CONTRACTUAL POWER  PLANT PERFORMANCE TEST

POWER PLANT PERFORMANCE GUARANTEES

Contractual power plant performance testing to verify the power plant performance guarantees for new power plants as well for upgrade, maintenance and LTSA programs in existing plants.

Compliance with the performance testing protocols from ASME, ISO, DIN  and other standardization entities.

Coal Power Plants | Combined Cycles | Steam Turbines | Gas Turbines | Combustion Engines

INDEPENDENT & IMPARTIAL

Contractual power plant performance test to verify the power plant performance guarantees in new and existing power plants. The goal is to compare the testing results vs the performance guarantees and in case of a shortfall being able to pinpoint the potential causes.

The measured values are corrected back to the reference site conditions using the contractual correction curves.

A site-specific performance test procedure will be created following the guidelines from performance testing codes such as ASME, DIN and ISO. A test uncertainty will be calculated to verify that is within the expected values specified in ASME PTC 19.1 for the type of power plant, fuel and plant configuration.

LEVELS OF ACCURACY & PRECISION

Power Plant Performance Test

PRECISION TESTING

Performance test conducted using precision instrumentation and following strictly the applicable performance testing codes. The test results typically are used for contractual evaluations that require low levels of performance test uncertainty.

Benefits:
High-Accuracy & Low Uncertainty, Contractual compliance.

MEDIUM ACCURACY TEST

Test conducted using a combination of DCS, station and precision instruments. Used for diagnostic and dispatch evaluations. Use precision instrumentation for the most meaningful parameters to increase the confidence in the results.

Benefits:
Practical test to pinpoint specific performance issues.

BASIC EVALUATION

Evaluation conducted using the permanent instrumentation installed in the plant. This test is usually conducted to understand the current performance of the plant and give an idea of the main areas that can improve. Mostly used for internal evaluations.

Benefits:
Practical Evaluation, Low-Cost, No Shut-Down time.

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GUARANTEED PARAMETERS

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TYPICAL PARAMETERS

These are some of the typical parameters guaranteed in new and existing power plants. Depending on the contract, additional parameters can be included.

Power Plant Electrical Output

The electrical power output is a typical guaranteed output. The location for the power output measurement is defined by the boundary conditions. The output could be the gross power output measured at the generation terminals, net output after discounting the electrical losses and auxiliary consumption or the export point to the grid. The output is also one of the most important parameters that will need to be measured with precision instrumentation.

Plant Heat Rate

Power plant heat rate is defined as amount of energy used to produced each kWh. The power plant heat rate is dependent on the measurement for fuel flow, the fuel heating value and the power output. The measurement of this parameter is not a direct measurement, but rather a calculation. The power plant heat rate has a direct correlation with the power plant efficiency. In order to comply with the expected uncertainty levels, per ASME 19.1;  precision measurement devices are to be installed temporary in the power plant.

Power Plant Efficiency

Power plant efficiency is defined as the percentage of the input energy that is converted into electricity, steam of heated air production. For the evaluation of the plant efficiency, it is important to ensure that its overall calculation includes the measurements around the plant, the boundary conditions and fuel analysis.

Auxiliary Consumption

Auxiliary consumption is of key importance for the performance of power plants. Accounting the correct list of auxiliary consumption allows to evaluate the performance guarantees. Some of the challenges to measure auxiliaries are how to measure the electrical consumption of each equipment. There are different types of auxiliaries as well, such as continuous or discontinuous or share equipment between power generation blocks.

Performance Degradation

Power plant performance degradation is important to account for new power plants in which the contractual power plant performance guarantees call for testing the plant within a certain amount of operating hours. For LTSA contracts, there is usually a performance guarantee defined by the degradation of the plant or equipment based on the operating hours of the plant. There are two types of power plant degradation to take into account: the recoverable and non-recoverable degradation and is important to minimize as much as possible testing the plant with recoverable power plant performance degradation in the plant or equipment.

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BOUNDARY & REFERENCE CONDITIONS

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To evaluate the power plant performance guarantees successfully it is important to define the boundary and reference conditions based on the contractual specifications.

Boundary Conditions

Boundary conditions define the limits around the power plant that define the equipment and parameters  within the contractual scope for the purpose of conducting a contractual performance test. This include, for example, the limits at which power plant output will be measured or if certain equipment is within the scope of the contract or not. This sounds straightforward, however, we must remember that power plants are complex projects that involve several equipment suppliers and operation limitations.

Reference Conditions

Power plants operate under a great deal of parameters that are out of their control. For example, ambient conditions, fuel specifications, influence of external equipment in the plant, grid frequency or power factor. At the same time the test, specially in new projects, must occur as soon as the plant is ready to reach operation. In order to compare the measured performance to the power plant performance guarantees, there is a basis of operating conditions at which the measured performance must be calculated. These are defined as the refence conditions.

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CORRECTION CURVES

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In order to translate the measured results back to the reference conditions, there is the need to have power plant performance correction curves that accurate reflect the impact of the difference parameters in the performance of the power plant. Per ASME PTC 46 section 5, these correction factors should be used by agreement with the all the involved parties.

It should be noted that individual equipment correction curves are used to evaluate the specific equipment and can’t be combined to calculate the overall plant performance. The overall plant performance curves are the result of modeling the plant using software like EBSILON, THERMOFLOW and others. This allow to reflect the effect of each reference parameter in the total plant and the combined operation of each power plant equipment. We can help you create the power plant performance model and the required power plant performance correction curves for evaluating the power plant performance guarantees.

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POWER PLANT PERFORMANCE
TESTING CODES

All our power plant performance services comply with the standardization testing codes from  ASME, ISO , DIN and other international and local organizations.

SOME OF THE TESTING CODES USED FOR PERFORMANCE TESTING

ASME PTC 46 Performance Test Code – Overall Power Plant Performance

ASME PTC 4 – Fired Boiler Performance Test Code

ASME PTC 6 Performance Test Code – Steam Turbines

ASME PTC 22 Gas Turbine Performance

ASME PTC 4.4 Gas Turbine Heat Recovery Steam Generators

ASME PTC 12.2 Performance Test Code – Steam Surface Condensers

AGA Report No. 3, Part 2: Orifice Metering of Natural Gas and Other Related Hydrocarbon Fluids

AGA Report No. 8, Part 1, Thermodynamic Properties of Natural Gas and Related Gases, DETAIL and GROSS Equations of State

ISO 5167  Measurement of fluid flows by means of differential pressure devices inserted in circular cross-section conduits running

ASME PTC 19.1 Performance Test Code – Test Uncertainty

ASME PTC 19.5 Flow Measurement Save

IAPWS – IFC97  Properties of Water and Steam

ASME PTC 36 Measurement of Industrial Sound

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