Keeping fluids clear of contaminants is crucial to the operational readiness of power plants. Fail-to-start or unit trip can cause unexpected outages, which hinders productivity, leads to fines and loss of profit. PetrolinkUSA often helps power plants maintain readiness and operations with preventative, data driven maintenance services. We recently read a case study that highlights some of the issues and solutions we’ve implemented with our clients before that we thought was worth sharing here:

Issue Overview: A peak power plant had experienced multiple unit trips and fails-to-start. These were caused by electrohydraulic control (EHC) servo valve failure. The valves were being affected by several contaminants including water, acid, particulate, gels and dissolved metals, coupled with low resistivity.

Solution: The servicing company used an FSAPE2 offline acid remediation and particulate filtration skid with a dehydrator installed on the reservoir. They also added a dessicant breather to the reservoir and upgraded the filter element to high-efficiency microglass. While this had positive results, in the instances where PetrolinkUSA performs similar services, we use a PLURS offline acid remediation and particulate filtration skid with a similar setup. However, water absorption media is used if the reservoir is small (most are between 150–300 gallons). This is ideal because the product sits on the bottom due to water being lighter than phosphate ester.

Results: A Total Systems Cleanliness approach yielded impressive results. It took less than four months for the contaminants and resistivity to return to normal ranges. This approach led to zero fail-to-starts and trips, an additional 26 years of expected fluid life, and saved the company over $5 Million. You can read the original case study here.

In summary, the Total Systems Cleanliness approach was successful in helping avoid expensive fluid replacement and extending fluid life. At PetrolinkUSA, we approach each project individually and work with you to find the best, most efficient and cost effective solution that meets your needs. Understanding those needs is crucial in targeting the problem and formulating the appropriate plan of attack.

If you would like to speak to one of our power plant services experts, please call 800-770-4510, or email us at [email protected].