ESP performance is becoming a continuous challenge for our industries using solid fuel in their boilers.

Coal fired power plants fire huge quantity of Coal for generation of power. Hence Generators has to spend lot of money for this. But generators, incur huge loss  due to poor operating parameters / conditions.

Failures of last stage (long!) blades of LP Steam Turbine are well known in the power plant community. Causes of failure include pitting, erosion, corrosion, fatigue, SCC, fretting and combination of these.

There have been quite a few cases of emergency lube oil pump failing to cut in and leading to Steam Turbine bearing and other components damage.

Combustion optimization is perhaps the most important action that is required to improve performance of a boiler, more so, in a solid fuel fired boiler. Frequently changing load and fuel quality demand frequent adjustment of combustion parameter these days. We invite all to share their strategies in this area.

The loss of un-burnt carbon with Fly ash and Bottom ash of any solid fuelled boilers is undesirable as it leads to huge wastage of fuel and thus revenue loss. Un-burnt in the fly ash in particular should be critically controlled. This community invites the members to share their experiences in this regard.

Increased SH/ RH spray indicates possibility of overheating of the SH/ RH metallurgies. In order to reduce the spray quantity, the wall blowers are operated frequently, sometimes in every shift at many boiler systems. Frequent wall blower operation increases the chance of erosion of the tubes significantly. This community invites the members to share their experiences in this regard.

This is the most common reactionary operation practice whenever the stack temperature is found on the higher side by most. Sometimes the LRSBs get stuck, which leads to major erosion of the SH/ RH tubes. We invite all to share their practices and strategies in this area.

At many plants the CBD is operated in the fashion any common man takes a paracetamol pill whenever his body temperature exceeds 98.6 ^oF. If boiler water chemical parameter exceeds the limit, it tells us something is wrong in the treatment which needs correction. This cannot be corrected by just operating the CBD which ultimately leads to significant loss of fuel. We need to have a constructive discussion by the community members in this regard.

This is becoming a generic problem with most coal fired power station these days with the percentage VM getting lower and lower in the indigenous coal. We invite all to share their practices and strategies to meet this challenge here.