns.

Wi-Fi radiations from excessive use of Mobile Phone, Laptops and exposure to Routers, Servers, Mobile
Tower and High-Tension lines, etc. effect concentration and cause stress, lower immunity and decrease
in cognitive ability.

The paper describes about the products and services to take care of all of the above.

14
 USE OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE FOR PLANT SAFETY
Arnab Kumar Mondal, Pawan Kumar, Nalin Gurg, Rahul Gupta, NTPC Dadri

Artificial Intelligence is the most trending technology at the moment. We are consuming it knowingly
or unknowingly in all forms of our interaction with electronics. This field is growing at a lot of pace.
We cannot be left behind in this race if we want ourselves to be competitive in this market. Our team
brainstormed on the possible application are and also application in the current bottlenecks that NTPC
faces. We found out that safety is a field where our company is focusing on. So our team set out to prepare
an application using the deep learning technology to detect if a person is wearing PPE or Not . We used
open source compliers to build the program which can take images and detect whether it contains objects
and persons. If it contains persons then it further dives into to see if they are wearing proper PPE. We
used deep learning methodology and implemented the same without any additional hardware software
or service. Our developed model can be used free of cost by our organization and can be scaled up as
required. This will reduce the burden on out manpower to oversee PPE compliance. As the AI can work
day and night without any break it will be a major boost in statutory obligation and making NTPC a safer
Organization.

15
 Session- 5 : Efficiency & Energy Conservation

NTPC DIGITAL JOURNEY

Arupratan Maiti, Anubhav Dwivedi, NTPC, Digital Initiatives Group

Augmenting our work processes with digital technologies can provide enhanced productivity and
efficiency improvement with better reliability and safety. Digital transformations are being adopted aiming
to reduce cost, manual work process, enhancing communication, data access and analysis capabilities.

This paper covers the following aspects important for digital implementation in NTPC’s context:

1. Approach to identify digital initiatives for Power Plant with its implementation methodology.

2. People’s role to achieve and sustain this digital movement.

3. Steps necessary in technology front to realize our vision and sustain it.

4. Major challenges which needs to be addressed.

MATHEMATICAL MODELING OF BOILERS FOR PERFORMANCE EVALUATION

Lakshmana Rao Vadlamani, Tata Consulting Engineers Limited, Bangalore

Majority of the Indian power generation is coming from the coal fired plants which are designed for base
load operation. In the recent times the grid is influenced by the growing renewable energy which results
in supply of fluctuating energy into the grid. Flexible operation of the existing coal fired power plants
without compromising on safety and plant performance is presently the main challenge for the power
industry.

Power plant performance primarily depends on the performance of major components. Unlike steam
turbine, condenser and regenerative cycle equipment, performance evaluation tools are not available
for boilers easily. Boiler design is complex, and its knowhow is available mainly with boiler designers/
manufacturers. Hence need is felt for development of a boiler mathematical model which is agnostic
to any particular make of the boiler and can evaluate and predict boiler performance under variable
operating conditions and can be used for trouble shooting. As the pulverised coal (PC) fired boilers are
most common in India, Tata Consulting Engineers (TCE) has undertaken developing of mathematical
modelling of PC fired boilers from first principles.

Utilising the measured operational data and design data of the boiler, the model can evaluate and predict
boiler performance including tube metal temperatures of superheaters / reheaters that would help
to overcome the difficulties that arise due to change in load, fuel etc. As boiler reliability is the major
contributor in determining overall plant reliability, such foresight on boiler performance would help in
enhancing the plant reliability as well.

This paper discusses the model that helps in optimising the boiler performance under actual operating
conditions and illustrates this with a case study.

16
 ONLINE PERFORMANCE MONITORING OF COOLING TOWER
Naveen Deep Sharma, NTPC Kawas, Partha Nag, NTPC CenPEEP

With the changing scenario in power sector, to sustain in this transition phase NTPC need to focus is on
digitalization and automation of the processes, where talent can be replaced by automation to remain
competitive. Concept of automation of equipment testing is the leap frog thinking. By automatic / online
equipment testing we can not only utilize our expert manpower at more important tasks (than doing
repetitive tests), but also make the equipment testing better. A pilot project on “On Line Cooling Tower
Capability” testing is done at NTPC Mouda.

One single test of cooling tower capability involves mobilization of man power installation of instruments
for testing, recording data, interpreting manufacturer’s curves, calculating capability etc. After so much
involvement of manpower, we get one time value of cooling tower capability. As per a rough estimate one
testing of a cooling tower involves 10 man days (Total Cooling Towers in NTPC at present > 163)

To automate Cooling Tower Capability Test, we needed to measure & make available key parameter, like
CW Temperature, HW Temperature, Fan Power, CW Flow and Wet Bulb Temperature. All parameters /
instruments are available except instrument capable of measuring wet bulb temperature ON REAL TIME
BASIS, for a long duration continuously (say continuously for one year). Two different methods were
adopted; CenPEEP developed an instrument in its lab capable of measuring wet bulb temperature on line
at continuous basis (patent application processed for this instrument), apart from that station C&I also
made secondary calculation based upon empirical calculation on the basis of RH & DBT. Both the methods
are fairly accurate and has been validated at NTPC Mouda. Another road block was to develop a software
capable of calculating Cooling Tower Capability on “Real Time Basis”, CenPEEP developed a prototype
software, capable of doing so, this software is named as “Maggiee”,, this software has two features, No:
1, it is capable of calculating capability of Cooling Tower Online, second this software has reduced off line
Calculation time that an executive spends in calculating from 45 minutes to 02 minutes only. With the
changing time as focus is more on digitalization and automation of the processes, NTPC can become a
market leader in automation of equipment testing, with this, we can not only utilize our expert manpower
at more productive tasks, but also make the equipment testing better, more effective and develop a
business model to cater needs of other players in power sector. After successful implementation of the
pilot project at NTPC Mouda, now we can move ahead for implementation of this project in NTPC and can
provide consultancy to other power plants inside India and internationally.

MULTIPLE TECHNOLOGY : A PRUDENT APPROACH FOR CONDENSER

AIR-IN-LEAK INTRUSION DETECTION
Vinod Daneliya NTPC, COS Raipur, Yogesh Kumar Sharma, NTPC CenPEEP
Condensers in many power plants do not perform its intended functions. Through this paper Author has
tried its best in finding identified root causes responsible for performance losses. The proper method
of treating problems is not to identify the solutions others have employed to minimize degraded
performance parameters and selectively try them until one works, but to identify the root cause and apply
an appropriate correction with the knowledge that improvement will be achieved. Identification of air-in-
leak locations in series condenser is a bit difficult task and that too when one condenser was operating
almost at design & other at high back pressure & one technology is not suffice to detect AIL locations.
End user & Equipment Owner will appreciate that complimentary or Multiple technology plays a very
important role in earliest detection of AIL locations and saving precious time and revenue.

17
 HIGHER RAMP RATE: A WAY FORWARD FOR BETTER RETURN ON EQUITY PROBLEMS
Arnab Bhattacharya, NTPC, Sipat, Yogeshkumar Sharma, NTPC, CenPEEP
New Tariff Regulations 20-24 has reduced ROE by 0.25% in case a thermal utility is unable to achieve a
Ramp Rate of 1%/min & additional ROE of 0.25% for every incremental Ramp Rate of 1%/min achieved
over and above the ramp rate of 1%/min subject to ceiling of additional rate of ROE of 1.0%. This clearly
states that units capable of higher RR will be more profitable to operate. Per se, thermal power plants which
were originally designed to operate as Base Load units are forced to operate in Cyclic/ Load Following
/ Peaking & Technical Minimum to meet grid requirements. However, when coal-fired plants operate in
cyclic mode, unforeseen stresses are introduced in boiler pressure part components causing negative
long-term and short-term effects on equipment Reliability and Availability. Therefore our challenge is to
find out ways by which our units can be operated at higher RR without damage to Major components.
To stay competitive, power plants are forced to operate with shorter start-up time and faster ramp rates.
This results in increased risk of component failure by creep fatigue damage. Also chemistry parameter
aberrations during start-up /shutdown and aggressive ramp rates can cause corrosion fatigue failure of
boiler tubes. Use of excessive spray close to saturation limit to control steam and metal temp excursions
during load transients may also result in boiler tube failure. At lower loads with RGMO in service, TDBFP
response is sluggish and stable operation of unit becomes difficult. All these constraints restrict us to
operate our units at less than 1%/min Ramp Rates. However, our units are capable of operating at higher
ramp rates by design which has been demonstrated during DCS PG test. Since DCS PG test is conducted
under favorable operating conditions at design parameters, same RR cannot be expected under normal
operating conditions. But if we can maintain steam pressure and temperature variation and chemical
parameters within aberration limits by adopting rational O&M practices, it is possible to achieve at least
2%/min ramp rates without causing damage to components.
Through this paper with supported case studies the author has tried its best to show that ramp rates
higher than 1% are achievable if available options such as: Control Loop Tuning, Creep-Fatigue Application
Software, Auto Stroke Control for chemical dosing pump, Sliding Pressure Operation, Burner-Tilt and SADC
cornerwise biasing & Spray Raise inhibit at above saturation temperature less than 100C are implemented
at unit level. This paper also highlights operational strategies that can be adopted and precautions that
has to be taken to ensure stability of units under different operating conditions. This paper also suggests
actions that needs to be taken during opportunity shutdown of unit / equipments so that unit operating
parameters are maintained from OH to OH. This paper also discusses quality start-up procedures which if
put to practice will help operate units at higher ramp rates without failure of pressure part components.

IMPROVEMENT OF BOILER EFFICIENCY AND REDUCTION OF APC BY

PREVENTION OF AIR INGRESS IN SIDE BOILER FROM PENT HOUSE,
FURNACE WALL OPENINGS AND DUCTS
Debraj Pal, NTPC Kahalgaon, P C Kandpal, NTPC, COS, Raipur, Subodh Kumar, NTPC CenPEEP

Energy saving and efficiency are the key issues in thermal power generation system not only from the
point of view of the fuel consumptions, reducing cost of power but also to reduce carbon footprint.

Ingress of air inside boiler from pent house expansion joint cracks, roof and furnace wall openings and
flue gas ducting is one of the major cause of losses in the boiler. Whereas air ingress in boiler significantly
affects boiler performance, ingress of air in ducts increases draft power and sometimes reduces unit
capacity.

18
Ingress of air in pent house and boiler furnace wall is attended by application of air seal this has been
successfully tested at many stations of NTPC like TSTPS, BARH, MOUDA, KhSTPS etc.

Severe erosion occurs at guide-vanes, duct walls, diversions and turnings due to impact of high velocity
abrasive ash particles over a prolonged period of operation in high ash content Indian Coal. This leads to
puncturing of walls and air ingress inside the duct, thereby increasing the volume of Flue Gas handled by
ID Fans and hence the draft power. This causes increase in loading of ID Fans, Unit APC and sometimes
even generation as ID fan margin is exhausted.

Erosion preventive wire reinforced coatings or Plastic refractory with wire reinforced coatings is extremely
beneficial in erosion prone areas and successfully tested at NTPC stations namely TSTPS, Kahalgaon etc.

Above efforts have significantly reduced deterioration from overhaul to overhaul and have resulted in
benefits to the tune of Rs 1 to 1.5 crore per year in a 500 MW Unit and has a potential of total accrued
benefits of 50 crores per year if implemented overall NTPC.

Above paper will discuss all above aspects in details for benefit of all stations.

19
 Session- 6 : Operation and Commissioning Practices

STRATEGIES FOR STABLE, EFFICIENT AND COST EFFECTIVE PART LOAD THERMAL
OPERATION WITH LOW VM COAL CONTENT

Ravi Prakash Singh, Atul Tiwari, NTPC Unchahar

India is the world’s third largest producer and third largest consumer of electricity with an installedcapacity
of 356.10 GW as of 31 March, 2019. India’s renewable sector has been growing vigorously from the last
decade and constitutes 34.55% of India’s total installed capacity. As of 31 March 2019, India hadgrid-
connected installed electricity generation capacity of about 77.64 GW from non-conventionalrenewable
technologies and conventional renewable power or major hydroelectric power capacity of 45.39 MW. As
non-conventional sources of energy become more widespread, getting highest priority along with their
intermittency, it creates new challenges for effective management of the grid. It is increasingly challenging
day by day to operate thermal power plants reliably and economically .Fossil fuel power plants have
responsibility to offset intermittency of renewal energy, which is resulting in its loading from full load
condition to as low as possible frequently.

This situation is more challenging for non-pit head thermal plants as they get more variation in schedule
and are required to run at lower loads due to high coal cost. Moreover, this challenging situation becomes
more severe when coal-fired plants are forced to faster ramp rates and to operate at part load for most
of the duration during the day and running with various types of coal including a major chunk of low VM
coal.

The flame stability in the boiler is a major challenge for the operation engineer and has several times
resulted in units tripping along with compromise in efficient and economical operation. This also results
in poor unit heat rate and high auxiliary power consumption, which leads to increased cost of generation.
Therefore to stay competitive and to survive at part load, unit/flame stabilization is of prime importance.
The conditions are particularly tough for non-pit head station, NTPC Unchahar, which already has high
cost of electricity generation due to higher transportation cost as compared to pit head stations. Two
sources of fuel for Unchahar are CCL coal and BCCL coal which vary considerably in their properties. To
burn such a diverse range of coal, Unchahar has to overcome a wide range of technological problems such
as poor combustion efficiency along with the most critical operational issue; poor flame stability with low
VM coal. Due to higher cost of generation, Unchahar plant has to run at low loads for maximum duration
throughout the day with increasingly cyclic operation after implementation of SCED and RRAS.

This paper presents strategic operational measures for better flame stability which are being adopted
at NTPC UNCHAHAR to meet these operational challenges after learning from several units tripping in
first half of this year and which are now giving fruitful results. It also discusses technical up gradation in
near future during unit overhaul as well as future road map for further lower of technical minimum load,
especially with low volatile matter coal at NTPC UNCHAHAR.

20
 DIAGNOSIS AND SOLUTION OF CLINKERING CAUSED BY FIREBALL
SHIFTING INSIDE THE FURNACE
Vijai Bahadur Singh, Sumit Bag, NTPC Vindhyachal

Coal based Thermal Power plants constitute a major part of power generation in India, and as such plays
a very vital role in the economy and development of our country. In fact, 56% of India’s Installed Capacity
and 75.43% of that of NTPC is based on Coal.

One of the greatest and perennial problems faced by coal-based power plants is that of Clinkering which
poses threat not only in terms Generation losses but also in terms of Safety and Environment.

In this paper we have presented a study on one of the major causes of Clinkering and established a
technique that can be used to diagnose the problem and help to eliminate it. The phenomenon that
we have studied is that of flame-shifting inside the boiler which is often not reflected clearly by the Unit
parameters and yet plays a huge role in promoting clinkering inside the furnace. Also, the technique that
we have discussed here can be universally applied in any coal-based power plant to mitigate the problem
of Clinkering caused by flame-shifting inside the furnace.

Our study is based on the first-hand experience we had while solving the chronic clinkering problem
we experienced in two Units of NTPC VSTPS viz. Unit #06 & Unit #02 where the problem of Clinkering
persisted for more than 6 months. Though the case studies are specific, we believe the learnings can be
used in general to fight the problem of clinkering in thermal power plants.

For the sake of completeness, we have also discussed in brief about the other factors that contribute to
Clinkering and tried to give a complete picture of the puzzle and the place that our specific technique has
in this whole picture.

FLAME STABILITY FACTOR FOR REDUCING FLAME FAILURE

TRIPPING IN NTPC STATIONS
Manas Kapoor, NTPC, COS, Raipur

The objective of this study is Mathematical investigation of NTPC coal based thermal power plant to
Correlate the Relations Among tangential fired (TF) boiler and to determine the patterns among them,
with an emphasis on increasing the flame stability in combustion zone at low load conditions at which
thermal plants are forced to operates owing to number of practical limitations in this region. The effects
of five Ratios that are mathematically investigated are Secondary Air to Primary ratio, Fuel to primary
ratio, Specific Coal, Secondary air temp to mill outlet temp and O2 at eco outlet. Through Mathematical
modeling these Factor were combined to form flame Stability Factor. In Last two Financial Year nearly 72
Tripping’s were recorded in SAP on account of Flame Failure out of which 30 were due to lean mixture.
While Studying these 30 tripping’s, 26 were correlated with the help of mathematical model. Through Data
Analysis it was observed when Flame Stability Factor goes below 20 probability of tripping is maximum.

