Newsletter - Prime Mover
Welcome to Waldron Engineering Inc.'s (WEI) “Prime Mover”. A newsletter designed to keep you up to date on what's new at WEI. Your comments and feedback are always welcome.
First Edition
NASA LANGLEY
Waldron Engineering recently completed the detailed engineeringd and design of a new steam line and condensate return system for NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. The design effort took over six months and included almost four miles of steam and condensate piping, a steam system health monitoring system, a back up diesel electric generator, a new uninterruptible power supply and the cleaning, patching and waterproofing of over 3,000 feet of the Center's Underground Utility Tunnel No. 4.
The 400 psig steam system design contains almost 30 externally pressurized bellows expansion joints, over 300 feet of direct buried pre-engineered conduit piping, three manholes, engineered pipe supports, anchors, limit stops and line stops. The condensate system design includes both high pressured condensate trap returns and low pressure pumped condensate returns.
The steam and condensate system designs are unique because the center is served by two separate steam plants with a combined total of six boilers, four that burn natural gas or fuel oil and two that are refuse fired. Additionally, each plant's distinct operating and dispatch modes, multiple design pressures and remote locations made the instrumentation and control design especially challenging.
Developing the waterproofing plan for the utility tunnel also proved challenging. The 40 year old tunnel is underwater (i.e. below the water line) and this hostile external environment has taken its toll over the years. The leak repair technique uses high pressure hydrophobic grout, a system that “chases water” to develop a tight bond with the tunnel structure in the vicinity of leaks.
This project was Waldron's first heavy industrial engineering and design job for the federal government and included detailed cost estimates, detailed construction scheduling, over 150 drawings and a large specification package.
DUAL FUEL CONVERSION PROJECT COMPLETE
(WEST SPRINGFIELD)
Submitted by David Forbes, Director, Waldron Construction LLC
Just three months after construction began on the dual fuel conversion of two LM6000 gas turbines, the power plant is commercially operational on both fuels.
In August, Con Edison Development brought Waldron Construction on board to execute a turnkey design-build project to convert two 40MW LM6000's at their West Springfield, MA plant to fire no. 2 oil as well as natural gas. Waldron Construction and Waldron Engineering were released to start the project in late August and after 6 weeks of engineering, design and procurement, construction began in early October. Two rainy months of construction later the turbines, which had remained operational up to this time, were shut down for both “in package” and SCR modifications. By December 31st Waldron had completed all modifications and commissioning, and both units were ready for service.
The scope of work included: obtaining a permit from the State Fire Marshall's office, demolition and site prep while working around two large buried high pressure gas mains, installing a remotely controlled truck gate, constructing a spill containing covered unloading station capable of handling two tractor trailers simultaneously with a dry chemical fire suppression system, installing 5 double walled tanks with a total capacity of 100,000 gallons, building a lined containment basin for the tanks, and erecting a pump house building containing the transfer and forwarding pumps, fuel oil heater, transformer and miscellaneous electrical panels.
The piping work which was part carbon steel and part stainless included: the unloading system, storage and recirculation system, forwarding supply and return system to the turbines in the main power house about 500 feet away, high pressure fuel oil booster systems, and high pressure water injection anddrain system. All exterior piping was heat traced and insulated.
Various other pieces of equipment included an oily water separator, a two stage duplex fuel oil filter, fuel oil booster skids, high pressure water injection skids, ammonia flow control and heater skids, and opacity monitors.
The electrical work included: modification to two unit sub stations and MCC's in the power house, grounding, lightning protection, lighting at the pump house, unloading area and storage tanks, and powering all pumps and heaters.
Instrumentation and control work through an existing Delta V HMI tied to GE's Mark VI, a CEMS PLC and the SCR PLC systems included: tank monitoring and level control, fuel oil temperature control, fuel oil flow and pressure monitoring and control, motor starting and control, fire alarm and suppression system monitoring and control, injection water flow and pressure monitoring and control, opacity monitor installation and new screen generation and integration.
During the shutdown all the ammonia injection lances in both exhaust ducts were removed and replaced, both ammonia flow control and heater skids were replaced and had power and control wiring modifications, the ammonia injection orifice plates were changed out in all manifolds, the high pressure water injection skids were piped and wired up, fuel oil booster piping was installed to the turbine packages and modifications were done internally to the turbine packages.
The plant now operates on both fuels meeting emissions and performance goals.
CONDITION ASSESSMENT IN RUSSIA
Submitted by Igor Korik, Mechanical Engineer
A large American company is investigating the feasibility of developing a very sizable industrial facility in a Northern region of Russia. In February of 2004, Waldron Engineering was contracted to assist a Virginia based firm with the project's due diligence effort which includes validating that the local utility grid can support the needs of the proposed facility. As such, an engineering team was assembled to conduct onsite visits to several generating stations that supply electricity to the region's utility grid. The objective of the site visits was to assess the physical condition of the major power generating facilites. The plants are located throughout the entire region, spanning nearly 1,500 kilometers. Weather conditions in the region can be arduous and available transportation is often limited and sparse, especially in the northernmost stretch of the journey where the team crossed the Arctic Circle. WEI completed a detailed assessment to delineate the work that would be required to ensure that the region's power generation and transmission infrastructure would be able to properly and reliably support the future project.
WALDRON COMPLETES PRELIMINARY ENGINEERING AND DESIGN
FOR STEAM PLANT REPOWERING
Submitted by John Sweet P.E.
Waldron Engineering recently completed the preliminary engineering and design work for the repowering of a large steam and electric generating plant. The project scope included the addition of a new 150,000 lb/hr dual fuel (natural gas and no. 2 fuel oil) boiler to be erected in the field using modular construction techniques, along with two new 600,000 lb/hr deaerators and four 350HP boiler feed pumps. New 13.8kV switchgear and medium voltage distribution systems were also engineered to support new equipment and replace the existing switchgear for the entire plant. A new reverse osmosis water treatment system and it's associated pumps, storage and controls were also part of the design. To tie this all together, Waldron also included preliminary engineering and design of a new plant wide control system.
The design concept allowed for future site development that is in the immediate plans. This included the later addition of asecond boiler of identical size and scope, a new 1500 kW emergency generator set installation, a new above ground fuel oil unloading, storage and transfer system, and a new 5.2 MW backpressure steam turbine generator. Waldron did complete heat balance analysis for equipment sizing, electrical transient analysis, minimum technical requirements documentation, general arrangement drawings, plan and elevation drawings, p&id's, detailed cost opinions and construction schedules.
WEI's efforts have enabled our client to gain a better understanding of the risks associated with the design, procurement and construction components of this project. It also has enabled them to mitigate some of their cost risk by moving the design work forward to a stage that will enable construction component cost opinions to be made with lower uncertainties and contingencies.
SPOTLIGHT ON...ROBERT GARLAND
Bob joined the WEI team in 2001, bringing with him more than 29 years of experience in the engineering and design of large scale industrial projects. Just prior to joining the WEI team, Bob worked on the AES Londonderry Cogeneration Facility Project with Stone & Webster Incorporated, the company at which he had spent the bulk of his career. As a Lead Senior Designer there, Bob enjoyed extensive involvement in the design of oil, gas, coal, wood-fired and nuclear power plants, as well as a variety of industrial, manufacturing and pulp and paper projects. Now at WEI, Bob brings his diverse background and depth of experience to the fore in his current role as Senior Designer, where his skills in dealing with clients, vendors and construction contractors have proven extremely valuable.