During the 1990s and 2000s, many combined-cycle plants were implemented in the United States for a wide range of applications. With the economic turbulence we have experienced in the last decade, deregulation of the electricity market and the ever-rising price of natural gas, many of these plants began to make sacrifices to keep their production levels high, sometimes at the cost of efficiency.
With demand of production peaking at several times during a standard workday, some manufacturers had to start "double-cycling" their plants, meaning they would cover the morning peak, shut down production, and then restart to cover the afternoon or evening peak. As most of these plants were not designed to handle this stress, many manufacturers are noticing reduced life of their components and experiencing higher costs for replacement and repair than they had originally anticipated. An article from Power Magazine has this perspective:
"In actuality, few owners are capable of accurately projecting these statistics over a 30-plus-year life cycle. The assumed inspection and maintenance programs in the conventional LCA (Life-Cycle Analysis) for the typical combined-cycle plant are based on fixed periodic intervals and statistical information derived from baseloaded units. But an inspection and maintenance program for any unit should take into account the actual operation of the HRSG, not merely the theoretical operating profile. Deviate from those design assumptions, and the actual life of critical components may be severely compromised"
Manufacturers will quickly find that the hidden costs of maintaining these over-exhausted machines might take a hefty chunk out of their companies' budgets. Cycling occurs when machines are run and then shut down to meet grid demand and provide owners with the most efficient and cost-effective production values. Unfortunately, it simply isn't practical to run these machines in cyclic conditions without incurring the cost of unforeseen maintenance and part replacement.
To read the article at Powermag.com, follow the link:
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