Main objective of this Study is avoid tripping due to lean mixture on account of Low VM% in coal (Below
18%) And Provide Some Alert to operator that Boiler is operating in Lean Mixture regime. As a Pilot Project
Unchahar unit 5 ( 200 MW) is selected where the Model is installed in DCS for study and its started giving
recommendation.

21
 PART LOAD OPERATION – CHALLENGES & APPROACH

S Raja Chandrashekher, NTPC Simhadri

World is today making faster strides towards green mode for energy security for future generations. With
discernible impacts of global warming & greenhouse gases, many developed & developing countries
are switching to greener power. It is imperative for conventional mode of powers adapt tofast changing
energy landscape. Germany is front runner for its commitment to greener power, it has already decided
to close all its nuclear power utilities by 2022 & the share of renewables in their energy mix is close to 50
%. German utilities have also shown that how the existing coal power plants can remain relevant in long
run by adopting flexible mode of operation & lowering the technical minimum loads. They have made
it possible without significant change in hardware &upgrading the automation of the plant .they have
brought down technical minimum load to as low as 10 % on a sustainable basis & load ramp rate of more
than 15 MW /min .All they have achieved without losing the lifetime of the equipment . In the Indian
context we need to come out of shell &dilate our boundaries within the technical frame work & more than
that it is the will & mind-set that plays the major role to replicate the same in our scenario.

This paper deals the various challenges of part load operation in Simhadri .How heat rate & APC areeating
away the profits of company & why the ramp rates & start-ups are of greater significance inthe changing
business scenario. Standardisation of procedure of repeated nature help in eliminating inefficiencies of the
process thus help in achieving higher reliability & in turn higher availability.

POST SYNCHRONIZATION STABILIZATIONS ISSUES: LEADING DELAY IN COD

Utsav Agarwal, Dharmendra Singh, NTPC North Karanpura

In recent years, it has been noticed that there is a wide gap between the First Synchronization of the Unit
and Start of commercial Operation of the unit. The delay in declaring Commercial operation of the plant
not only decreases the profitability of the plant but also increases the Interest during construction (IDC)
which approximately amounts to 1-1.5 Cr / Day for a project cost of worth Rs 4000-5000 Cr. The factors
which affecting the time gap between Synchronization of the unit &commercial operation of the unit
needs critical reviewing as Increase in IDC during this period has no justification for recovery. Limited BOP
facilities are required to synchronize a unit but as the Unit Load increases full-fledged BOP facilities like
Ash Handling system, Ash Disposal System, Coal Handling System, ESP etc are required. In absence of
which Unit Load raising is restricted and further delay in Commercial operation of unit. The various factors
for such delays starts from the inception of the plant, i.e. Tendering & Design Phase, Storage System
envisaged at plant for storage of items before erection, Contingency arrangement done during Project
phases to meet the Targets, erection completion of Various facility which supports the Generation like AHP,
Ash Disposal System, ESP and other system of BOP etc, Delay in supply of Commissioning &Mandatory
Spares to meet the maintenance requirement during failure of equipments during Trial Operation. This
Paper gives brief insight about factors causing delays in declaring commercial operation of unit post
synchronization.

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 REDUCTION OF FUEL OIL CONSUMPTION & CFR OPTIMIZATION
DURING STEAM BLOWING PROCESS
Praveen Kumar, Rakesh Kumar Gaurav, Himanshu Chaturvedi, NPGCL- Nabinagar

NPGCL-Nabinagar has 3 Units of 600 MW each. Boiler is supplied by BHEL (Alstom) and Turbine is supplied
by M/S GE. Unit-1 is under commercial operation and steam blowing process of Unit-2 completed on Dec-
2019. Number of blows in Unit-1 and Unit-2 was 278 and 190 respectively. This paper tried to analyse the
root causes of variation in number of blows &recourse’s consumption and suggest remedial actions to
minimise it.

Steam blowing is performed by raising the boiler pressure 40-60 bar and releasing the steam through a
quick opening valve. This technique gives a thermal shock & drag force which results in loosening of the
adhered scale & its removal. The impingement of debris material over target plate fixed in temporary
piping decide the completion criteria of the steam blowing.

Cleanliness of the pipe is ensured by drag force of the steam, which is function of steam flow and specific
volume. Effectiveness of steam blowing is determined Cleaning Force Ratio (CFR). It is the ratio of the drag
force for cleaning to the maximum drag force exerted on the system at MCR Condition. Higher the CFR
means better the cleaning, but excessive CFR may lead to erosion of the pipelines along with increase in
time and resources consumption. Generally, it kept in the range of 1.4 to 1.7.

CFR should always be measured at the inlet of pipeline to be blown, because specific volume is minimum
at inlet of the pipeline and increases along the pipeline, which leads to highest CFR at exhaust. Thus,
steam parameters at the inlet of the pipeline decides the value of CFR.To ensure complete cleaning of
pipelines, minimum allowable CFR should be kept 1.2 ~1.4.Considering the minimum allowable CFR along
with duration of the blow (30 ~ 60 seconds) the highest allowable CFR can be determined.For a particular
steam blowing circuit the maximum value of CFR can be decided in initial few numbers of blows. So by
optimising Inlet parameters of pipeline & Duration of blow CFR &steam blowing process can be optimised.

From the experience of NPGCL Unit-1 and Unit-2 steam blowing process, it is learned that there are many
factors (other than CFR) which are also responsible for high number of blows in Unit-1 like incompleteness
of facilities, instability of equipment, ambiguity in procedure and inconsistency of resources availability.
Number of blows Unit-2 was significantly improved by replacing MS bend in temporary pipe with alloy
steel, modification in steam blowing process and better control of process parameters by experienced
desk operator Some of the other factors like engineered temporary piping, Reuse of temporary piping and
timely mobilisation of resource’s can also enhance the process further

23
 Session- 7 : Academics for Power generation

ESTIMATING POTENTIALITY FOR CENTRAL RECEIVER TOWER TECHNOLOGY FOR

CONCENTRATED SOLAR POWER ON AN UNEVEN TERRAIN: CASE STUDY OF LEH, INDIA

Manish Raj, Naman Agarwal, Jishnu Bhattacharya, Department of Mechanical Engineering,

Indian Institute of technology, Kanpur

In solar tower technology, a large number of flat, sun-tracking mirrors, known as heliostats, concentrates
sunrays onto a receiver at the top of a tall tower. A heat-transfer fluid in the receiver gets heated due to
concentrating sunrays and is used to heat a working fluid, which, in turn, is used in a conventional turbine
generator to produce electricity. A solar tower plant requires an enormous area of land for the setting up
heliostats, receiver tower and additional sub-components of a power plant, and in a populated country
like India, it is challenging to find huge empty and flat land near to the cities. Hence, we estimate the
possibility of using uneven terrains which are not useful for any other purpose, to install the heliostats field
for generating power. In case of such undulated terrain, the temporal pattern of shading and blocking of
the individual heliostats is completely different from that in case of a flat field. In this study, the aim is to
estimate the potentiality of solar tower technology based on the heliostats that are installed on an uneven
terrain. Current study approximates a real geometry taken from Google Earth and analyses the important
factors such as blocking of the reflected rays and shading of the heliostats which affect the energy capacity
of the plant on uneven terrain. An algorithm has been developed, which when integrated with SolarPILOT
tool is capable of providing an optimised arrangement of heliostats for a day or throughout the year
and the power received at the central tower for all kinds of terrain. In this study, we have employed the
developed algorithm to study an uneven terrain in Leh, India to estimate the potentiality of a heliostat
field. From the shading/blocking pattern of the heliostats at different time instances, we could observe
how the shading of heliostats changes for a day and blocking of reflected rays is independent of time.
We plot the solar energy flux at the central tower receiver at different timepoints of a year, from which we
estimate the plant potentiality at the given location. The current work is useful for the feasibility study of
power tower technology in any arbitrary location.

HERDING BEHAVIOR IN FINANCIAL MARKETS: A LITERATURE REVIEW

Veena Madaan, Humanities and Management, Chhattisgarh Swami Vivekananda Technical University

The emergence field of behavioral finance investigate the psychological issues that impact the decision
making process in relation to stock market. The purpose of the paper is to shed light on the significance
of behavioral finance and its distinctive position to bridge the gap between traditional theories and real
life situation. Herding is one of the cognitive biases of behavioral finance therefore study also include the
review of research already conducted on herding behavior in financial market. Additional objective is to
study the methodologies applied to examine the herding in stock market. In conclusion herding increases
the volatility and is more prone during the market stress. The literature also reveals that large cap herd
more as compared to small cap.

24
 AUTOMATIC POWER FACTOR IMPROVEMENT AND FAULT MAINTENANCE SYSTEM
Piyush Ojha, Dr.Satish Kumar, Harsh Vardhan Tyagi, Dept. of Electronics and Instrumentation Engg.,
KIET Group of institutions, Ghaziabad

This paper is designed to correct the power factor automatically in industries and ensure savings of cost
and also reduce the maintenance. Power factor is defined as the ratio of real power to the apparent power
and in the language of mathematics, it is mathematically represented as kW/kVA where kW represents
the active power and kVA represents the apparent power (sum of active and reactive powers) respectively.
Reactive power is the factious power which is required to produce electric or magnetic field. With the
reactive power, the apparent power also increases which results in the decrease in power factor. The
current is high at low power factor and it gives rise to high copper losses as a result the efficiency of the
system reduces. This project aims to increase the current power factor of industries from 0.6 to 0.90 and
above. The compensation of Power factor reduces the current dependent losses and electricity bill and
increases the overall energy efficiency. This system not only improves the power factor but also reduces
the maintenance cost of the capacitor banks. This system uses advance microcontroller and data can be
uploaded online for efficient monitoring and analysis.

INNOVATIVE STEPS FOR EFFECTIVE UTILIZATION OF FLY ASH

Satyajit Patel, Amruta Joshi, Hrishikesh Shahane, Dept. of Civil Engineering,
S. V. National Institute of Technology, Surat

The scarcity of natural materials for the construction of road pavements demands innovation in the field
of materials used for construction. In India, huge amount of fly ash is being produced in thermal power
plants which creates the problem for it’s safe disposal. Fly ash possesses pozzolanic properties hence it’s
utilization along with lime for road material appears to be one of the most efficient solutions for dealing
with the critical problem of fly ash disposal. Presently fly ash is being used to stabilize the problematic
soils for its use as a subgrade material which dos not result into significant economic benefit to power
plants. In this study, Class F fly ash + 5% lime (FAL) mix was chosen as optimum mix through laboratory
investigations which satisfied the minimum strength criteria stipulated by the Indian Road Congress (IRC)
for a material to be used in subbase layer of flexible pavement. To evaluate the field performance of the FAL
mix, three different test sections of flexible pavement with FAL mix in subbase layer were constructed as a
part of State Highway (GJ SH-06) and their performance was compared with that of conventional pavement
section. Based on the structural evaluation of the test sections using Falling Weight Deflectometer (FWD),
it was found that FAL mix exhibited better service life ratio with significant cost savings (uptoRs. 12.25
lacs per km per lane) as compared to that of conventional Granular Subbase material. Secondly, this
study presents the simple four steps process for the production of angular shaped high strength fly ash
aggregate. The toughness, hardness and soundness value of the aggregates made with this invented
process are quite satisfactory as per the requirements of MORTH (2013) for road aggregates and IS:9142-
Part 2 (2018) for fly ash aggregates. This invention is expected to change the scenario of fly ash utilization
in the entire nation. It is estimated that the cost-saving of about 10% can be obtained by replacing the
natural stone aggregates with these fly ash aggregates without compromising the quality of construction.
Hence this study proposes the above two innovative methods for utilization of fly ash in civil engineering
constructions which not only provides strong material but also gives a very good economic returns to the
thermal power plants and road construction agencies.

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 INFLUENCE OF FIREWORKS ON PM10 AEROSOL DURING DIWALI FESTIVAL

Pallavi Pradeep Khobragadea, Ajay Vikram Ahirwara, Department of Civil Engineering,

National Institute of Technology Raipur

Diwali is celebrated in India with great enthusiasm by burning firecrackers and sparklers articulating
happiness. The burning of these firecrackers generates an unusual and distinct anthropogenic pollution
event. The current study reported the particulate concentrations during Diwali festival in Raipur, Chhattisgarh
and compared PM10 concentrations before and during the festival. During the fireworks festival on 30th
Oct 2016, PM10 concentrations were maximum (391 μg/m³) which were 2.4 and 1.7 times higher than those
before and after the Diwali festival. The variations in heavy metal concentrations like Fe, Mn, Ni and Pb
were also reported during the festival and the order of maximum concentrations observed is Fe>Mn>Pb
and Ni in the area during the pre-Diwali, Diwali and post-Diwali. The average concentrations of Fe, Mn, Ni
and Pb were 11.03±3.5, 2.40±2.87, 0.29±0.45 and 1.70±0.66 μg/m³ respectively. The concentrations of Fe,
Mn, Ni and Pb varied from 4.59-15.35, 0.37-4.28, 0.87-0.88, 0.84-2.65 μg/m³ respectively. Back-trajectory
analysis using HYSPLIT model shows the impacts of local anthropogenic activities on the sudden increase
in aerosol concentrations. Meteorological parameters like temperature, wind direction and wind speed
and relative humidity were studied and were found to possess negative correlations with particulate
concentrations showing higher pollutant concentrations with low wind speed, low temperature and
lower relative humidity. The festival pollution episodes during Diwali are found to be transient but its
contributions in heavy metals and respirable particulate pollutants are noteworthy.

STRESS ANALYSIS OF ROTATING DISK MADE UP OF ISOTROPIC AND

FUNCTIONALLY GRADED MATERIAL

Royal Madana, Shubhankar Bhowmicka, Department of Mechanical Engineering,

National Institute of Technology Raipur, Kashinath Sahab, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
Jadavpur University, Kolkata

Functional gradation of material in a component weather metal-metal, metal-ceramic or ceramic-ceramic

has benefits such as high toughness and high strength at elevation temperature which is desired in rotating
disks. With the advent of FGM’s, isotropic material components started getting replaced. In the present
study, a stress analysis on rotating disk was performed for isotropic material(both metal and ceramic)
and there results were compared with linearly varying FG rotating disk. The methodology adopted is
variational formulation, and the results of radial, tangential and von Misesstress were calculated based on
Galerkin’s principle. The study reveals benefits of functional grading of disk over isotropic material disks.

26
 Session- 8 : Electrical Systems
GRID FLUCTUATION MANAGEMENT BY JAPANESE POWER UTILITIES AND RELEVANT
DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS FOR ENERGY STORAGE AT SUBSTATION
K Murakami, M Ozawa, Yamada F, Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL)

By the massive renewable installation plan of 175GW by 2022, addressing power fluctuation by coal-
firedand other technologies is recognized as a top priority in the India power sector. Hard and soft measures
in a coal-fired power plant are of the highest priority, while other measures such as pumped storage,
gas-fired, DSM are also thought to be effective. This paper aims to introduce the typical flexibilisation
measures by conventional power source and Japanese situation of a large-scale battery demonstration
projects at the substations of power utilities under the overall energy roadmap up to 2050.

Renewable power is given the first priority for supply as per the Act on the Promotion of New Energy
Usage. In this situation, in the case of the ramp-up and ramp-down situation of the grid, the surplus
between demand and renewables is compensated by pumped-storage and gas-thermal combined cycle
(GTCC). Further consideration for flexibilisation of base-load power will be required if renewable power is
increased in the future. Minimum load of coal-fired power plants in Japan is normally 40% but some of
them operate at the minimum load of 15% and with a ramp-up/down rate of 5%. There is no doubt that
such efforts at each plant are crucial, but it may not be sufficient to address the situation. Power storage
and supply through battery device are thereto complement it.

