Power generation:
combined cycle

Bently Nevada asset condition monitoring

The first industrial gas turbine power plant went on line in
1939, in Neuchatel, Switzerland. The simple-cycle turbine
generated 4 MW of electrical power at an overall efficiencyof 17%. Today, gas turbine power plants generate 30% of theworld’s power with combined-cycle efficiencies three times
greater than the original simple-cycle plant.

While renewable technologies form an increasing
percentage of generation capacity, combined-cycle plants
will continue to play a vital role for the foreseeable future inmeeting the world’s demand for electrical power.

For more than 60 years, Bently Nevada systems have beenmonitoring the condition of machinery in power plants, usingsophisticated technology that was invented in our own labs
by our rotor dynamicists.
Whether it’s turbine supervisory instrumentation on the main
turbine-generator trains, portable data collection systems
on numerous low-criticality pumps and motors, wirelessvibration monitoring on cooling fans, or software to monitor
the thermodynamic efficiency of the entire generation cycle,
we have a comprehensive portfolio of systems and services
that help you protect your machinery, monitor its condition,and optimize its operation and maintenance.

Your challenges

With the complexity of a modern combined-cycle power
plant, unplanned downtime is exceedingly costly, whether
from lost revenues, O&M costs, contractual penalties, orregulatory fines. As such, your mechanical assets need to run
at—or even beyond—original design capacity, reliably, andpredictably.
Our asset management solutions can help you meet many ofyour most critical challenges, such as:• Extending the time between planned outages• Reducing the duration of planned outages• Maximizing an asset’s useful life while optimizing its
maintenance and operating costs• Minimizing unplanned outages and downtime• Reducing fuel costs• Protecting critical machinery against catastrophic
mechanical failures• Reducing unnecessary maintenanceIn the pages that follow, we will show you exactly where oursolutions can be applied and the benefits that they deliver ina typical combined-cycle facility, whether applied at a single
plant or across an entire enterprise.

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The business case

Payback through protection

Our solutions help protect your machinery from catastrophic
failures and their costs.
For more than 60 years, the Bently Nevada name has been recognized for
its industry leadership in machinery protection and condition monitoring.
Today, with more than one million channels of machinery protection
installed worldwide, customers have made us the proven choice for machine
protection. We not only protect your machinery, but our legendary productquality, deep application expertise, and highly competent locally available
service help protect your condition monitoring investment as well.

Payback through mechanical validation

Our solutions let you capture baseline machinery conditions,pre- and post-maintenance, giving you a reference for
optimal decision making.

Machinery protection and asset condition monitoring
systems are an investment that pays back quickly and innumerous ways. Today, such systems have moved from
simply “good engineering practice” to “good businesspractice.” And for good reason—they have proven theirvalue time and again in not just the power generationindustry, but nearly every industry that depends upon its
machinery as part of the production process.

One of the most crucial times in the life of a machine is immediately after
maintenance has been performed. We can tell you if “all is well” with systems
that capture relevant data both before and after maintenance. You can
instantly see if problems are present and make decisions accordingly. For
many customers, the ability to knowledgeably continue with or abort thestartup of a turbine-generator train can more than pay for their entire system
in a single event.

Payback through predictive maintenanceOur solutions deliver information that allows you to perform
maintenance when conditions—not calendars—dictate.
The results of a predictive maintenance program enabled by our condition
monitoring solutions speak for themselves. Consider this European power
generation customer’s findings when they benchmarked the 25 years they
have been using condition monitoring as the basis for their maintenancedecisions versus the calendar-based approach they relied on previously:• Time between outages increased by 80%• Outage durations decreased by 60%• Fleet availability increased by 3.5%45

Integrated conditionand performancemonitoring applications
in combined‑cycle
power plants

Data lake
Plant data network
System 1 software

Turbine Supervisory
Instrumentation (TSI)
Protection and condition monitoringmeasurements specifically for large
turbine-generator sets; includes
bearing vibration and temperatures,
differential expansion, case expansion,
rotor eccentricity, rotor accelerationand speed, overspeed, valve position,
zero speed, and more

Protection

Condition monitoring

Performance

Online, continuousmachinery protection

Online continuous

Online, thermodynamic
performance monitoringand optimization

Online periodic(wired or wireless)
Offline periodic(portable instrument)

1. Central and/or remote monitoring anddiagnostics center• Machinery health516• Thermodynamic performance• Condition monitoring system health
2. Performance and optimization software

4• Efficiency/heat rate optimization• Supervisory control
3. MV/LV electrical distribution equipment
4. Heat recovery steam generators
5. Demineralized water system
6. Training
7. Gas turbines
718

8. Gas turbine-driven generators
9. Boiler feed pumps2

10. Condensate pumps

89

11. Machine diagnostic services• Problem identification17• Root-cause isolation

311• Baseline data collection

1012• Field balancing and alignment• Failure analysis• Roto modeling14

12. Steam turbine generator

13

13. Condenser
15
16

14. Site installation services
15. Transformers
16. Lube and hydraulic oil pumps
17. Cooling water pumps
18. Cooling towers and fans

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Measurable
results, tangible
value
Plantwide value through condition
monitoring occurs asset‑by‑asset.
Our solutions for combined‑cycle
plants encompass not justyour critical equipment wheredowntime is the dominanteconomic driver and can reduceor even halt plant output, butalso your less critical assets
where maintenance and laborcosts are of primary concern.
Below are just a few examplesof the dozens of different asset
types we can address.

Gas turbines

Performance monitoring is a very Important part of a gas
turbine’s condition monitoring and can be used for maximizing
the efficiency of your operations.

