Wood develops first of a kind method and saves power client millions

Florida is the second largest producer of electricity in the United States, but as the third-largest electricity consumer in the nation, does not produce enough electricity to meet its own power requirements, 根据 U.S. 能源情报署. The residential sector consumes more than half of its electricity, and as the state's population continues to grow, 预计需求将会增加. Florida also has a high number of registered electric vehicles, 仅次于加州, 而且不止2个,300 public-access electric vehicle charging stations across the state.

Natural gas fueled around 75% of Florida’s total electricity generation in 2020. To keep clean-burning natural gas units at power plants operating reliably and efficiently, they require ongoing maintenance like the replacement of Heat Recovery Steam Generators (HRSG) Low Pressure (LP) economizer and evaporative sections. HRSGs convert high heat from turbine exhaust gases into the power that drives the steam turbines, producing less carbon emissions than alternative equipment.

应对挑战

The typical process for replacing HRSG LP evaporator and economizer sections involves accessing the components from above the HRSG. This not only requires heavy lift cranes, with a weight capacity of at least 800 tons, but existing steam drums and riser tubes which make access difficult. As such, this process often results in longer down times and higher costs for power generators.

When preparing to replace 14 Foster Wheeler HRSG units for a client in Florida, Wood developed and applied a new innovative method to provide significant cost savings to the client and ultimately benefitting its rate-paying business and residential customers. Wood’s team developed a horizontal trolley rigging system for the HRSG retrofits. This first of its kind method enabled access from the side of the HRSG casing to minimize the removal of existing equipment and heavy crane requirements.

Utilizing this horizontal trolley system, the team was able to reduce the radius and the boom point elevation of the heavy lift crane, 因此, reduce the required crane capacity from 800 tons to 500 tons, 为客户节省了可观的成本. This innovative method also reduced total down time of the units by over 50%.

设计, 供应及安装 nature of this awarded contract allowed for the early constructability reviews between the design and the installation teams to engineer and implement the trolley system. The temporary monorail beams and the trolleys were modeled in advance by the design team to ensure the plan’s feasibility and built into the design.

提供全方位服务解决方案

Wood’s experienced integrated project team executed the full contract scope to design, 供应及安装 我们的工程产品, relieving the client of any issues or gaps that could have occurred from using a designer or supplier and a separate installation contractor. While Wood’s integrated team was responsible from start to finish of this turn-key project, the installation portion also provided construction employment to the local labor force and to local vendors in Florida that supplied construction equipment, 工具, 和材料.

The engineering and construction plan saved the client substantial time and money to the tune of an estimated $500,每个HRSG每节000美元. This equated to a savings of approximately $7 million USD for the LP economizer sections. The team also used this method to replace the 14 LP evaporative sections on the same units, 在较早的机组停机期间执行, ultimately saving the client an estimated $14 million USD in comparison to the traditional method. Since the implementation of this first of its kind industry methodology, it has been used by other contractors to save utilities and rate paying customers across the industry.