As one of the flexibilisation measures, energy storage by a large scale battery system is expected to use
in a future power grid. Recent 20 years saw a new type of battery system developed; such as Li-ion, NAS
and redox-flow. These systems have the potential to apply as a large-scale battery to storage power
from renewables. In this regard, the Government of Japan is continuously supporting its R&D and cost
reduction of materials, system design for commercialization. Several public-supported demonstration
projects underway involving major power utilities in Japan. All systems are thought to apply for large
scale energy charge/discharge. To materialize energy backup by battery technologies, much further cost
reduction will be a key for commercialization. According to the technology-wise energy roadmap, the
Government of Japan will support the R&D and commercialization of new energy-related technology as
well as coal/gas thermal development. Flexibilisation must be addressed by an optimal combination of
multiple technologies

AUGMENTED REALITY --- SMART WAY OF WORKING

R.C.Jha, Venkateswara Rao Bitra, Ankur Tripathi, NTPC Engg.

Electricity and the inherent risks associated with its use in the built environment have long since been a
priority for the electrical services industry and also for the engineers and operators who must work in
this environment. The performance of an electrical system depends on the reliability of its components,
the way in which it has been developed, designed and built and the way in which it is maintained and
operated.

Augmented reality (AR) is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view
of the real world, via an electronic device such as a smartphone or tablet, thus providing an enhanced
version of reality which brings in elements of the virtual world to provide a range of benefits to the user.

The AR has the potential to revolutionise how electrical systems are managed and maintained, by
superimposing current data and virtual objects onto a cabinet, machine or plant, enabling instant issue

27
diagnosis and contactless maintenance. Augmented reality with Operator Advisor, combines contextual
and local dynamic information for mobile users, enabling them to experience a fusion of the physical,
real-life environment with virtual objects. It puts real-time information at operators’ fingertips, whenever
and wherever it is needed.

This paper presents augmented reality implementation in Electrical systems to enhance electrical safety,
operation and maintenance in the built environment. The potential for augmented reality is highlighted
with areas identified for future development.

AR system significantly speeds up operation and maintenance of systems by providing access to real-time
data, user manuals, instructions and diagrams. There is no longer any need to spend time searching for
technical data in assorted software, databases, activity logs or even filing cabinets. The colour variation
display which identifies the operating status of all aspects of a system also allows for quicker and easier
detection of issues and diagnosis. It also provides access to hidden parts of the system by enabling
operators to open cabinet doors virtually rather than physically, thus reducing system downtime and the
costs associated with this. The system also reduces the possibility of human errors being made in the
maintenance of systems. By diagnosing issues more effectively and providing access to the appropriate
step by step guides to complete maintenance in real time, the likelihood of mistakes being made along
the way are greatly reduced

ONLINE CHEMICAL CLEANING OF 500 MW DIRECT WATER COOLED TURBO GENERATOR

STATOR WINDING AT NTPC SINGRAULI
Anil Srivastava, Sunil Kumar Soni, NTPC Singrauli

In May 2016 SSTPS unit#6 started to experience high differential pressure across stator winding which
were later ascribed as restriction in primary water flow in hollow conductors of the generator stator bars.
These restriction in PSW flow were attributed blockage of hollow conductor due to copper oxide plugs
which developed progressively during the following years and culminated in high differential pressure
across winding and high inlet pressure. An attempt were made to address the plugging by implementing
on-line chemical cleaning processes. This on line chemical cleaning process was first time carried out in
any 500MW in NTPC Singrauli as well as India. Subsequent to a successful on-line cleaning operation
followed by offline cleaning, the unit was returned to full power.

This paper discusses NTPC Singrauli experience with copper oxide blockages in 500MW Generator,
describes the indications of the problem, progressive development and the impact on the operating
parameters. It also describe the various method available to remove the copper oxide deposits from stator
winding hollow conductors. The remainder of the paper focuses on the online chemical cleaning process,
planning and activities carried out at SSTPS. It also describe improvement by offline chemical cleaning
carried out after on line chemical cleaning at SSTPS. The paper concludes with the current status of the
unit generator stator and the lessons learned during the resolution of this problem.

SAFETY ENHANCEMENT & OPERATIONAL IMPROVEMENT IN SWITCHGEAR DESIGN

R C Jha, Manoj Kumar Pandit, NTPC Engg.

Thermal Power Plants are the backbone of the Indian power scenario, catering to the base load demand of
this rapidly developing country. Availability of reliable auxiliary power is crucial for continuous operation
of a Thermal Power Plant.

28
Safety of Operation & Maintenance (O&M) personnel of Medium and Low Voltage switchgears is of
utmost importance due to a large no. of installed quantities and frequent operation & maintenance
requirements in switchgears. Hence, it is very important to take care the safety aspects during Design &
Engineering of switchgears to prevent accidents. Some basic safety interlocks have been existing for long
like in MV Switchgears- Breaker should not rack-in/rack-out when the breaker is “ON”, live parts are not
accessible, earthing of live parts are prevented, etc. and in LV Switchgears- Breaker should not rack-in/
rack-out when the breaker is “ON”, PVC sleeving of all busbars, Form-4b design, Module door opens only
when the Switch is “OFF”, etc. With time, IEC/IS standards of Switchgears have been updated and more
focus has been given on safety aspects at design stage. NTPC has also adopted the IEC/IS guidelines and
specifications have been updated to enhance safety in switchgears at design stage. Major improvements in
MV Switchgears include- Internal arc classification of 40kA for 1 sec, Closed door operation and Polyolefin
sleeves for busbars. Similarly, major improvements in LV Switchgears include- Internal arc classification of
50kA for 0.3 sec, Closed door operation and Fuse-less LV switchgears. Now-a-days there is a shortage of
skilled man-power in almost each project and hence design must be done such that it is not possible for
the operator to commit a mistake which may cause electrical accidents. In spite of everything done during
the Design & engineering, Education/training and Enforcement of safety policies & practices at site hold
the key to actual safety. The right attitude towards safety needs to be cultivated among the operating
personnel.

Besides safety, in this era of less man power in each power plant, it is also essential to design a system that
can be managed with less O&M personnel by providing the required monitoring data of any equipment
at the control room HMI (LVS) so that operating personnel is not required to go to the individual local
equipment/ switchgear to monitor the metering parameters/ status and diagnose any abnormal condition
of the equipment. For this, Intelligent MCCs (IMCCs) with field bus technology (Profibus DP) is being
specified to provide operators a better option to monitor and control LT motors(<110kW) based on a
substantial amount of diagnostic information collected from the drives through the digital communication
bus. Further, instead of SCADA system, monitoring & data acquisition of Numerical relays of Switchgears
shall be done from DDCMIS directly on IEC 61850 which will provide smooth and reliable data to plant
operators in time. This step will pave the way for switchgear control from DDCMIS on IEC 61850 removing
the need of existing C&I Copper control cabling from individual switchgear panel in future.

ASSET MANAGEMENT OF POWER TRANSFORMERS: NTPC-NETRA EXPERIENCE/

LEARNING WITH THE PILOT PROJECT
Paresh Mathur, Subrata Sarkar, Pushpendra Kumar Singh, NTPC, NETRA

This paper presents an experience with asset management of power transformer in order to reduce
operating and maintenance costs in the organization. Asset management of power transformers is
acomplex task from both - technical and economical point of view. The routine preventive maintenanceis
gradually changing to condition-based maintenance and further to risk based maintenance strategy.

The advancement of software technologies and availability of sophisticated sensors for data acquisitions
brings into focus the importance of supporting Information Technology (IT) and standards. Use of asset
health monitoring tools for effective planning of maintenance schedule was the main objective of the
pilot project carried out by NETRA. The learning of the project carried out by NETRA on selected identified
transformer across a few NTPC stations is discussed in the paper. The discussed method can be applied to
other critical electrical asset in the NTPC.

29
 Session- 9 : Control & Instrumentation
NEW TECHNOLOGIES & BEST PRACTICES FOR IMPROVEMENTS IN EFFICIENCY AND
RELIABILITY ARTIFICIAL NEURAL NETWORK IN POWER STATIONS
J N Singh, Singareni Thermal Power Plant, S S Jadhav, Neeraj Agarwal, Rajeev Saini, Steag Energy
Services India Pvt. Ltd

In power plants, it is very important to control the process parameters in order to ensure safe and efficient
operation for optimization of generation cost. However, there are many problems such a control system,
due to a long system response delay, dead-zone and saturation of the actuator mechanisms, uncertainties
in the system model or parameters and process noise. To overcome these problems, an adaptive controller
has been designed using neural networks, and tested extensively via simulations. Maximizing the efficiency
of existing power plants is a priority for the utility industry, especially infuel sources, volatile fuel prices and
regulatory pressure to reduce the carbon foot print.

This paper describes an application of neural networks in power plants. Equipment performance in a
power plant or any process industry degrades over time due to its working environment and may cause
the generation unit to operate under less than optimal conditions. However, it is possible to address
these issues by closely monitoring the system to identify potential problems and take preventive or
corrective measures to improve equipment/plant efficiency. An Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is an
information-processing paradigm that is inspired by the way biological nervous systems such as brain,
process information. One of the key problems in designing such a controller is to develop an efficient
training algorithm. It necessitates developing a system that will assist the operator to identify transients
at the earliest stages of their developments. Early detection will help in minimizing or even mitigating the
negative consequences of such transients. It is equally important to identify the type of transient correctly
and to avoid spurious tripping of unit. Misidentification of transients may result in incorrect action by
the operator and thus leading to an accident or generation loss.

Neural network is used to control a plant directly by sensor validation, vibration monitoring, Heat rate
monitoring and improvement (optimizing MS/ HRH temp, MS pressure), boiler efficiency monitoring and
improvement action by optimizing controllable parameters like oxygen at APH inlet (Optimize dry flue
gas loss) and diagnostic other heat loss problem. This paper proposed a simple training algorithm for a
class of nonlinear systems, which enables the neural network to be trained with the output errors by back
propagation and feed-forward action of the controlled plant.

IOT INTEGRATION WITH DCS THRU MODBUS – ECO HOPPER ASH FLOW MONITORING
OF UNIT-7 USING LoRaWAN IN IOT PLATFORM
Somnath Bera, Jiwesh Kumar, L K Gupta, NTPC Vindhyachal

Economiser hopper temperature monitoring & profiling was implemented to detect the choking of Eco-
hoppers in Unit-9 & Unit-7 at NTPC Vindhyachal. Total 32 thermocouples per unit were installed in the Top
and bottom part of the Eco Hoppers on all 4 slanting sides of the hopper. The temperature profile data
collected from all 4 hoppers in the Economiser is analyzed for detection of choking.

This innovative project was implemented through a handmade and customised low cost solution using
hardware-computing technology on arduino development board &LoRa WAN technology, at NTPC
Vindhyachal.

30
The complete solution involves a new set of programming for Tx& Rx unit, using LoRa Spread Spectrum
transceiver of 868 MHz, Thermo Couple sensors, TFT, SMPS for 5 Volt etc.

The received data at CCR is again encapsulated in the Rx module using ATMEGA2560 mini MCUs & MODBUS
interface. Finally data is captured by the ABB Symphony Plus DCS through Modbus communication for
display in UCB #7 OWS 1-6, at Vindhyachal. The temperature data of Economiser hoppers received in Unit
7 DCS is also being injected into the PI system of NTPC through Station LAN server.

This innovative and customized solution for detecting the choking of economizer hoppers was implemented
in-house at a very low cost in a short period of time. This developmental project involved many challenges
as wireless data transmission and Integration with DCS & PI Network was being implemented for the
first time with cheap yet powerful & efficient MCU based developmental board &LoRa WAN systems
operating in 868 Mhz frequency.

32 Mi-thermocouples were fixed onto 4 economiser hoppers of Unit 7 Boiler during last overhauling.
The temperature data received from thermocouples is received in a transmitter unit installed at Boiler
[7th Floor 2nd pass area]. The transmitter unit collects the data and transmits it to the C&I Lab & UCB 7
control room over wireless through a tiny antenna in 868 Mhz frequency [channel-1 & channel-3 with 4
bytes encryption].

The data is received in UCB through wireless is encapsulated into packets over Modbus protocol at the
receiver through in-house developed C code and interfaced with ABB symphony Plus DCS of Station LAN
server of Unit 7. This data received in DCS of Unit 7 is also being transmitted into the PI network of NTPC
for monitoring and display. The temperatures from 32 thermocouples can also be viewed on a handheld
wireless display made in the C&I Lab.

This innovative and compact solution developed and demonstrated at NTPC Vindhyachal for the first time
will act as a technology demonstrator and prototype for similar type of future projects, with LoRa WAN
and data transfer over Modbus from remote locations of Coal, Solar and Hydro power Plants

MEASURES TO IMPROVE RELIABILITY OF VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS IN HT DRIVES

Wasim Ahmad, Ajay Gajbhiye, Debabrata Tripathy NTPC Mouda

Machine condition monitoring is very important because it provides information about the health
of a machine. This information can be used to detect warning signs early and help the organization
stopunscheduled outages, optimize machine performance, and reduce repair time and maintenance costs.

At NTPC Mouda, Vibration monitoring system is installed for Main Turbine, Boiler Primary air fans, Induced
draft fans and Forced draft fans. Vibration spikes were observed frequently in boiler side drives, PA Fans,
FD Fans and ID Fans. Due to the spurious spikes drives have tripped and have led to the sever instability in
running units many times. Due to non-reliability of system, Fans protections on vibration were taken out
of service, thus posing a risk to the safety of the machine. The issues in vibration monitoring system have
been identified and diagnosed. Steps have been taken to resolve the issues and the same are presented
through this paper.

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 IN-HOUSE UPGRADATION OF SEAWATER PUMP HOUSE CONTROL SYSTEM:
A SUCCESS STORY AT NTPC SIMHADRI

C Ramesh Babu, NTPC-Simhadri

Searching for economic benefits to justify a DCS upgrade or replacement has been a major issue for most
enterprises since the first generation of control systems needed to be replaced with the next. When it comes
to legacy control systems, the old adage of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it” is putting many manufacturing
businesses at risk. But in today’s period of tight budgets and high efficiency, it is almost impossible to get
the funding to upgrade legacy control systems especially if that particular control system is still working
fine. If the upgrdation was done with in-house expertise, knowledge, resources which provide a huge
benefit t o the organisation and individuals.

This paper discusses one of such transformation from a legacy system to new DCS system without any
additional R&M cost incurred for engineering and implementation at NTPC-simhadri.

IN-HOUSE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION OF CONDENSATE-

THROTTLING FOR IMPROVING FRC

Rajesh Chawla, Swaraj Sardar, Mohit Gupta, NTPC korba

In its drive to fulfill the commitment to reduce carbon footprint, India has set its course to achieve
the target of infusing 175 GW of renewable energy in grid. However, Due to the intermittent nature of
renewable energy sources, the coal-fired power plants, which constitute around 59 percent of India’s
installed generation capacity, are required to be highly flexible to cope with volatile intraday demand of
power grid. To accommodate these fluctuations Central electricity regulatory commission has directed
thermal power generating stations to incorporate restricted free governing mode of operation as primary
response. Traditionally the need of short-term response is catered by boiler stored capacity, but additional
options are being explored for better results. One such new technology in this field “Condensate throttling”
is quickly gaining popularity among generating stations, the feasibility and implementation of which in
NTPC Korba station has been discussed in this paper.

The RFGMO response in NTPC Korba Unit 07 (500 MW) with traditional approach is not satisfactory. The
turbine operates under valve wide open condition for achieving full 500 MW, that makes it inadequate to
ply any additional load demand. The poor performance of unit is on account of design issues pertaining to
high pressure turbine and under-performance of cooling towers. These circumstances necessitate the use
of alternate approach to fulfill the grid requirement. A series of experiments were conducted in conditioned
environment to evaluate the feasibility of the condensate throttling technology in generating frequency
response, the observations of which are presented along with this paper. Based on the observations a set
of logics is developed in-house for implementation in the unit to improve the frequency response.