Steam turbines

Our comprehensive suite of Turbine Supervisory
Instrumentation (TSI) measurements combined with ourthermodynamic performance monitoring capabilities provides
a total solution for protecting and monitoring steam turbines
and the entire steam cycle.

Generators

Bearing vibration and winding temperatures are key
measurements for detecting everything from shorted windings,
to misalignment, to bearing instabilities. We monitor thousandsof generators worldwide.

Boiler feedwater pumps

Critical to operating your plant at full capacity, loss of a boiler
feedwater pump has significant economic consequences.
Bearing vibration/temperature measurements on these pumps
and their prime movers are essential for protecting againstcatastrophic failures and for assessing mechanical health.

Cooling water pumps

Cooling water pumps are a critical part of a plant’s coolingsystem and require periodic inspection of the bearing andseals to avoid failures. Of course, inspections can be costly due
to downtime and maintenance expenses. Further, unexpected
problems such as leaks often occur when the pump is returned
to service. Clearly, increasing the interval between inspections
can result in substantial savings.

Cooling tower fans

When operating at or near design performance limits, loss ofeven a single cooling tower can curtail plant output. Even whencurtailment is not a concern, repair costs can be substantial.
The speed-reducing gearbox is a particularly vulnerable failure
location that warrants vibration monitoring.

8System 1’s Bently Performance application software delivers continuous thermodynamic
performance monitoring of gas turbines to track and analyze the efficiency and otherthermodynamic key performance indicators (KPIs) of these operation-critical assets.
These KPIs can then be used to track the overall health of these assets and plan timely
maintenance that helps avoid unexpected downtime. It also helps in determining theunderlying causes of a machine’s degradation. When machinery performance insights
enable proactive servicing, it is not unusual for power generation plant operators to see
yearly savings of >$500,000 USD in fuel costs alone.

When a steam turbine exhibited sustained high vibration, concerned plant personnel
consulted a Bently Nevada Machinery Diagnostics Engineer who remotely accessed themonitoring system, identified looseness in a bearing assembly, and confirmed that the unit
could stay online, deferring repairs until a more convenient time. By conducting planned
versus unplanned maintenance, $900,000 USD of lost production was averted.

Using System 1 software and Bently Nevada machinery protection systems, a plant wasable to diagnose shorted rotor bars on a generator, yet keep the unit online by balancing
vibration levels and VARS to keep the thermal bow of the generator rotor to a minimum.
VARS were shared across the other four units until this particular generator could be
rewound during a planned outage. Since this is a baseload plant, the economic benefits
accrued were substantial.

Increased vibration levels were detected on a boiler feed pump being returned to service
at the end of a major planned outage. The Bently Nevada condition monitoring systemenabled plant personnel to diagnose and fix the problem without delaying the startup
schedule and declaration of full plant availability. $90,000 USD in contract penalties wereavoided, as well as potential damage to the machine.

When this combined-cycle plant went into commercial operation, the OEM recommended
mechanical seals and bearings on four cooling water pumps be inspected every two years.
Instead, on our recommendation, the plant used their System 1 software to closely monitor
the bearing and seals, collecting vibration data in three-month snapshots, and found nosign of deterioration. This allowed for the maintenance period to be extended by 1 year, andinspections to be conducted on a 3-year cycle versus the OEM‑recommended 2-year cycle.

A plant lost more than $300,000 USD to cooling tower fan problems before installing
permanent monitoring. In one instance, a blade sheared off completely. The resultingunbalance destroyed the entire fan assembly and parts of the tower, even though simple
vibration switches were installed and a portable data collector was being used to checkthe fans monthly. After permanent monitoring systems were installed, no further failures
have occurred.

9Comprehensive,
globally available services
Implementation
services

Whether it be enhancing existing installations, retrofits, upgrades,or commissioning new systems—our expert services ensure yoursystem is installed, configured, calibrated, and optimized to meet yourspecific needs.

Proactive support

Our proactive supporting service offerings and programs are designed
to ensure your system is healthy, available, secure, and optimized.
From technical support and troubleshooting to fully-managedsupporting services covering probe tip to machinery health reports
and everything in between, we make sure your machinery investments
return a maximum ROI while potentially saving you millions in
avoidable downtime.

Asset health andconsulting

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In many cases, traveling to the site to perform machinery diagnostics
and assess machinery health is a thing of the past. We can even workwith your IT department to engineer remote connectivity solutions thatare fully compliant with your corporate data network requirements.

Cybersecurity

Security of your critical processes and operations is a top priority forour asset protection and monitoring solutions. Today it’s necessary
to ensure these systems are securely designed, deployed, andimplemented using industry-standard processes and methodologies
while being proactively monitored, maintained, and updated throughout
their lifetime.

Training andeducation

With more than 40 years of technical training experience, we havepioneered the art of long-term skill development. Bently Nevadaproduct training is conducted by our core group of instructors andexperienced field engineers to provide a world-class training experience
both remotely and in-person. Bently Nevada’s training and education
offerings can help keep your people up and running alongside
your machinery.

• Global experience• Local• Deep application expertise• 24/7/365 technical support• Thermodynamic and rotodynamic expertise• Remote service capabilities—move data, not people• Complete turnkey installation capabilities• 60+ years of condition monitoring innovations

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1631 Bently Parkway South
Minden, Nevada 89423 USA+1 775.782.3611

For more information,please contact us at: bently.com
Copyright 2023 Baker Hughes Company. This material contains one or more registeredtrademarks of Baker Hughes Company and its subsidiaries in one or more countries. All
third-party product and company names are trademarks of their respective holders.
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