POWER October 2020 - 40

PLANT COMMISSIONING
How to Conduct Steam Blowing
Procedures with Remote Personnel
Many power projects have been disrupted due to COVID-19. However, managers at Larsen
& Toubro Ltd. found a way to complete steam blow requirements in spite of the
pandemic, using secure internet connections to operate the gas turbine remotely.
Arvind Kumar Singh
B
ibiyana South is a 400-MW gasbased
combined cycle power
project of the Bangladesh Power
Development Board, Ministry of Power,
Bangladesh. The project is being
executed on an engineering, procurement,
and construction (EPC) basis by
a joint venture of Samsung C&T Corp.
and Larsen & Toubro Ltd. The power
plant is located in the Bibiyana district
of Sylhet in Bangladesh.
The plant consists of one Siemens
SGT5-4000F gas turbine (GT) capable of
operating on natural gas; one horizontal,
triple-pressure, outdoor, natural recirculation-type
heat recovery steam generator
(HRSG); and one Siemens SST5-3000
steam turbine generator, arranged in a
single shaft configuration.
Larsen & Toubro Ltd. India (L&T), executing
the project, successfully achieved
a steam blowing milestone on June 11,
2020, amid the COVID-19 situation. This
achievement is significant as it was the
first time a steam blowing activity was
carried out by L&T and the original equipment
manufacturer (OEM), with Siemens
Energy operating the GT from a
remote location.
tablished, the L&T and Siemens Energy
teams ensured all system readiness
requirements were met prior to starting
the gas turbines. On the day prior to
gas turbine startup, a physical remote
Smart glass technology was used to
physically check the status of each
piece of equipment.
Leading up to the evolution, L&T and
Siemens Energy discussed ways to continue
with the commissioning work in
spite of the pandemic. Ultimately, the
team decided to operate the GT remotely
to facilitate steam blowing (Figure 1),
because the OEM's technical personnel
had returned to their home countries due
to coronavirus concerns.
Establishing Remote Support
A remote connection was established
between the common remote service
platform (CRSP) router located at the
Bibiyana South site power control center
and the physical server located at Erlangen,
Germany. Siemens Energy's technical
personnel established communication
via an end-point call, that is, they built a
secure connection with the Bibiyana site
through dedicated public internet protocol
of 5 megabits per second, using a virtual
private network (VPN) connection from
Germany. Remote Siemens technical
personnel obtained online access to the
site through a secure terminal server that
gives access to the Siemens application
server. The physical server was backed up
at three locations-one each in Germany,
Singapore, and the U.S.
Additionally, smart glass technology
1. This image was taken at night with bright
lights shining in the background. It shows
steam venting out through a silencer during
the steam blowing operation at the Bibiyana
South project. Courtesy: Larsen & Toubro Ltd.
India (L&T)
40
was used to physically check the status
of each piece of equipment. The remote
Siemens technical team could see all
the equipment through the eyes of the
L&T engineer wearing the smart glasses
at the Bibiyana South site.
Once a remote connection was eswww.powermag.com
inspection
was conducted for the gas
turbine compressor air inlet area, the
gas turbine exhaust diffuser, and the
gas turbine fuel gas pilot. Stroke checking
was done for the premix valve, inlet
guide vane (IGV), cooling air valves, blow
off valves, and all other equipment pieces.
The L&T team conducted the HRSG
" ready for hot gas admission " and the
" test of trip protection " logic. Tests for
physical fitness of all auxiliaries were
completed in one day, and the gas turbine,
HRSG, and all other systems were
declared ready for startup.
Technical Initiatives Expedite
Completion
Several new technical initiatives were
implemented for early completion of
steam blowing activities during the time
of COVID-19. They included:
■ Implementing a process for continuous
steam blow instead of the conventional
puff method.
■ Temporarily converting the clarified
water storage tank (CWST), which has
a capacity of 13,600 m3
, to function as
an additional demineralized (DM) water
reserve to facilitate steam blowing
continuously.
■ Adding provisions that allowed the
cooling tower makeup pump, which
has a capacity of 610 m3
/hr, to transfer
DM water from the CWST to the
hotwell in order to establish constant
makeup at higher flow during blow-off
conditions.
POWER | October 2020
http://www.powermag.com
POWER October 2020

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