32
 STACK MONITORING TECHNIQUES AND THEIR CONTROL MEASURES: COMBUSTION
GASES INCLUDING NOX, SO2, CO AND C02
Digvijay Thool, Aakash Gupta, OPGC

Indian pollution control board i.e. Central Pollution Control Board (C.P.C.B.) requires that special aggressive
gases (i.e. NOx and SOx) must be monitored continuously. There are number of oxides of Nitrogen,
including nitrous oxides (NO), nitrogen dioxide (NO2), nitrogen trioxide (N2O3) and nitrogen pentoxide
(N2O5), that are referred to collectively as NOx. Monitoring of NO2 for regulatory purposes requires various
methods for concentrations measuring in the range i.e. 0-200 mg/Nm³. These methods are referring
either to standard methods or to acceptable one, with simple chemical and physical principles. To evaluate
the concentrations of the pollutants leaving the stack, online monitoring of the stack becomes important
for Thermal power plants. Online SOx and NOx monitors are used to meet environmentalregulations,
whereas CO and O2 monitoring helps industries maintain the air to fuel ratio, thus, controlling the fuel
consumption. CO is highly corrosive & explosive gas. Plants operating under reducing oxygen produces
higher CO gas. Hence, to protect the Electrostatic Precipitator (ESP) from explosion, online monitoring
and maintaining CO to zero level became necessary for power plants. During the combustion process,
nitrogen in air oxidizes with oxygen and forms oxides of nitrogen i.e. NOx. Sulphur in coal after oxidation
forms SO2. Similarly, coal after burning becomes ash i.e. dust. CO, SOx, NOx gases are highly toxic and
are harmful to the environment. Hence, our environmental authority has mandated industries to install
emission monitoring devices and provide real time emission data to the central servers installed at CPCB
and State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) offices.

The pollution norms for these are becoming stringent. In recent years, the emission norms for SOx and
NOx for Thermal power plants have been revised to 100 mg / Nm³. In view of this, accurate measurement
of SOx and NOx in the flue gases is very important. In this abstract we are targeting the monitoring
techniques available and their suitability, and also controlling NOx and SOx emission.

33
 Session- 10: Steam Generator & Auxiliaries

USE OF ADVANCED DRONES FOR REMOTE INSPECTION OF LJUNGSTRÖM®

AIR PREHEATERS

Gus Shearer, LJUNGSTRÖM, USA

LJUNGSTRÖM is a global technology and innovation leader, specializing in full life-cycle services
andsolutions for thermal power plants and industrial facilities. With a history of advances in heat recovery
spanning 95 years, LJUNGSTRÖM has now developed a unique capability and experience for remote
visual inspections (RVI) of industrial plant rotary heat exchangers and adjoining ductwork and boiler plant.

The primary focus of inspection expertise described in this paper is the Ljungström® Air Preheater (APH)
and Ljungström® Gas-Gas Heater (GGH), which are high efficiency regenerative heat exchangers designed
to recover the heat from flue gas in steam generating plants and process furnaces. The Ljungström heat
exchangers are unique machines with a cylindrical rotor assembly and replaceable heat transfer surfaces
that require detailed inspections at regular intervals to identify condition, verify remaining useful life, and
maintain the operational efficiency of the machine and its connected system.

The inspection of the equipment is substantially internal and must be conducted while the machine is
offline. Inspection speed and safety is of utmost importance, and human inspections can only go so far
aspeople are often limited when it comes to confined space access and working at heights. Although
inspection of the top side of the equipment is typically straightforward, the lower end is difficult and
expensive to access, requiring scaffolding and dedicated lighting which can make the inspections time
consuming and a challenge during a short outage.

This paper shall describe the challenges presented by the spaces being inspected; introduce the specialized
drone equipment used; and discuss the benefits of a digital inspection solution to the operatorO&M
personnel. Examples of the inspection results obtained will be included and presentation of themultimedia
photography and video data gathered during a typical inspection will be used to demonstratethe status
of the technology.

INSPECTION OF BOILER INTERNALS USING DRONE AND OTHER APPLICATIONS

Pradipta Mohanty, Sarada Prasan Nayak, IB Thermal Power Station, OPGC Ltd.

The power sector—one of the world’s most rigid industries—is in the midst of a profound transition.
Disrupted not just by economic and environmental forces, the industry is facing rapid technological
changes that have forced companies to reevaluate business models to stay profitable. But while many
companies are still considering integrating the Internet of Things, robotics, artificial intelligence, machine
learning, and data analytics, the uptake of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) has been markedly faster and
widespread.

Unmanned aerial systems—drones—have quickly found their place in the power sector. But as the industry
moves out of test cases and experiments, and into full implementation of drones, it is facing a whole new
set of challenges and opportunities.

Inspection of coal fired boiler internals are vital for the monitoring the health & serviceability of the boiler.

34
However, inspections can be logistically-challenging, expensive, and dangerous. For example, inspections
may require climbing, confined spare entry as well as the use of scaffolding, ladders, bucket trucks etc.
Now days the increasing cost of power plant inspections are a major concern for power generation
entities. Small, multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicle systems (UAV) called as Drone offer a potential
means of overcoming or alleviating some of these challenges. Among the primary benefits of Drone for
inspections are the ability to maneuver adeptly in 3D space, change in view angles, and acquire high-
resolution imagery, enabling the inspector to view (in real time basis and/or post-flight using recorded
data, as needed) the critical power plant areas like boilers in difficult-to-access locations. The overall goal
of inspections using Drone is to create a safe & efficient way to monitor the condition of boiler internals.

Following benefits occurred for one 210MW boiler first pass inspection done using Drone at OPGC.

• 720 Man-hours of High Risk work avoidance.

• Cost Saving: INR 5,60,000/-

• 60 Hours of reduction in Outage Duration.

• Effective annual outage planning using inspection results.

The Drone can also be used for fuel management like volumetric measurement of coal piles in coal stock
yard, substation thermal survey, unmanned area survey, outage work surveillance etc. In today’s world,
power generation entities & service providers increasing recognizing these potential benefits of Drone for
quick, reliable & economical inspection of power plant infrastructures.

EXFOLIATION IN SS-347H TUBES: A NEW CHALLENGE TO MODERN ERA

BOILERS AND ITS MITIGATION

Zaki Ahmed, NTPC Barh, A. Samanta, NTPC COS

Boiler steam parameters are being increased to achieve higher and higher cycle efficiency and to provide
economic and clean power to consumers. To maintain reliability and intended design life of boiler tubes,
different grades of stainless steel are being used in significant portion of final superheater and reheater.
There is limited experience available in code case Super 304 H being used at highest temperature in final
loops but use of SS 347 H in small quantity was prevalent in all boilers. Only 20 to 30% of the superheater
and reheater coils were of stainless steel , But now , there is significant use of SS 347 H in final superheater
and reheater loops in gas path, in some cases almost full outlet loop is of SS 347 H , have posed a serious
threat to availability of these boilers.
SS347 H has shown severe tendency of exfoliation in initial stages of operation itself. Reliability of many of
these boilers got severely hampered due to chocking of tube bends by exfoliation and subsequent failure
in the loop due to overheating of tubes.
The phenomenon is quite pronounced during startup of boilers thereby necessitating slow start up, even
if it can lead to increased oil consumption and loss of generation opportunity to the power utility.
In addition to this exfoliation can lead to many other problems such as deposition of the oxide between
the main valve spool and valve seat causing the main valve jamming, Turbine blade erosion with reduction
in turbine efficiency etc.

35
Some of the NTPC boilers faced repeated boiler tube failure on account of chocking of tubes by exfoliation
and the problem reached to an alarming proportion. He problem was studied and control and remedial
measures were put in place. These involved identifying the severely choked bends by Exfoliation meter
based on LFET and issuance of modified Boiler cooling and start up procedure guidelines. Now situation
is under control but this phenomenon or material itself needs to be purged out on regular basis to
improve the reliability of these boilers. Based on this experience the future material specifications were
also modified.

This paper will discuss exfoliation process, its significance in SS 347 H and how at NTPC this was controlled
by actions of corporate operation services and stations by adopting a multipronged approach.

SUPERCRITICAL BOILERS : OPERATIONAL ISSUES AND REMEDIAL MEASURES

Akhilesh Kumar Singh, NTPC, COS

In view of providing clean, efficient and economic power, NTPC has gone for Supercritical Boiler Technology
and its first 660 MW unit got commissioned in October 2011 at Sipat. Subsequently almost all new units
are supercritical and capacity has also gone from 660 MW to 800 MW. At present NTPC have about 17
Units of nearly 12000 MW capacity of Supercritical Units in Operation and another about 21 Units of
nearly 15700MW are in various phases of commissioning and erection.

Almost all major players Viz: BHEL/GE, BGR Hitachi, Doosan, L&T MHPS, boilers are in operation. Each
boiler has posed their own set of problems in high ash Indian coal. These problems have significantly
affected the reliability and availability of these boilers.

NTPC has overcome some of these by adopting stringent erection procedures, operational guidelines and
maintenance practices. Some problems are related to high ash Indian coal, some are related to high level
of skilled manpower required during erection, requirement of stringent plant operating procedures and
extremely high level of boiler water chemistry parameters.

Reserve shut down and frequent start stop of units have further given new set of problems being faced by
NTPC at these supercritical power plants.

This paper will share the methodology and practices adopted by NTPC in solving above issues and
stabilisation of units at different stations of NTPC.

FGD O&M, GYPSUM UTILIZATION AND LIMESTONE PROCUREMENT IN NTPC

S. K. Saxena, BRBCL, S. S. Parihar, NTPC Vindhyachal

In order to control SOx emission from Flue gas stack NTPC is in the process of installing Flue Gas
Desulphurization units in all its Coal based thermal Power plants. The majority of Installation i.e in about
62,000MW, NTPC has adopted Wet Limestone Slurry based FGD plants. The Input of these FGD plants are
Limestone of required quality & quantity & the By Product is Gypsum , which is a saleable product & thus
has a economic value.

36
By Year 2022 when all FGD plants of NTPC will be commissioned, the requirement of Limestone across
NTPC will be approx. 4.0 Million MT and corresponding Gypsum that will be produced will be approx. 6.0
Million MT. Thus, procurement of Limestone & Utilization of Gypsum is a huge task & at the same time
business opportunity for NTPC.

This paper is in two parts, Part-I details; why & what is FGD, various systems & parameters governing
FGD plant, basic principal of FGD operation & major equipment’s, Critical parameters of FGD operation
Detailed preparation required at each NTPC plant for smooth O&M of FGD plant, Commissioning sequence
of the FGD Plant, procurement of limestone, Gypsum Utilization etc

Part-II details way forward & Journey so far by NTPC as a whole in sourcing of limestone & Utilization of
Gypsum, Various uses of gypsum, new product development using Gypsum & Fly ash, some of the best
practices captured in FGD O&M, Sensitizing & creating awareness among potential users, Gypsum Sale
Policy, Limestone Procurement Strategy, Preparation of reference bid document for sale of Gypsum, DOP
for Gypsum sale etc.

LEARNINGS FROM WELDING FAILURES IN BOILER UNIT # 2 OF

GADARAWARA PROJECT

M K Asthana, NTPC,NI-WTE, Sipat

The pressure parts – Re-heater and Super-heater Tubes welded joints in Unit – II Boiler of Gadarwara
project underwent Repair work of enormous scale since 26th April 2019, due to poor quality of tube
welded joints during preassembly / erection. Unacceptable defects revealed in many welded joints (almost
80%) in different areas during check shots by RT as well as during rechecking by Phased Array Ultrasonic
Testing (PAUT) / Radiographic Testing (RT). A serious need of re – examination of tube welded joints arise
due to several leakages observed during Air Tightness Test and Hydro Test

Further, examination of sample welded joints in tubes of Platen Super Heater, LTRH, Water Walls Burner
Corners & Economizer by PAUT revealed unacceptable defects in high percentage of examined joints.

This paper will present the findings and learnings based on a detailed study conducted to find out reasons
of such welding failures, and also the reasons for high repair rate during ongoing repair by visiting to the
Gadarwara project site several times. The study is based on the data of welding & NDT of tube welded
joints in pressure parts of Unit # 2 Boiler Gadarwara project collected by visiting to GADARWARA site, by
way of interaction with site erection & FQA team of BHEL & NTPC, by reviewing the CQA Audit reports,
by discussing with CQA team and by going through the FQA Manual, CQA Manual, Welding and NDT
Manuals of NTPC and BHEL.

The learnings as mentioned in brief below will help in further refining the systems to ensure better
productivity in site welding of such pressure parts joints in Super Critical, Ultra Super Critical Boilers.

The material of re-heater and super heater tubes of Ultra Super Critical Boilers are alloy steel conforming
to ASTM A 335 T 91, T23 and T22 having better creep properties to sustain high temperatures of the order
of 595o C and the behavior of such material during welding is entirely different from low alloy steel or
carbon steel welding and therefore require utmost precautions before & after welding like preheating,

37
maintaining inter pass temperature, maintaining continuity of welding layers without any decrease in
temperature, post heating and post weld heat treatment (PWHT) in addition to ensuring other control
like argon purity and deployment of experienced IBR qualified skilled welder specially in such material.
It was observed that the welders deployed were not thoroughly familiar with behavior of such materials
during welding.

The another important finding was that there are advanced TIG Welding Machines available in the market
(make – LINCOLN, FRONIUS, PANASONIC etc.) equipped with advanced control of arc like high pulse &
high frequency which give lot of ease of welding to a qualified welder to produce a sound weld without
defect in first attempt itself. Even a relatively less skilled welder can produce excellent results using these
equipment. It was observed that the contractors were not using these equipment, not familiar with it also
& were bringing ordinary TIG welding equipment. With such ordinary TIG Welding machines, a highly
skilled welder is required to produce sound weld. Live demo were organized at GADARWARA site with
such advanced TIG welding equipment & the results & feedback from welders were quite encouraging.

The third important learning was that NTPC executives at site were not well trained with advanced NDT
techniques like Phased Array Ultrasonic Testing to check the calibration of equipment, to check the
sensitivity setting of the equipment and to interpret the defect analysis generated in the PAUT equipment
by the agency operator. The training cum certification course of PAUT Level – II as per ISO9712 were
organized for NTPC engineers at GADARAWARA site itself.

The defects revealed in Radiographic Testing and PAUT examination is shared, to understand the reasons
why it happen & how to avoid during erection or during maintenance.

This paper also suggest improvements in quality systems, desired skill development program for pressure
welders and required training programs on welding and NDT to NTPC executives so that the issue of
welding in pressure parts of Super Critical Boilers and Ultra Super Critical Boilers are better addressed &
achieve zero defect in welding joints.

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 Session- 11 : Flexibilisation
MANAGING INDIA’S CHALLENGES WITH FLEXIBLE OPERATIONS
Stephen K. Storm, EPRI, USA

The onset of renewable energy continues to transform the mission for generating stations in India and
around the world. Generating stations are chasing loads to meet market demands while the continued
integration of non-dispatchable, variable energy resources (renewables) requires increased flexibility from
conventional generating stations to ensure reliability of the power system. In addition to changing its
mission for thermal generating assets, India has imposed new standards for environmental control and
is driving forward with the integration of Low NOX firing and Wet FGD systems (or other) being installed
on current and future power systems. The long-term success of these industry changes and future of
flexibility demands fleet optimization and can leverage past EPRI R&D to plan for the future. Perhaps one
of the most challenging aspects of flexible operations is understanding how to invest future capital and

O&M funding to mitigate failures that that often accumulate over months and years of time. Once
physical modifications are installed, it’s not the end of the story, as most of the future costs and savings
will be determined by the operation and maintenance actions which can either accelerate or help mitigate
damage mechanisms from occurring in the first place. Operational flexibility demands leadership that is
willing to develop a dynamic culture that deploys best practices, conduct benchmarking and enhance
defense strategies. With an aging workforce, aging assets and financial constraints, it is difficult to align
strategic countermeasures such as “Flexibility Program Management” to protect assets undergoing the
new operating regimes Cost-effective defense processes and technologies that help adapt, work smarter
and protect assets

Under these changing conditions are critical. As we evolve with the future the advancement of power
generation technologies, one must build upon fundamentals, but use technology, systems and processes
to keep up with more dynamic conditions we will face in the future. Helping fleet operators to better
understand damage mechanisms and how their actions make a difference is a cost-effective approach. In
response to this industry need, the EPRI toolbox is already filled with a number of guidance documents,
a database and tools. However, fleet optimization demands the continuation of past efforts with the
development of future tools and programs that help benchmark flexible operations and help sustain
flexible operations especially when the fleet increases operations between 0-50% design load.

