Case description: Sensor failure at a CHP plant
Exceeding a turbine vibration limit caused the turbine to shut down at our customer’s CHP plant. The customer contacted Fortum eNext for advice and our expert conducted a root-cause analysis on the basis of operational data on bearing vibrations and temperatures. The data was provided by the customer in a separate Excel file.
Our expert recognised that only one signal of many exceeded the alarm limit for a couple of seconds. Further discussions with the customer revealed that the sensor and cabling had been exposed by hot steam.
Fortunately, this time the operational data was available; otherwise, determining the reason for the shut down would have required on-site borescope, bearing inspection and travelling to the site.
Remote monitoring would have enabled instant data access for Fortum eNext experts through a real-time data stream. An in-depth analysis could have been conducted right away and the unavailability could have been decreased from 6 hours to only 1 hour.
