POWER September 2012 - 80

THE FUTURE OF NATURAL GAS
to [a scenario in which the plant] is just
silent, " Geraghty said. " It can be demoralizing. "
Just two of the utility's six units at
coal-fired plants were operating earlier this
year, the result of low natural gas prices and
an abundance of generating capacity in the
Southwest. NV Energy is working to motivate
personnel by focusing on efforts to keep
coal-fired units ready to dispatch, whether
that order comes in 48 hours or 30 days.
EPRI's Hesler said many operators accustomed
to running a coal-fired unit for
months at a time now are asked to cycle
their unit more frequently. As a result, issues
related to maintaining situational awareness
rank among the most important challenges
for operators. In particular, alarm management
skills and human-machine encounters
" may not be that good, " he said.
In addition, where " tribal knowledge "
once may have been adequate, personnel
retirements may exacerbate gaps in training
that can affect operations. " There are more
opportunities for errors, " he said.
Intertek-Aptech Engineering's Lefton
said that common human errors include improper
boiler water levels, introducing water
to the turbine, and a variety of other errors
that can occur, especially during overnight
hours, as operators try to cycle their plant in
the dark and remotely. Intertek-Aptech has
developed real-time code software to give
operators temperature ramp rate information
for key components during cycling, along
with the cost of each cycle or load follow.
An important strategy is to " train operators
to operate plants to reduce cycling damage
and thus cycling costs, " Lefton said.
Clifty Creek plant manager Carnes said
much of his plant's maintenance work has
been pushed to weekends and nights, because
the plant's operators want to keep it online
whenever it can generate revenue. As a result,
the plant had to revise its approach to
staffing, not just for hourly personnel but for
supervisory and technical people as well.
Jonas of Tenaska said his company's
generating units are staffed for a range of
dispatch profiles and haven't changed their
staffing levels. The company's workforce
is flexible enough that staff schedules can
be reconfigured to adjust to dispatch levels,
such as a peaking unit that is called into
more frequent service. " Our simple cycle facilities
are like fire houses that are ready to
start at a moment's notice, " he said. " Higher
capacity factors provide the opportunity
to exercise the equipment, which gives us
more confidence that the plant will operate "
whenever it is called on to dispatch.
At NV Energy, meanwhile, the utility
began a strategy in February 2011 called
Workforce 2020 to transition coal teams to
work more like combined cycle teams. That
means reducing staff and consolidating job
classifications so that more personnel are
cross-trained to perform a wider variety of
tasks. One factor driving the change is an
assumption that the company's coal units
will be retired. This resulted in a realization
that some maintenance and operational
skills can't be sustained over the long term.
" A year ago you may have had a baseload
supercritical plant, and now it's in shutdown, "
Geraghty said. " You take a look at
the fixed costs, and the biggest fixed cost
is labor. "
Geraghty said that some power generators
believe that gas may enjoy favorable
economics for another year or two before
coal reasserts itself. He holds a contrary outlook,
however. " Because of other pressures
we don't have the perspective in the West
that it will get back to normal. I believe this
is a transformational moment. " ■
-David Wagman is executive
editor of POWER.
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