Simply, flexible operations and adapting to new mission profiles, requires measurement and investment
in people, process and technologies when adapting to a new mission for the generating fleet. As with any
successful program, it’s important to identify the gaps, create awareness and communicate areas needing
improvement and prioritize them, as the first step to making improvements. The next step is to ensure
management clearly understands the impacts such that competing projects are prioritized when financial
constraints arise. The focus of this presentation will be on the importance of establishing a programmatic
strategy using benchmarking to help protect assets. Such a strategy for flexible operations with high ash,
low volatile Indian coals will demand the pursuit of asset management and overall fleet optimization
efforts. EPRI will share recent observations, R&D findings and technological considerations for the fleet of
the future using insights from EPRI generation sector.

39
COST-EFFECTIVE FLEXIBILISATION OF FOSSIL-FIRED POWER PLANTS: OPERATION AND
BOILER PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENT USING ONLINE MONITORING INSTRUMENTS
Dr. Francesco Turoni, EUtech Scientific Engineering GmbH

The increasing use of renewable energy sources (wind, solar and hydro) reached a new record in India in
the first six months of 2019, according to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA). This together with the
steady economy growth, the planned doubling of coal-fired capacity of NTPC Ltd. to 85 GW by 2032
together with the inherent intermittencies wind and solar sources have made electricity generation from
fossil fuels such as coal a real challenge.

This does not only affect the dynamic and new minimal operation requirements of base-load plants, but
also their compliance of emission limits and improvement of plant efficiency and reliability. Imbalances in
coal-fired boilers especially under varying fuel blends can result in reduced flexibility, elevated emissions
of nitric oxides (NOx) and carbon monoxide (CO), local reducing conditions and promotion of slagging.

Online and reliable information of fuel and air flows, coal particle size distribution, furnace exit gas
temperature (FEGT) and its distribution can significantly contribute to reduce pollutant formation,
unburned carbon (LoI) as well as to optimise combustion and boiler performance.

The traditional way to measure coal flow and particle size distribution is to collect samples from the coal
pipes and then measure the mass flow and particle size distribution by weighing, sieving and analysis in
a laboratory environment. Consequently, the results will only be available after a considerable time delay,
making direct correlations to operational mill and boiler settings impossible.

Moreover, unrecognized suboptimal air-fuel management and relative imbalance of the flame ball
position in T-fired boilers influence unburned carbon (LoI), heat transfer and may impose excessive stress
on boiler parts leading to premature system failure. The article illustrates state-of-the-art monitoring
instruments for online measurement of fuel and air flows, coal particle size distribution, furnace exit gas
temperature (FEGT) including the extent of burnout and their applications. Best practices and effects on
boiler operationare explained and discussed on basis of measurement results.

SOFTWARE SOLUTIONS FOR FLEXIBLE OPERATION OF POWER PLANTS

Dr. Tomasz Kaminski, R. Talwar, Steag Germany

The operation of power plants is highly complex. For the operating companies, managing a reliable plant
operation with frequent start-up and shutdown procedures, different fuel qualities, and a high availability
at maintenance costs as low as possible is both a challenge and a chance.

One reason for the changed boundary conditions is the addition of renewable energies. The objective
is to be able to successfully meet the volatile requirements of the energy market with a flexible and
economically efficient power plant operation in future.

The expert software solutions of STEAG Energy Services ensure an assessment of plants in procedural and
technical terms. By continuously evaluating available performance values, the systems provide reliable
information enabling an optimized mode of operation and condition-based maintenance of the plant and
help to increase the plant’s availability early on.

Information on the efficiency, load-independent performance factors, coal qualities, heat rates, and
availabilities describes the quality of the operation and is available on site. Fouling and wear of the plant
components, i.e. creep and fatigue, can thus be detected in a timely manner, and additional costs can be
avoided.

40
This paper describes two solutions for flexible operation of power plants.

The first solution is the approach to benchmark the start-up performance. As a result deviations from an
intended mode of operation will be identified. Known margins for an increase in start-up speed and / or
number of cycles are a precondition for a more flexible but safe plant operation. Thus the component
fatigue, start-up duration and costs due to component degradation and fuel consumption are taken into
account to evaluate the optimal start-up transient.

The innovative approach is state of the art calculation methods to determine the component fatigue.
Furthermore the software modules which are part of this integrated approach enable a forecast for the
next component inspection even if the degradation of the past mode of operation is not available for the
assessment.

The second solution provides the plant engineers decision-support to run the units under the deviation
settlement mechanism at optimum levels of generation and thus to minimize the station heat rate. The
solution generates merit order rating for the units with common schedule based on the thermo-dynamical
simulations carried out by first-principle unit models. The heart of the solution is the solver based on
Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MIP) method.

All relevant boundary conditions are considered. The module fully supports the utilities in addressing the
current challenges due to (i) flexible operation of the units caused by intermittency of renewable energy
sources, (ii) grid stabilisation mechanism of Reserve Regulation Ancillary Services, and (iii) cost reduction
through Security-constrained Economic Despatch.

DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION OF HIGH TEMPERATURE SEMICONDUCTOR

STRAIN GAGES FOR THERMAL POWER PLANT LIFE MANAGEMENT IN INDIA
Stan T. Rosinski, EPRI, USA

Extensive load cycling of thermal power plants due to variable generation and power market requirements
results in additional accumulation of fatigue and creep damage, especially in thick-walled components.
Areas of potential concern include critical assets containing weldments or load bearing elements in high
temperature locations, such as found in power generation boilers and steam pipe systems. The ability to
accurately measure component strain on high temperature components, including welds to support life
management is presently an unmet industry-wide need. High temperature strain monitoring applications
have been limited to traditional capacitive or wire gages with limited mechanical bandwidth, low sensitivity,
and high cost. This lack of sensitivity results in late detection of events. Most traditional surface strain
gage and transducer technologies are only useful below 260C (500F). Even in moderate temperature
regimes below 150C (~300F) they progressively lose sensitivity and suffer creep related measurement
errors with increased temperature. While there are some current methods of measuring strain at higher
temperatures, these methods are limited in how well they can measure strain in harsh environmental
conditions. Furthermore, existing high temperature transducers based on quartz piezoelectric elements
require physically compliant structures for measuring variables (e.g. pressure or acceleration) and are
not adequate for measuring low surface strain levels in thick walled components. Contemporary high
temperature strain measurement such as capacitive or wire gages are also physically large and can be too
delicate for long term field measurements. Furthermore, traditional gage technologies are not capable
of surviving field environments (up to 650°C (1200°F)) and limit the application of online nondestructive
testing via strain monitoring.

41
EPRI has developed an innovative strain gage technology that is anticipated to perform well at high
temperatures. The semiconductor strain gage is bonded to a metal/ceramic substrate by means of a glassy
insulating ceramic. The strain cell developed in this research incorporates reinforced ceramics and specially
fabricated semiconductor strain gages to allow operation at temperatures as high as ~650C (1200F) while
maintaining continuity with the substrate material. The resulting strain cell is a mechanically continuous
block which can resist abusive conditions better than alternate gage technologies. This novel approach
has performed well in laboratory tests and theoretical material limits show very compelling evidence to
further develop this new technology up to temperatures in excess of 815C (1500F). It is anticipated the
desired gage performance will remain linear at very high temperatures as well as resistant to the static
creep that affects plastic bonded strain gage technologies. Static strain monitoring in a field application
is now underway. This paper reviews development of the novel high-temperature semiconductor strain
gage technology, including gage development/fabrication and high-temperature proof testing, and dis-
cusses performance in the ongoing field application.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT THROUGH CONDITION MONITORING AND

ADVANCED CONTROL SYSTEMS
Sandeep Chittora, Ian Rebello, Siemens india

Due to market conditions we see a growing demand of flexibility in operating and maintaining power
plants. Power plants which were designed for base load operations have to cycle and this has an enormous
effect on the efficiency, availability and reliability of the power plant and the turbo-generator in particular.
To keep the risk calculable it is of outmost importance to know the condition of the machines. Another
aspect is the necessity of flexibility due to price changes on the electricity markets. During high price
periods nobody wants to shut down for a planned overhaul and it might by reasonable to use all the
engineering reserves of the machine and to operate it beyond its nominal design limits for some time.

These goals can only be reached when the condition of the power plant and its major components can
be assessed during normal operation using online monitoring systems. But online monitoring does not
mean a fully automated software solution, because a real diagnostic can only be achieved using all the
engineering capabilities and recourses in the back offices of the turbo-generator manufacturers.

A software solution which is capable of learning the normal behavior of the plant prevents the engineers
from dealing with trivial occurrences. Using this software and the and the engineering knowledge, it is also
possible to decide that a turbo-generator running out of its normal operation limits concerning vibration
for example can be operated until the next planned outage evaluating the risk.

This monitoring solution when coupled with advanced control system provides better operational flexibility
to plant operator. For example, soot blowing is usual operation in thermal power plant but without careful
operation it also costs steam which reduces efficiency, an intelligent soot blowing system would assess
the need of soot blowing and operate in case of clear benefit arising from doing it. Further temperature
optimizer, optimizes, main steam and reheat steam temperatures to avoid temperature excursions and
save significant life of components.

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 Session – 12 : Steam Turbine

MODERNIZATION APPROACH FOR SUB-CRITICAL LMZ K200/K300 & KWU 200/500 MW

STEAM TURBINE UNITS WITH THERMAL UPGRADE UP TO 600°C BASED ON
THE RECENT STEAM TURBINE MODERNIZATION EXPERIENCE IN CHINA

Indranil Acharya, Suvadeep Sen, Sandeep Chittora, Siemens Ltd, Traugott Paul,
Ingo Foerster, Siemens AG

Reducing the greenhouse effect (GHG) has become one of the most important factors for energy policies
worldwide. There are also clear trends towards the conservation of fossil fuel resources and requirements
to reduce CO2 emissions as well as other pollutants. In India, the rapid economic growth is leading to
strong demand for power and new power projects are becoming more difficult as the availability of the
resources like fuel, land, and water in India are decreasing.

Due to the rapid advancement in “Steam Turbine Technology” in the last decade, thermal upgrades with
the advanced steam parameters up to 600°C for old Indian Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM)/
Non-OEM plants with flexible operation is a feasible option today and will help to improve the efficiency,
flexibility, availability and reliability of the modernized power plants with reduced carbon foot print.

In addition, future electricity markets with high levels of renewable power generation are expected to be
typically forcing radical changes on the fossil fuel steam power plants operating profile in these markets.
As a result, many existing Steam Power Plants (SPP) designed for base-load operation may have to change
to flexible mode, requiring optimized startup performance. As many of the plants have already completed
the designed lifetime (and many in the verge of completion) in India, it is not practically a feasible option
to run these plants in flexible mode. The option left is, shift to flexible mode only after the old turbines
are modernized using state-of-the-art materials and technology-enhanced components such as blades,
sealings, casings & rotors. In short and near medium term, Energy Efficient Renovation & Modernization
(EE R&M) along with Lifetime Extension(LE) measures to extend the normal design life of existing aging
power plants is an economical option for addressing the continuously growing power demand for
India and for transformation of the existing conventional electricity generation with new, more efficient,
low carbon emitting technology, considering the fact that coal shall remain a dominant fuel for power
generation in next decades.

This paper focuses and emphasizes on some of the opportunities which shall bring profound changes for
the future outlook of present “Mods & Upgrades“ R&D programs and design principles. The focus is on
the SIEMENS design solution for the modernization of old subcritical LMZ K200 (Indian200-MW)/K300
(Chinese 300-MW) & KWU 200/500 MW Indian power plants, considering the possibility of future thermal
upgrade up to 600°C with flexible operation and challenges moving forward.

TURBINE ALIGNMENT THROUGH DIGITAL MAPPING

Pawan Panchpal, SIXD Engineering Solutions Pvt Ltd
The paper deals with the use of Digital Mapping technique blinding with various software. This is a
breakthrough on conventional methods with substantial time saving in overhauling schedule, by avoiding
EOT crane frequent movement & better accuracy. The turbine expert team can confidently take the
decisions for rectification by real time measurement data provided by this technique.

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 ONLINE BLADE VIBRATION MONITORING SYSTEM (BVMS) FOR HEALTH
MONITORING OF L-0 & L-1 BLADES OF 500 MW KWU LP TURBINE
GGK Murthy, P. Kesaba, NTPC Simhadri

With the increased size and mass of final-stage blades used in modern low-pressure turbines, the
consequences associated with blade failure are greater. In NTPC several incidents happed on account of
LPT free standing blade failure. In Aug-2015 NTPC Rihand U#6 witnessed LPT blade failure and it took
89 days to bring back the unit into operation. A severe catastrophic failure occurred on June 2017 in U#3
of NTECL Vallur due to LPT blade failure. This is a lesson for NTPC to take needful proactive measure to
avoid such type of incident. Due to LPT blade failure at NTECL Vallur, NTPC has suffered huge financial loss
on account of capital equipment damage (replacement of HPT/IPT/LPT/Generator stator/Rotor/Exciter),
generation loss and loss due to DC shortfall. The unit completely revived and put back in operation after
a period of 227 days. In Feb-2018 similar cracked blade also found during inspection at Sipat U#5. In
recent concluded overhauling of U#3 held in the month of May 2018 at NTPC Simhadri, cracks of 59mm
length and 43mm length has been observed above the root/platform of two nos. of last stage LPT free
standing blades (Generator side). Thus it is necessary to have more proactive approaches to manage blade
cracking. Technical options for vibration monitoring are limited because of the challenges associated
with the instrumentation of rotating blades in a condensing steam environment. The blade tip time-of-
arrival (TOA) method employed by commercial Blade Vibration Monitoring Systems(BVMS) offers a viable
approach for managing risk associated with blade flutter caused by backpressure excursions as well as
vibration caused by grid torsional events. These mechanisms, by nature, occur sporadically and therefore
require the continuous monitoring capability offered by systems such as the BVMS.

Based on the market study with respect to type of non-contact measurement system available, type of
sensors, monitoring equipment, data acquisition and processing system etc compatible with low pressure
turbines (500MW KWU make) operating in wet steam environment, NTPC awarded the contract to M/s
Hood Technology Corporation, USA to carry out the installation and commissioning of BVMS at one
NTPC station. The total financial implication for this project is USD 3, 89,000. In Aug-2018 BVMS has
been installed in NTPC Simhadri U#4 LP Turbine and this was the first initiative for such type of work by
NTPC. The complete installation work was completed in fifteen days. Sixteen nos. of eddy current sensors
have been installed radially on the circumferential surface of LPT diffuser and L-0 stationary blade ring
for monitoring condition of last two stages (L-0 & L-1) blades of LP Turbine. (05 nos. of sensors each
on top half of last stage diffuser of turbine side and generator side and 03 nos. of sensors each on top
half of L-0 stage stationery blade ring of turbine side and generator side). For L-0 blades, three nos. of
sensors installed at mid-chord and one no. each installed at leading and trailing edge of blade. But for L-1
blade, all three nos. of sensors installed at mid-chord only. Before installation of sensors de-magnetism
all the blades along with rotor have been carried out by proper degaussing method. The BVMS sensors
used in long-term blade monitoring are passive eddy current sensors that operate on the principle of
induced eddy currents created by the passing of blade tips in close proximity. Portable drilling machines
are used for machining to fix the sensors and sensor cables. Hood Technology’s eddy current sensors
typically used for long term steam turbine applications are manufactured using stellite 6-B material to
withstand erosive wet-steam environments. Proper welding was done before dismantling of LP turbine L0
stationary blade ring to avoid distortion. Cable feed-throughs with vacuum seal that prevent air leakage
from outside atmosphere to turbine interior have been installed to allow the sensor cables to exit the LPT
outer casing wall exposed to exhaust vacuum. Three-channel BVMS preamplifiers accept sensor wires and
condition of the raw analog signals prior to the data acquisition system. These preamplifiers are enclosed

44
in liquid tight NEMA certified enclosures. Remote access to the BVMS computer was granted by NTPC
through NTPC internal computer network and VPN. This enabled Hood Technology to remotely monitor
the turbine blade vibrations in real-time and also make changes, as necessary, to the BVMS software.
Connectivity and email access also enables the automated BVMS to report back to Hood Technology with
hourly machine health updates. The Hood Technology Corporation data acquisition system is designed
to acquire blade signals autonomously. Typically, the data acquisition system acquires data at all times
and data are retained for a set period of time. Data files recorded at preselected specific unit operating
parameters, are processed and are never deleted.

