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The cogeneration industry is characterized by two fundamental attributes. First, it is highly energy intensive making efficient operation critical. A 2000 MW combined cycle power plant can consume 200-300 million dollars worth of fuel in a year depending on the system efficiency. Second, downtime costs are prohibitively high making the attainment of high plant availability an imperative. A 1% drop in availability could translate to a loss of $1,000,000. The introduction of CO2 taxes alongside stringent emission regulations have added to pressures for efficient operations making performance monitoring a requisite for total condition monitoring. Increased privatization and competition has added to operational constraints creating even a greater need for higher efficiency and cost effectiveness. The paper will focus on cogeneration plant gas turbines and HRSGs and provide examples of how operational problems can be resolved by the use of condition monitoring.

The subject matter of this paper applies to all industrial, marine and flight combustion gas turbines; however,the focus is on one particular engine, the General Electric LM-2500 in mechanical drive application. Owners and operators of these machines can reduce operating costs and enhance availability and performance by paying close attention to the operating condition of their equipment. By doing so, performance tuning for optimum operating costs can be accomplished. Likewise, condition based, predictive and preventive maintenance efforts will reduce forced outage and maintenance costs to an absolute minimum. Attaining the described goal requires application of operations and maintenance experience, troubleshooting and diagnostic knowhow, and most importantly, precise planning. Technology exists today that will automate most of the repetitious effort required and allow fleetwide benefit through knowledge based, condition monitoring.