09/09/20 – We are pleased to inform you that our teams have completed in April 2020, the first phase of a major I&C (Instrumentation and Control) maintenance project on 54 Gas Turbines (TM2500 and PWS) belonging to one of the largest installed turbine fleets in Africa.
The fleet owner has installed these Turbine Generators for production in remote areas which are remotely operated.
The gas turbines are mechanically different, derived from aviation turbines, but they are all controlled by the same type control system: Woodward MicronetPlus.
This major I&C maintenance project has been carried out in the form of a complete I&C Technical Audit (TA) based upon the R.A.M. philosophy (see further).
The powerturbine part of an AWF-audited Pratt & Whitney FT8 gas turbine with a Woodward IGV actuator visible in this photo (right)
View of the rear of the gas turbine, and in particular of the combustion chamber with the various inlets and exhausts
One of our intervention teams in front of a Pratt & Whitney FT8 gas turbine with the end customer (with the exhausts on the top left and the air intakes on the top right)
Woodward Micronet Plus Control System
Mobile gas turbine supplying electricity to inhabited areas in the desert
HMI view of all important measurements of the machine package (speed, pressure, thermocouples) of the running turbine
HMI view of the thermocouple arrangement of the FT8 turbine combustion chamber
HMI view of the package-turbine air intakes on the FT8 turbine
Control-room of an FT8 mobile gas turbine
Specific packaging of measuring and testing devices for gas turbine audits
This Technical Audit and maintenance project was decided by the project owner for the following reasons:
The Instrumentation and Control Systems installed on these machines required a complete audit.
Since their installation, no I&C maintenance activities had been carried out.
This resulted in “not so good” reliability figures.
It is a fact that I&C related problems create the biggest part of the un-reliability figures.
The customer therefore wanted to have machines that have been fully audited in order to create maintenance practices that allow machines to operate with the highest possible reliability and availability and production rate.
The customer also wanted to entrust the predictive and corrective maintenance to a single point of contact, which became AWF.
AWF proposed an approach based on the I&C R.A.M. maintenance philosophy developed by our experimented partner R. Moelans and adopted by AWF.
The emphasis of I&C RAM maintenance practices is based on:
Technical Audit of the total I&C chain, from engine / package sensors up to the control system modules.
Everything is checked like:
This creates:
Based on the Technical Audit baseline and Punch List, Predictive and Corrective maintenance can be scheduled and applied.
This is the consolidation phase which includes:
The work carried out constitutes Phase 1 of the total project.
Phase 2 (Improve) consist in setting up a real preventive and predictive maintenance policy based on the diagnosis carried out during Phase 1.
Phases 2 & 3 (Improve / Control) can be combined and carried out in a continuity of work.
AWF is proud to declare that Phase 1 work, performed on 54 gas turbines of different mechanical origins, has been carried out to the full satisfaction of the customer.
“AWF is proud to declare that Phase 1 work, performed on 54 gas turbines of different mechanical origins, has been carried out to the full satisfaction of the customer.”