On-line detection of low-pressure turbine blade tip vibration (BVMS) offers a unique strategy for managing
risk associated with low-pressure turbine blade failures. NTPC explored several options prior to selecting a
BVMS for risk management following discovery of L-0 blade root cracking at different stations. BVMS offers
the capability of continuous monitoring of 100 percent of the L-0 and L-1 blades and enables the user
to alter operating conditions instantaneously to prevent plant damage. This is especially valuable when
the root cause of observed cracking is not firmly established and there is a need to explore the possible
impact of transient events such as grid interactions and blade flutter. This project also demonstrated
the ability of the BVMS to detect at-speed blade natural frequencies needed to confirm proper blade
tuning, which is a key element of the root-cause analysis following blade cracking. A data communications
infrastructure that allows the BVMS vendor to periodically monitor the blade vibration was demonstrated
in this project, and is expected to be a valuable asset to NTPC because NTPC do not have subject matter
experts capable of operating the system locally. Overall, it is concluded that the BVMS installation and
subsequent monitoring activities did not negatively impact operations at NTPC Simhadri.

RETROFITTING OF DRY COOLING SYSTEM IN THERMAL POWER PLANTS –

A FUTURE SOLUTION FOR WATER ECONOMY
Arnada Prasad Samal, NTPC, Engg.

Thermal power plants require large quantities of water. More than 80% of the water requirement is for
make-up to the cooling tower. Huge quantity of water needs to be circulated for taking away the heat of
the steam in the condenser and make up water is added to compensate for evaporation, drift and blow-
down. As the availability of water is becoming scarcer day by day it is becoming essential that power
plants utilize water judiciously. In early industrialization period water was thought to be available free of
cost and the earth have infinite water source. With increase of world population, depleting forest cover,
high level of industrialization, global warming etc. many parts of world facing water scarcity and even it
is not available for domestic consumption. Many initiatives are being taken by corporates like NTPC to
mitigate the situation. Water consumption for industrial use is being rationed day by day and alternate
technology like Dry Cooling System is being used in many plants across the world. While new projects
are being designed to ensure sustained operation, some of the existing power plants are struggling to
manage the water requirement. There is enough scope for reducing the water consumption for existing
thermal power plants. Retrofitting of dry cooling system reduces water consumption substantially. As
usual retrofitting of dry cooling technology in older plants has its own challenges like availability of space,
higher cost, impact on efficiency, shutdown period, compatibility with existing equipment’s etc. This paper
tries to deals above issues with various dry cooling options available, regulatory aspects and its techno-
economics.

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 FATIGUE LIFE ESTIMATION OF GAS TURBINE BLADES AND DISCS
UNDER TRANSIENT LOADS
PRP Apparao, RVR PROJECTS, Himanshu Kumar, NTPC Kudgi

NTPC runs different types of turbines in different types of units like subcritical, supercritical and ultra-super
critical units. Different types of turbines are running in coal, gas and wind plants. Fatigue analysis and
consequent life prediction of Turbine blade requires the stress load history of the blades. A blade designed
for safe operation at particular constant rotor speed may, however, incur damaging stresses during start-
up and shut-down Operation. Fatigue analysis and consequent life prediction of turbo machine blading
requires the stress load history of the blade. A blade designed for safe operation at particular constant
rotor speeds may, however, incur damaging stresses during start-up and shut-down operations. During
such operations the blade experiences momentary resonant stresses while passing through the critical,
which may lie in the speed range through which the rotor is accelerated. Fatigue due to these transient
influences may accumulate to lead to failure. In this paper a technique for fatigue damage assessment
during variable-speed operations is presented. Transient resonant stresses for a blade with nonlinear
damping have been determined using a numerical procedure. A fatigue damage assessment procedure
is described. The fatigue failure surface is generated on the S-N-mean stress axes and Miner’s Rule is
employed to estimate the accumulation of fatigue.

While it is a challenging task to design the components to satisfy the life and integrity requirements
under stringent operating environment. This paper presents the life monitoring methodology developed
to assess the life consumption under HCF & LCF Modes (High Cycle Modes and Low Cycle Mode) for
the rotor blade and disc respectively. HCF life model is built by establishing the functional relationship of
fatigue response with respect to variables like operating conditions, material properties, geometry and
aero loading. The model uses static, dynamic finite element analysis results and vibration response of the
component measured using the non-intrusive stress measurement system which works on the principle
of time of arrival of the blade. For modelling purpose ANSYS 9.2 has been used.

46
 Session – 13 : Chemistry
WATER QUALITY IMPROVEMENT FOR BETTER CONDENSER AND
COOLING TOWER PERFORMANCE
Kirk Buecher, Mettler-Toledo Thornton , USA

At recent conferences, leading experts in the power industry have said online chloride and sulfate analyzers
using Micro Capillary Electrophoresis (MCE) are the first new innovation in Power Plant Analytics in
decades. ERPI called it “promising new technology” for rapid identification of chloride/sulfate excursions.
Customers are calling it an important tool that provides needed additional insight to water and stream
chemistry issues.

MCE’s technology provides Ion specific analysis, which is more accurate and provides lower levels of
detection then any conductivity measurement. This technology is allowing power plants around the world
to consistently measure and stay within industry standards on the two most corrosive contaminants in
power plants. With the emergence of super and ultra-super critical boilers in India, the time available to
respond to critical water chemistry upsets has been shortened significantly. Online chloride and sulfate
measurements not only help today’s plants meet industry standards but also give them an important time
edge in identifying and responding to dangerous problems before damage to the boiler or the steam
turbine can occur.

Plants who are already utilizing this innovative analytic tool, are gaining new insights into the operational
characteristics of their water and steam cycle. This opens new possibilities around improving water
treatment operational characteristics, optimization of their chemical dosing, while minimizing expensive
cleaning and repair of boilers and steam turbines.

This presentation will review this innovative technology and share case studies of successful implementations.

A CASE STUDY ON SILICATE SCALE DEPOSITION PROBLEM AND COLLOIDAL SILICA

PROBLEM AND VARIOUS REMEDIAL MEASURES IMPLEMENTED OVERCOMING THE
PROBLEM- AT DIL 2X300 MW POWER STATION
Pinakee Ghosh, Pulak Nandy, Balram Sahu, Basant Chaurasiya, Atul Sandel, Dhariwal Infrastructure
Limited, Chandrapur, Maharashtra, (A Subsidiary Of RP-SG Group)

2x300 MW DIL coal fired plant is a subsidiary of RP-SG group, located at Chandrapur about 130 KM
from Nagpur. Its major beneficiaries are Noida power UP + Tamilnadu + Maharashtra. Coal source are
rail, road and rail cum road from linkage coal as well as from E auction coal. Water source is from the
Wardha River. Since the makeup water flows through the rock beds having high Silica and Ca and Mg its
water quality contains very high level of silica as well as Mg. Thus unlike most of other power stations in
India where prevention of Calcium carbonate scale is the major problem, here at Dhariwal, the prevention
of deposition of Magnesium Silicate and Aluminium silicate on heat exchanger surfaces poses major
challenge. Apart from the problem of prevention of Silicate Scale deposition on heat exchangers, the
station was also facing the problem of colloidal silica problem. During initial unit start up when the boiler
water make up used to be more, the station has been facing the problem of maintaining drum silica
level thus restricting the drum pressure for long duration of time till the parameters are achieved. In the
paper the twin problem faced by the station has been described along with research study and innovative
approaches for its prevention.

47
 REMEDIATION OF SILICA IN PROCESS WATER THROUGH ‘ELECTROCOAGULATION’: AN
INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGICAL SOLUTION FOR NTPC - SOLAPUR
Shaswattam, M.Malik, K.Indumathi, NTPC, NETRA

Silica is the second most abundant element found on earth. Indeed, all natural water supplies contain
some dissolved “silica” along with suspended or colloidal silica. Silica chemistry is quite complex, because
silica does not easily form double or triple bonds, and silica does not readily form chains. The removal of
silica, from water is a challenging proposition.

In power plant water chemistry, among the many potential contaminants, silica plays a crucial role.
Although silica has no significant corrosive effect, it has a detrimental effect in the formation of extremely
hard and dense scales within the boiler system and the turbine. This leads to thermodynamic deficiencies
and mechanical problems.

To limit the ingress of silica in boiler steam cycle, silica is primarily removed in the pretreatment stage.
Chemical coagulants are added in clarifier and silica is precipitated as sludge and removed.

The paper details about a unique raw water problem faced by NTPC-Solapur and the remedial measures.

“SWAS RELIABILITY INDEX : A STEP TOWARDS MINIMISING CYCLE

CHEMISTRY ABERRATIONS”
GK Nayak, V Chandrasekharan, Bidisha Sen, Kajal Acharyya, Durgesh Lohiya, COS-Chemistry

Availability and reliability are of paramount importance for overall economic profitability of a power plant.
Non-optimum chemistry conditions can shorten the service life of plant equipments leading to frequent
forced outages.

Monitoring of cycle chemistry parameters, thus, is crucial for ensuring healthiness of the system and
preventing chemistry-related failures.

SWAS online chemistry parameter aberration is a matter of major concern. 100% availability of online
parameter monitoring system and its reliability is the need of the hour.

Our CC-OS-Chemistry team has conceptualised the following indices towards benchmarking of SWAS
performance across NTPC stations:
• Severity Index for Process Deviation (CSI)- under study and to be developed
• Reliability Index of SWAS (SRI)- current topic of discussion
CONCEPT OF SWAS RELIABILITY INDEX (SRI):
• To assess the performance and reliability of SWAS systems of running units of NTPC
• To get an idea about the healthiness of the online analysers & associated systems
• To address PI parameter deviations for core cycle chemistry parameters in a structured manner
• To segregate aberrations into various categories (having individual weightages)
• SWAS Reliability Index is calculated unitwise and daywise (on 24 hours basis) for each station

SRI score will facilitate stations in improving healthiness of the SWAS system and its reliability as well as
availability through the process of benchmarking.

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 CHEMISTRY INTERVENTION IN RECYCLING OF PLANT EFFLUENTS:
A CASE STUDY AT NTPC SIPAT
S Konda Reddy, Vijay Verma, Dr. A.K. Sahay, Ghanshyam Prajapati, NTPC Sipat

Water conservation and reuse & recycling of wastewater in the thermal power plant have become very
important and pertinent for holistic progress & growth in a sustainable manner. As a system owner
Chemistry department of NTPC SIPAT took some initiatives regarding the quality monitoring of effluent
water, treated water of effluent treatment plant of Stage-I and suggested the aptness & suitability for its
usage as make up water for condenser cooling. Chemistry department also proposed some modification in
the Effluent Treatment plant system which not only improved the system availability of Effluent treatment
plant & reduction in the water consumption for condenser cooling make up but also enabled the Sipat
station to realize the three R’s i.e. reduce, reuse and recycle approach as mandated by NTPC management.
Because of this background, the wastewater treatment technology and the outlines of water reuse, the
modification done for water reuse of NTPC-SIPAT, altogether, are explained here in detail.

SEWAGE TREATMENT & REUSE IN THERMAL POWER PLANT:

A STEP TOWARDS ZLD APPROACH
S P Patnaik, J P Panda, NTPC Talcher Kaniha
The sewage from colonies as well effluent from industrial units has been identified as main cause for water
pollution across our country. Sewage is a water-carried domestic waste it is more than 99% water & is
characterized physical condition, chemical constituents and the bacteriological organisms that it contains.
During recent years, there has been an increasing awareness and concern about water conservation
all over the world. The recent guidelines on the tariff policy amendment by Ministry of Power, requires
mandatory use of treated sewage water from Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) of municipal body for thermal
power plant located within 50 kilometer radius of the STP. Hence, new approach required for treating
sewage. The BOD, COD, TSS concentration of Sewage water form TSTPS township ranges from 70 -100
mg/L , 150 -350 mg/L & 50 to 200 mg/L respectively. This paper describes a suitable treatment technology
for tertiary treatment of treated sewage to meet CPCB norms as well as using the water as make up
water in various processes of thermal power plant. Treatment technologies adopted are activated sludge
process, activated filter media process &treatment with chlorine dioxide/UV treatment. The treatment
system achieved 98.5% BOD, 87.8% COD and 98.6% TSS & 100% total coli-form removal respectively. All
the parameters after treatment are comparable with the standards of drinking water quality. Pilot study
at STP, TSTPS was conducted in April-May 2017 with AFM ( Activated Glass filter) technology The various
parameters of treated water quality were analysed at TSTPS chemistry laboratory and external laboratory.
The quality of water after final treatment is compared with drinking water standard and found to be within
limit. Considering the huge shortage of surface water for domestic use, use of STP water by the thermal
power plant is the need of the hour. In this paper we will compare the results and will suggest for using
the treated STP primarily for CW make up in thermal power plant though in the later stage use of treated
sewage for portable water can be considered. In compliance to the OSPCB CTO dtd. 16.03.16 ( Annex-A)
& CPCB letter dated 21.04.15 (Annex- B), it has been suggested to adopt AFM technology for TSTPS
STP. However, Vide MoEF Gazette Notification dtd 13.10.2017( Annex- C) & NGT Order dtd 30.04.2019
(Annex-D) the standards mentioned in CTO have been relaxed. However, keeping in view of the stringent
environmental norms expected to be imposed in future, the proposal of adopting AFM technology shall
help in reuse of STP Water as CW make up which will add to water conservation and reduce fresh water
intake.

49
 Session – 14 : Ash & Environment Management
INNOVATIVE COAL ASH UTILIZATION FOR ROADBED MATERIAL
T. Nakamura, S. Yokota, J Kakumazaki, A. Ohnaka, Fukushima Ecocrete Co., Ltd.,
Japan Coal Energy Center (JCOAL)
Coal-fired power is the main energy source in India now and in the future. Due to the high ash contents of
domestic coal, coal ash discharged from a coal-fired power plant in India is quite huge and its quantitatively
effective utilization is to be required and recognized to address as high priority.
This paper aims to introduce an innovative utilization of coal ash for roadbed materials made with fly ash
from the nearby coal -fired power plants.
In Japan, total amount of coal ash is 12.8 million tonnes per year. Out of that, 99% of total coal ash
is utilized. The main demand is for the cement industry, the other usage is for concrete and/or land
reclamation. According to New Strategic Energy Plan in Japan, which was authorized in 2018, fossil energy
including coal is still to be required even if more renewable energy will be installed. In this regard, the ash
utilization process to consume all ash discharged from a coal-fired plant is to be developed continuously.
Fly ash is supplied from several coal-fired power plants. This plant “Fukushima Ecocrete” is established
in 2016 after the Great East earthquake, its current capacity is 90,000t/y. The cost of artificial crushed
stone is around 1,500-2,000 yen/m3, compared with the cost of natural crushed stone and recycled
aggregate, 3,300yen/m3 and 2,300yen/m3, respectively. Another advantage of artificial crushed stone is
an environmental impact. that is the prevention of pit sand excavation (destruction of nature) and/or noise,
vibration during recycled aggregate formation. Fig.3 shows an example of application to Construction
work of the mega-solar base.
Such kinds of applications can be expected to expand to a whole area where road maintenance is required.

