Blog
Where to Start
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 10 Nine posts of argument come down to one question: what does the plant look like when somebody finally looks at all of it? This series began with a claim that sounds like heresy in a gas plant: the turbine is not where most of your...
The Business Case
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 9 Every deferral in this series was defensible on its own. That is precisely how the number got this large. Nobody in this series made a bad decision. That is the part worth sitting with. The condenser cleaning slipped because the...
Coatings, Insulation, and Structure
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 8 The lowest-priority work on the plant, carrying the steepest cost curve on the plant. Those two facts are related. Corrosion is the only failure mode on a power plant that never stops working. It doesn’t need the unit online. It...
Fuel Gas and Electrical Systems
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 7 Two systems that almost never fail — and can keep a plant off the grid for a year when they do. Every maintenance program in the industry is built on frequency. What breaks often gets attention, a spare on the shelf, and a line in...
The Gas Turbine Inlet
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 6 The only system on the plant whose failure gets blamed on something else — usually on the most expensive asset you own. Output is off about two percent. Heat rate has crept. Nobody can point to an event, so the water washes get...
Catalyst Systems and CEMS
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 5 The one place on the plant where deferral doesn’t buy you time. It buys you a deadline somebody else sets. The day a notice of violation arrives, the plant is usually running fine. Nothing tripped. Nothing alarmed. Availability for...
Cooling and the Summer Peak
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 4 The one system that takes its cut without ever tripping a unit, setting an alarm, or generating a line in the outage report. Every other failure on a plant announces itself. A tube leak takes the unit down. A compressor problem...
The HRSG
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 3 No moving parts, a fraction of the attention, and more forced outages to its name than anything else on site. Ask a plant manager to name the riskiest asset on site and you’ll usually hear “the turbine.” Pull five years of...
More Than a Turbine
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 2 Why the best-run plants treat availability as a property of the whole system — and manage it that way. Two combined-cycle plants: same vintage, same OEM equipment, similar staffing. One runs at 96% availability year after year. The...
The Stakes Have Changed
THE WHOLE PLANT IMPERATIVE • PART 1 For twenty years, deferring maintenance was a safe bet. On today’s grid, it may be the most expensive one you can make. Start with the worst possible afternoon. It’s the hottest day of the summer, the grid is leaning on every...
