Critical support for planned and unplanned outages
Aggreko understands the many challenges facing fossil fuel power plant operators. First and foremost, they are in the business of providing continuous power for their customers. But to ensure reliable service and maintain operating profitability, plants must run at maximum efficiency levels at all times.
That’s why operators schedule planned outages to perform required maintenance on the turbine generators, critical plant systems and machinery.
Not only does this help mitigate the potential for equipment failure that could lead to an unexpected outage, it also ensures that plants are running at the lowest possible heat rate, the key metric used to measure plant efficiency.
Whether plants are fueled by coal, gas, or combined cycle (gas and steam) Aggreko has extensive experience helping power plants operate efficiently. Our multi-disciplinary engineering experts provide supplemental power, temperature control and air solutions in support of mission-critical activities, including:
Our solutions:
- Refurbishing equipment during maintenance events
- Adhering to or reducing planned outage timelines
- Designing solutions for process enhancement
- Providing power during catastrophic failures
Operators have very specific maintenance tasks to complete during planned outages, which typically take place in 12-month intervals and last between one and two weeks. At the top of their list is the repair and refurbishment of the workhorse turbine generators. Aggreko provides engineered solutions to make sure this important work is accomplished on time while ensuring that the turbines are protected from corrosion while idle.
Every 48 months, plant operators schedule an outage of up to two months to address major maintenance tasks needed on other systems, equipment and components such as lube oil, condensers and heat exchangers. While plants are offline during these extended outages, it’s even more important to minimize the time needed to perform maintenance. Plant operators and engineers rely on Aggreko to quickly design and deploy turnkey solutions that help minimize outage timelines.
Delivering value-added process enhancements
Plant operators not only turn to Aggreko to solve typical outage challenges, they also seek process engineering expertise to improve their power generation capabilities. When seasonal spikes in temperatures risk a de-rating of a plant’s power output, Aggreko’s process engineers are prepared with a variety of tools to maintain desired efficiencies — such as cooling and drying the air prior to its intake in the turbine generators.
The following represents the breadth of equipment Aggreko deploys in a power plant:
- Oil-free compressed air
- Cooling and dehumidification systems
- Power generation and electrical distribution systems
- Cooling tower systems