NATURAL RADIONUCLIDES FROM COAL FIRED THERMAL

POWER STATION : A CASE STUDY
Sudhir Dahiyaand Nishant Parmar, NTPC Environment Management Group, CC
Coal being the one of the most abundant fossil fuel, which is presently backbone for energy sector of
India. Coal based installed capacity for the nation as on 31.10.2018 is 195993 MW, which is 56.6 per cent of
total installed capacity i.e. 346048 MW. Coal being a fossil fuel found in the geological formations, which
contains many minerals in traces as well. Naturally occurring radioactive material (NORMs) like Uranium
(U), Thorium (Th), their daughter products and Potassium isotope K-40 in coal are also found. Radioactivity
is classified as natural and artificial depending upon its origin.
This paper is an attempt to compare radioactivity levels in the fly ash, bottom ash and other environmental
matrices near the vicinity of Coal based stations of NTPC. Radioactivity levels of fly ash and bottom ash are
evaluated which are being used in production of various construction materials i.e cement, fly ash bricks,
pavers, tiles, light weigh aggregates etc . To assess the radiological hazard of the natural radioactivity,
radioactivity levels of NORMs namely U, Ra, TH and K are measured through BARC. In the basis of
measured values for various matrices the radium equivalent activity (Raeq), absorbed dose rate (nGy/hr)
and the annual effective dose rate (mSv/Year) were calculated.
These average activity levels in fly ash, bottom ash and other material like pond ash, fly ash bricks are
comparable to the radioactivity levels in soils in India and lower than the world average values. The
total annual effective dose from soil and other material like fly ash, bottom ash and fly ash bricks
are at comparable levels. The results in this study (radioactivity levels in fly ash & bottom ash) were

50
compared other construction material as well. The radium equivalent activity (Raeq) of all the materials
in consideration are well less than 370 Bq/ kg. Gamma radiation levels, Atmospheric outdoor radon and
thoron and Indoor integrated radon and thoron gas levels were also measured using standard methods
and reported levels at all the locations were observed comparable to the national level and global level
in respective category.
There is no additional exposure and radiological environmental impacts from the coal based thermal
power station using Indian coals. Radioactivity levels for all NORM in fly ash and bottom are well within
the limits mentioned in the AERB directive 01/2010 for material in bulk handling.

GEOPOLYMER CONCRETE
B Nageswara Rao, NTPC, CMD Sect.
NTPC, one of the leading power producers in India, is generating millions of units of power. The by-
product of thermal plants i.e. ash is being dumped in ash dyke. NTPC is trying for ways to enhance ash
utilisation over the past few years and have been able to achieve approximately 65%.
It is imminent to find an alternative way to enhance ash utilisation to meet the MOEF guideline of 100%
utilisation. This is where the concept of Geopolymer concrete will contribute to the cause and also would
aid to lower the carbon footprint of cement usage.
Geopolymer is a type of amorphous alumino silicate cementitious material that exhibits the ideal properties
of rock forming minerals, i.e., hardness, chemical stability and longevity.
The Geopolymer concrete uses industrial wastes viz. Fly ash& GGBS as a replacement of Portland cement.
Utilization of Geopolymer concrete brings economy in construction; reduce pollution and less harmful to
the environment. Geopolymer concrete, as a replacement for Portland cement concrete has a wide scope
in India.
NTPC Ramagundam/ Telangana in association with NETRA and Annamalai University had taken up a
demonstration project of developing a 1.35 Km double lane road using Cast in situ Geopolymer concrete
(1stof its kind in India) and completed the projectsuccessfully.
Further, to enhance ash percentage, we have done brain storming and understood that as aggregates
occupies around 80% of total volume of concrete, we have taken new initiative by producing Geopolymer
coarse aggregates(GPCA) using pan mixer with fly ash as major component and succeeded in achieving
the test results as per Indian Standards.
By using geopolymer technology we can make Geopolymer precast members like boundary wall panels,
path ways, precast drains,kerb stones,inter locking tiles, building materials, roads etc leading to further
enhancement of overall fly ash utilisation in NTPC.

ZERO LIQUID DISCHARGE & WASTEWATER MANAGEMENT IN COAL

BASED THERMAL POWER PLANT
Shiv Charan Meena, Vishwajeet Ghosh, NTPC Environmental Management Group (EMG)
The water availability & consumption is critical for operating thermal power plant in India and the
necessity of adopting water-saving practices in thermal power plants is elaborated through the concept
of zero liquid discharge from the TPPs. The concept of zero liquid discharge (ZLD) with reference to
thermal power generation requires integration of discharges from multiple sources, its treatment and a
reuse scheme of treated water without affecting the input quality requirements. In practice ZLD implies

51
separation of plant effluent from storm/rain water by means of having separate network of effluent drain
and storm water drain, treatment of effluent and reuse of treated effluent in plant activity. The component
of ZLD include facilities like, ETP, AWRS, STP, CSSP etc. NTPC has taken up the implementation of ZLD at all
its stations progressively. The challenges in ZLD in the present scenario of power generation are discussed
in the paper which aims at optimization of water consumption in power plant operation.

LIMESTONE SOURCING AND GYPSUM UTILIZATION: WAY FORWARD

Vinay Kumar, Apurba Ghosh, Satrughan Lal Prasad, Raj Arjun Pandey, NTPC Engg
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate change, in its gazette notification dated 07 December
2015, amended the Environment (Protection) Rules, 1986, which makes it binding for Thermal power plants
to reduce their Sulphur Dioxide (SO2) emission. For meeting the above norms Flue Gas Desulphurization
(FGD) plant is to be set up in all the units. A typical wet FGD process requires high quality limestone and
generates gypsum as a by-product.
In view of the huge demand of limestone and high quantity of gypsum generation, due to these proposed
FGD installations, a study was done to evaluate the limestone availability and gypsum utilization potential
in and around India. The paper describes, in details, the limestone requirement in terms of its quality,
quantity and availability in and around India. It covers the existing/prospective users of gypsum along
with their utilization potential.
The paper also covers the various procurement practices being adopted by existing FGD users and
steel plants using similar grade of limestone. The gypsum procurement practices of the existing users
is also described in relevant sections. The transportation concerns due to movement of limestone from
the various sources to the point of use and transportation of gypsum from generation points to user
industries is also addressed. The paper finally concludes by highlighting the various options to be adopted
by NTPC Ltd for sourcing of limestone and utilization of Gypsum.

STATUTORY PROVISIONS OF MOEF & CC & COMPLIANCE BY

NTPC FOR 100% FLY ASH UTILIZATION
Ram Krishna Khandekar, B B Chugh, NTPC, Ash Management
Fly ash - a resource material for construction sector, environmental concern due to its huge generation
and good land areas required for safe storage etc. were taken up by the Government of India in nineties.
To address various issues and provide proper thrust for gainful utilization of fly ash, MoEF & CC issued 1st
gazette notification on fly ash utilization during 1999 and amendments during 2003, 2009 and 2016. In
these notifications, directives have been issued to fly ash producers, construction sector, mining sector, and
regulatory authorities etc. so as to achieve 100% ash utilization by all thermal power plants on sustainable
basis. NTPC has taken up ash utilization as its thrust area of activities and taken up many pro-active
actions for development of infrastructure, new and innovative areas of ash utilization and compliance of
the notification so as to have sustainable and environment friendly utilization of fly ash at its all thermal
power plants. In addition, action plan has also been prepared to stop disposal of ash in ash pond areas
and reclaim the same area for other development activities.

52
 Session – 15 : Hydro & Combined Cycle Generation

O&M BEST PRACTICES: NHPC PERSPECTIVE

Surendra Kumar Mishra, Jaganath Pani, NHPC Limited, Faridabad

A good O&M philosophy can bring in higher plantavailability, reduced or no generation loss owing
to outages & spillages, quick restoration from forced outages, optimum annual/capital maintenance
schedule, proper critical inventory management and many more benefits. Good O&M practices also
indirectly and in longer-term helps in earning more positive stakeholders’ views and act as an advocacy to
hydropower allaying dam safety concerns, and environmental or safety issues.

In NHPC, O&M division at corporate office, Faridabad is the nodal agency in respect to O&M activities of
all 20 nos.Power Stations. The learning over the years, information sharing, advancement in technology
and its accessibility have facilitated in making and adopting O&M best practices.Some of the foremost
O&M practices adopted includes the following which are detailed in the paper

I. Operational Analysis of all Plant on daily basis.

II. Tripping & Breakdown analysis.

III. Technical Inspection & Dam Safety inspection

IV. Silt/ Sediment Management

V. Critical spares & Inventory Management

VI. Annual /Capital Maintenance

VII. Adoption of New Technologies

VIII. Ancillary Services to Grid

IX. Internal MOU with Power Station

X. Training of Manpower

DIGITAL TWIN TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT OF GAS TURBINES
Ashok K Koul, Life Prediction Technologies Inc., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Three major life cycle management actions that control the maintenance costs of an engine include the off-
line compressor wash, hot gas path inspection and the major engine overhaul. Typically, an OEM prescribes
the recipes for these maintenance actions using preventive maintenance guidelines. The timelines for
these maintenance actions remain universal for a specific engine design irrespective of the type of usage
seen by a specific engine or its operating environment. Intuitively, all users understand the fundamental
flaws in the design of these maintenance strategies because it affects their bottom line and the demands
for creating actual usage based approaches to life cycle management of these expensive assets has been
gaining momentum over the years. Slowly but surely predictive maintenance is taking hold in the industry
and digital solutions are expected to play a major role in reducing the life cycle management costs. This
has also led to the development of different “Digital Twin” concepts in the industry.

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A “Digital Twin” is a computer model which mirrors and simulates the operation of an asset or itsindividual
components or a system of assets and their surrounding environment. In addition to asset life cycle
management, Digital twin models can also be used for anomaly detection and performance optimization.
Two types of technologies have emerged for gas turbines; (1) data driven approach and (2) physical
model based approach. The presentation shall focus on both types of approaches from an engine lifecycle
management perspective including their strengths and weaknesses.

Initially, a threshold based approach for loss of efficiency, increased fuel flow and exhaust gas temperature
(EGT) etc. was proposed to make maintenance decisions. In fact, EGT margin analysis is still routinely used
to make gas path inspection and repair decisions for aero engines. With advances in data analytics in the
last 20 years, data driven frameworks involving combinations of advanced pattern recognition algorithms
and machine learning techniques have been proposed for predicting the occurrence of an impending
failure, remaining useful life (RUL) and prognostics (predictive maintenance) based actions using sensor
data.

The general wisdom has been to train and validate such systems using field failure data assuming that
sufficient failure data is available to provide valid indications and this is seldom the case. To begin with,
sufficient failure data would be required for a specific failure mode (creep, low cycle fatigue, thermal-
mechanical fatigue) for a specific component in the turbine assembly, such as a specific stage of turbine
blades, turbine vanes or discs that may drive the maintenance actions. The word “sufficient” also needs to
be quantified. Assuming a Wiebull life distribution of a given part, a minimum of thirteen field failure data
points would be required to have some confidence in the characteristic life (63.5%) predictions. Unless
there is a fundamental flaw in the turbine design, the required amount of field failure data to train a data
driven system may be difficult to obtain.

Data driven approach has however been augmented using physics based engine modeling techniques and
this has led to the development of an optimized off-line compressor wash prediction leading to maximum
cost savings. This system is currently being beta tested in the field. Physical model based simulation
systems have also been developed using multi-physics modeling approaches to predict the hot gas path
as well as engine core (turbine discs and spacers) structural integrity and their damage modes for actual
engine usage to identify the maintenance drivers upfront.

This technology has also been shown to lead to more accurate remaining useful life prediction of hot gas
path as well as engine core components. The only limitation of this technology is that the part geometry
must be known to build the physical models for simulation purposes. Some reverse engineering is thus
required to build the physical model for simulation purposes. The technology has also been applied to
extend the life of design life expired rotors using MIL-HDBK-1783B guidelines.

SYSTEM IMPROVEMENTS THROUGH CONTINUOUS LEARNINGS

Vikas Garg, Chetanpreet Singh, NTPC Koldam

Koldam Hydro Power Station is the first operational Hydro Plant of NTPC Ltd. It was commissioned in July
2015 and since then the plant has performed exceedingly well in terms of Availability and Generation.
Being first hydro power station of NTPC Ltd., O&M team started the work from the bottom of the learning
curve. The challenges faced by the maintenance team were different and unique and therefore it took time
for the maintenance engineers to study and analyze the problems and to find appropriate solutions for
each type of problems. Erosion of underwater parts was not significant due to less amount of silt in the
reservoir; however, the quantum of silt in water is increasing as per the trend of last 2-3 years.

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This paper attempts to highlight some of the issues faced in the Mechanical area and the improvements
carried out through continuous learning over a period

PROBLEM OF HIGH THRUST BEARING TEMPERATURE & THE CORRECTIVE ACTION – A

CASE STUDY OF URI POWER STATION

Suraj Dhiman, NHPC Limited, Parbati-III

This paper outlines high thrust bearing temperature issue faced at Uri Power Station, explains the diagnosis
of the root of cause and corrective measures taken for successfully ensuring reliable operation of the
generating units.

R & M OF OUTDOOR SWITCHYARD STRUCTURES, GENERATOR TRANSFORMERS &

OTHER CONNECTED EQUIPMENTS AT 139.2 MW MAHATMA GANDHI HYDRO ELECTRIC
STATION (MGHE-1948) OF KPCL IN THE INDIAN STATE OF KARNATAKA.

P L Chaithanya Prabhu, Dinesh Kumar, Madhusudhan K, KPCL, Karnataka, Bharath Nayak, GDPH

This paper explains Renovation & Modernization of Outdoor switchyard structures, Generator Transformers,
Road connectivity improvements connected with 139.2 MW(after uprating) Mahatma Gandhi Hydro
Electric Station (120 MW installed Capacity commissioned during 1948) of Karnataka Power Corporation
Limited - a leading PSU with 8846 MW Installed capacity (Hydro, Thermal & other sources) in Power
Generation sector in the Indian state of Karnataka.

The MGHE Power House with basic installed capacity of 120 MWs was commissioned during 1948, with
Switch Yard established between 1947 to 1952.The power House was majorly under the supervision of
State Transmission Utility KEB. It was handed over to Visveswaraya Vidyuth Nigam Limited (in 1999) which,
later in 2006 got merged to KPCL –exclusive State owned Power Generating utility since 1970. From 2007
onwards, there is no look back - many a stream of timely R & M oriented activities have been going on
starting from Improvements to water conduit system; up to Primary equipment up gradation etc., After
the commissioning of Main & Large installed capacity Sharavathy Generating Station (1035MW) in 1970’s,
only minimum passage water through regulating gates around 500 Cusecs( inclusive of drinking water to
the colony and other connected habitats) and spill over from Linganamakki Dam (during peak Monsoon)
happen to be the normal source of input to MGHE and this limited opportunity of resource has been
made to MGHE –a peak assisting plant to the tune of 139.2 MW. As the approach to MGHE was very
complex-, terrain wise, a trolley system was provided for conveyance earlier and same is being taken up
at present for re-strengthening for safe operation. Meanwhile, sharp curvature in the alternate existing
road also have been re-strengthened for enabling smooth & safe transportation of 50-55 tonnage loads
like Generator Transformer etc., As part of renovation, First Stage Units ( 4 Nos.) Generator Transformers
are in the process of replacement. The switchyard comprises of 110 kV double bus bar with 8 Units and 6
Outgoing Lines. The switchyard structures are almost 70 years old, having undergone various Monsoon
cycles leading to corrosion of structures. Also on these structures, the riveting done has given a way and
the thickness of the lattice angles have got reduced due to atmospheric conditions.

At some locations, the lattice members had fallen down jeopardizing the safe working environment. It
called for early re-construction of Switchyard with latest available modern equipments. The work was

55
designed and planned for execution in two phases without affecting the available Generation in a phased
manner.

This paper also contains explicit mention of the various design concepts & erection works involved
followed by testing and re-commissioning of Generating Unit at Linganamakki Dam Power House (55MW)
commissioned during 1979, where one of the 2 units with 27.5MW capacity has undergone latest R & M
activities during July-2019 with works like replacement of Governor, Excitation system, Provision of SCADA
and DCS, new relays etc., have been discussed in the main content.

BEST MAINTENANCE PRACTICE FOR EFFICIENT OPERATION AND COST EFFECTIVE

STRATEGIES FOR COMMUNICATION IMPROVEMENT– TWO CASE STUDIES IN THE
SUBJECT IMPLEMENTATION IN THE STATE ENTERPRISE KPCL

R. Nagaraja, Upendra Patkar, P L Chaithanya Prabhu, KPCL, B Sundara Poojari , GDPH

This paper elucidates 2 case studies related to proven O&M Practices and cost effective generation
strategies adapted in various hydro power complexes of Karnataka Power Corporation limited, a leading
PSU with 8846 MW Installed capacity (Hydro, Thermal & Other sources) in Power Generation sector in the
Indian state of Karnataka.

Effective maintenance strategies for trouble free operation is the backbone of every Power utility, with
systematic planning and timely maintenance schedule; machine down time can be minimized to a greater
extent. The paper contains Special post commissioning issues related to hydraulics - tackled at (4 X 115
MW) Varahi Under Ground Power House (VUGPH) and cost effective augmentation of communication
system by extension of available stable mobile network (voice and data connectivity) through fiber to
control room of 4 x 60 MW Gerusoppa Power House.

The present Management of KPCL has been making sustained & dedicated efforts in the field of Power
utility reform for performance improvement in a competitive environment as also transforming power
generation in to a commercially viable & sustainable enterprise by adopting well defined cost effective
approach in each and every sphere of day to day activities. In this direction, in-house ERP packages tailor
made to suit the immediate local needs of the industry have been developed, which demand proactive
work culture in the plant zone for performance improvement. Hence, as seen from a perspective of well
defined / established conventional ERP model to be visualized for full pledge time bound implementation,
a good beginning has been made which is set for a long way to go. This is imminent in view of the
constraints under which a basic infrastructure like Power Generating Industry that too as a state utility will
be functioning.

It is necessary to have a thorough exchange of Process / Steps involved in above said implementation
with the field counterparts (in this National level technical Forum/Platform) to enable optimum & timely
implementation for realizing the entire objective.

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 Session – 16 : Fuel Management

INNOVATION OF AUDIO SILO CLEANING AND CLOGGING REMOVAL DEVICE

WANG ZHE, SAGTA ENGINEERING LTD, SHANGHAI

There are big challenges in power plant operation with clogging of silos and bunkers and scaling on heat exchanger/
boiler/ESP and many other place. It will bring the risk of emergency shut down and/or low efficiency of the system.

The innovative audio silo cleaning and clogging removal device will 100% resolve those problems.

It is a on line real time cleaning, free of maintenance, long life time, easy application and total automation technology.
Limited investment bring great value

Material is vibrated in resonance with certain frequency of sound wave. By vibration, the material particles will be
apart of each others. Under the loose condition, the material will flow sufficiently.

Audio silo clearing and clogging removal device is to flow compressed air through the audio sounding device,
through the audio resonance cavity to produce a strong audio wave, and then amplify the audio sound wave by the
audio amplifier, into the application area.

Sound wave propagates in flue, furnace and silo, which affects the synchronous vibration of ash particles in air or
flue gas.

Under the action of sound wave vibration and repeated accumulation, it is difficult for small particles to approach
the ash exposed surface.

High-efficiency acoustic wave can also destroy and peel the dust deposited on the heating surface, so as to achieve
the purpose of clogging removal

Advantage

• Simple operation, cleaning silo at any time, no need to stop production, do not affect normal production

• Compared with manual silo cleaning, the efficiency of silo cleaning has been greatly improved and clean the
silo wall more thoroughly.

• Unmanned real-time cleaning of silo wall is realized.

• Reduce the security risk of personnel clearance to the lowest level, approximately 0. The casualties that may
arise in the process of silo cleaning will be eliminated.

• Real-time ash removal can be achieved in parts that cannot be cleaned manually or by other means.

• Energy Saving and Efficiency Increase

• Dust emission is reduced.

• To ensure the continuity of safety in production.

• Wide coverage: a single unit can cover 12 square meters, 50 meters high.

• Strong energy: the audio propagates in the range of 25-360Hz randomly by vibration.

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• Low energy consumption: single unit consumes 0.15 cubic meters per minute, working pressure is 0.25-0.3
MPa.

• Long service life: The service life of the main body of the equipment is more than 10 years.

COAL TRANSPORTATION – ISSUES AND WAY FORWARD

Kiran GS, Manoj Kumar Mishra, NTPC, CC-FT

NTPC group with 58,816 MW of installed capacity has 87% of coal fired generation which for considerable
time period may remain the major part. With modern economy challenging traditional power plant
operations, and advent of schemes like Merit Order, SCED and measures towards sustainable environment,
coal fired power plants need to ensure optimum operation within the established economic and physical
parameters.

NTPC group has moved 194.2 MMT of coal in FY 2018-19 out of which MGRs have moved 93.1 MMT and
IR rakes have moved 101.1 MMT. NTPC can proudly boast its presence as a parallel railway system with
combined track of more than 2000 kilometers, 2300+ wagons, 179 locomotives and dedicated manpower
of around 900. MGR stands as an opportunity for NTPC to enable sustained coal generation in pithead
stations at economical rates.

MGRs were established with standards comparable to Indian Railways with in-house skilled manpower and
parallel induction from Indian Railways. But over the period of time, their performance and reliability has
reduced due to non-adoption of modern techniques and uneven O&M practices. There is an immediate
need to reevaluate the MGRs in line with Detailed Project Report (DPR) mandated performance and life
cycle, modern practices of asset management including modernization of wagon fleet and locomotives
and electrification.

On the other hand, high efficiency power plants which are established as load centre stations are being
less used due to high landed cost of coal and low merit order position. In this context, it may be prudent
to rework on the existing paradigm of coal linkages which were allotted without considering the Energy
Charge Rate (ECR). Coal procurement may be rationalized based on sellable cost of electricity produced
(at least one unit to continuously run at all stations), flexible utilization of coal and overcoming railway
infrastructure bottlenecks.

To address the above issues and to gear up for the future, a multipronged approach with focus on safe,
economic and efficient operations is to be aimed at, which will be discussed in the pape.

COAL SOURCE RATIONLISATION - ‘A WAY TOWARDS REDUCING

ECR FOR NTPC KHARGONE’

Vijay Goel, H.S. Bagga, NTPC, Khargone

The power generation situation in the country has improved in the last few years. However, the sector
continues to face several issues. The Standing Committee on Energy (2018) noted that higher tariff is a
key reason for lower electricity demand. For Discoms the cost of purchasing power from a power plant is

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roughly 75-80% of the total expenditure. Therefore, any shift in the cost of power can significantly affect
the retail tariff. The Ministries of Power and Coal have been trying to address some of these concerns.
It suggested that generation cost can be reduced by improving the availability of cheaper indigenous
coal, rationalising coal supply sources, and adapting new technology as per indigenous coal. They noted
that between 2014 and 2016, the rationalisation of coal linkages (buying coal from a mine closer to the
power plant) has resulted in estimated savings of Rs 3,000 crore per annum on transportation costs. It
further noted that auctioning coal linkages through SHAKTI will give consumers the option to bid for a
source of their choice, thereby reducing coal transportation costs. NTPC Khargone is NTPC’s first Ultra
supercritical power plant with having coal linkage from NTPC Captive mine PakriBarwadih. Due to the
long distance from Pakri Barwadih (1326 KM), coal transportation cost constituted a major component of
NTPC Khargone ECR.

‘This paper provides an insight into policy initiative of coal swapping/source rationlisation recently taken
by GOI to reduce the cost of power. NTPC Khargone project prospective through this policy has been
analyzed by a case study of exploring the coal swapping options for one unit requirement with 2.0 MTA
NCL coal of NTPC Mauda & 1.40 MTA coal of WCL with 3.40 MTA coal of Pakri Barwadih coal of NTPC
Khargone. NTPC being the biggest and trendsetter power producer of India is also expected to take the
lead in exploring the opportunities of this policy of coal swapping/source rationlisation specially for non-
pit head thermal projects where coal transportation cost is constitutes a major component of landed fuel
cost/ECR of station.

Two options were found feasible for coal swapping with NTPC Khargone.

1. Swapping of 2.0 MTA coal with NTPC Mauda :-

2. Swapping of 1.40 MTA coal with NTPC Gadarwara :-

Total saving in coal transportation cost per rake (4000 MT) for NTPC Khargone by swapping 2.0 MTAPakri
coal with 2.0 MTA NCL coal of Mauda and 1.40 MTA Pakri coal with 1.40 MTA WCL coal of Gadarwara is
Rs. 26.88 lacs per rake. The annual saving potential is Rs. 218.40 crores which will lead to reduction in ECR
of NTPC Khargone by Rs. 0.32/kwh. (Table 6.a)The grade of coal swapping will be similar to the coal grade
presently received from Pakri (G9 grade).Hence there will be no impact on the quality of the coal received
and therefore on the performance of the plant.

By implementing the above proposed coal swapping model will leads to reduction in ECR of NTPC
Khargone by 32 Paisa/kwh. Hence the merit order rating of NTPC Khargone will improve by 7 positions
and post coal swapping NTPC Khargone is expected to get partial/full schedule round theyear.The ECR of
Gadarwara project is likely to increase by minimal 1 Paisa/kwh by implementing thecoal swapping of 1.40
MTA WCL coal with Pakri coal. However, the merit order rating of NTPCGadarwara will not change, hence
no adverse effect is seen for NTPCGadarwara station. The ECR of Mauda stage-II is also likely to increase
by 1.5 Paisa/kwh by implementing the coal swapping of 2.00 MTA NCL coal with Pakri coal. However,
the merit order rating of NTPC Mauda stage-II will not change hence no adverse effect is seen for NTPC
Mauda stage-II.

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 SAFE UNLOADING THROUGH WAGON TIPPLER

Surojit Sinha, NTPC Mouda, MNageswara Rao, NTPC Simhadri

Mouda is proving its mettle by providing uninterrupted electricity (2220 MW) on demand to nation and
is relying solely on Wagon tipplers for complete coal unloading for the station. Our journey with tipplers
started Sep 2013 onwards. Apart from technical challenges, s afety is a major area of concern as human
interference is required during sampling, coupling & decoupling of coal rake at inhaul side & resetting
wagon coupling after unloading. Many on site modifications has been carried out to make tippler complex
environment more safe and reliable.Our presentation primarily covers the safety aspects.

CARBON CAPTURE AND UTILISATION : A ROAD AHEAD

Sandeep Kumar, Gnyanankur Sonowal, Ashutosh Kumar, NTPC Korba

Greenhouse gases are generated by the combustion of fossil fuels like water vapours, carbon dioxide,
methane capture the heat radiated from earth’s surface back to the atmosphere leading to a phenomenon
named global warming. This causes an increase in the earth’s surface temperature. In nature plants absorb
the CO2 which is a major GHG but due to de-forestation, situation is very acute. It is estimated that by
2100, on a worldwide average, the temperature would rise by 1-3.5oC and global MSL would rise by 15-
95 cm. This would cause loss of habitat in low lying areas, problems in agriculture which is an important
economic sector. It would lead to extreme weather conditions like hot or cold spells of temperature, wet
or dry spells of rainfall, cyclones or floods.

This Dossier is an attempt to provide feasible and sustainable solution to these rapidly growing
environmental concerns with respect to GHG emissions. Carbon capture and storage technology has
been underway for a long time but only CCS plant in the world that is operating on a large scale is
situated in Norway and this plant is feasible only because the captured CO2 is being utilised in enhanced
oil recovery EOR. Since it is not much beneficial to use the captured CO2 in India as reflected in previous
studies, the conversion of CO2 into useful syngas or SOLAR-JET fuel using the proven technology can be
a better option. The same has been discussed in detail in this report and the investment and operational
costs have been calculated using the simulation software tool IECM for 200MW coal based thermal power
plants to capture CO2. Carbon emission reduction is achieved significantly by Switzerland using CCS
technology and subsequent conversion of the captured CO2 into SOLAR-JET fuel is the highlight of how
successful these technologies are. The syngas produced through thermo chemical reduction using solar
energy can be utilised to generate electricity and the best turbines for this purpose has been analysed
through a case study. These special types of turbines from GE, Siemens are suitable for high Ramp IN/
OUT operation which will be quite helpful in the coming scenario of amended CERC tariff regulation as
discussed in this report. The transmutation process which accounts for conversion of carbon and oxygen
into steel are described which is utilised for mitigation of carbon. Pure carbon is recoveredfrom CO2 with
the latest technology which is experimentally established using metal alloys as catalyst andresulting in
carbon and oxygen as the by-products. Recovery of carbon from CO2 establishes the closed loop system
of power generation from carbon which may be the answer to our ever increasing energy demands that
too in an eco-friendly manner.

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The challenge for India is to strike a balance between increase in coal power growth on one hand and
the need to address climate issues on the other. We propose that GoIand NTPC should come forward to
promote R&D in these CCU technologies.

HANDLING OF MILL REJECT IN THERMAL POWER PLANTS – A CHALLENGING

ISSUE WITH SEVERE IMPACT ON ENVIRONMENT

Adarsh Tiwari, Prag Sood, K G Rao, HK Sikri NTPC Mouda

Water & Coal are the essential natural resources required for the sustainable operation of Thermal Power
sector thereby powering the growth of any nation. Water & Coal requirements in power sector is substantial
high and in present scenario many power plants across our country are not able to get the sufficient
coal from coal companies to run the machines on base load. On one hand, the stringent environment
norms in stack emissions specifically for new units is a challenge for power plants and on other hands
the degradation in coal quality and its availability is hitting the nerves of power producers. Under these
circumstances, powers sector has not only to optimize its processes to meet the environmental norms, but
at the same time it has to assure that its machines are available 24 x 7 to run as per customer requirements
that too at lower ECR merit order.

NTPC Ltd has been a pioneer in the power sector and has led from the front in boosting the power growth
of our country. With its pace in capacity addition and assured uninterrupted & reliable power generation
from its older units, NTPC Ltd, a Maharatana PSU has set benchmark for its private players / competitors
not only in India but globally also. In present scenario of competitive market, generation cost is to be
competitive enough to get schedule for generation for which generator has to make its processes not
only efficient but reliable too. On one side, plant availability is a criteria for profitability of station and on
the other side coal availability is a big concern for power utilities including NTPC Ltd. In 2019-209, power
utilities across nation including NTPC stations has faced acute coal shortage ample no of times forcing its
station to fall into critical and super critical zones in terms of fuel availability at stations.

Despite of fuel supply & availability gap, NTPC Ltd has left no stone untouched to make coal supply
arrangements to its all stations so that none of its stations are forced to stop the units in view of coal
shortage. This fuel arrangements has been ablessings in disguise for NTPC Mouda, as the station is
getting its coal from almost all subsidiaries of CIL [ NCL, CCL, BCCL,WCL, SECL,ECL,MCL etc], SCCL. From
all of these subsidiaries, coal is being received from more than 30 – 35 differentmines sources with Gross
Calorific Value [ GCV] ranging from 2200 to 5500 Kcal / Kg [ On EM basis]. Besides GCV, the other crucial
factor from environmental prospective is the Sulphur content in the coal, which is directly affecting the
Sulphurdioxide emissions in the stack. In Mouda, the Sulphur content is varying between 0.2 % to as high
as 2.5 %. Coal of WCL, SCCL in domestic front and imported Indonesian coal is havingsulphur content
more than 1 %. Handling of coal in boiler furnace with such a wide range of Sulphur has been a very
challenging phase for NTPCMouda, not only in the SO2 emissions point of view but also in terms of the
high pyrites in the mill rejects.

This paper provides an insight into the “Study of handling of mill rejects with high pyritic Sulphur in
Thermal Power plants”. Paper includes a case study on “Learning Experience of handling of mill rejects
with high pyritic Sulphur and its potential impacts on environment at NTPC Mouda”. The key objective of
documentation of this paper is to understand and dissemination of learnings experienced at NTPC Mouda
in handling of mill rejects with high pyritic Sulphur with special emphasis on the detrimental impacts of
acidic leachate which is generated from the mill rejects.

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