Flexible Operations

(Fossil fuel plants only)

Changing market conditions and system deregulation, increasing renewable energy, distributed generation, and evolving demand have all led to increased cycling of power plants. Intertek offers a range of services to help you understand your true cycling startup, shutdown and load follow costs to manage reliability and provide guidelines to minimize equipment damage and operate more efficiently

Take sparse data and utilize it effectively
Advise on design improvements, equipment upgrades/replacement, and operating process improvements to ensure efficient and reliable operation
Advise on Asset Life Optimization and the assessment of future capital and maintenance costs, stranded costs, and dispatch
Technical Papers

Power plant component damage mechanisms and failure
Component/unit reliability modelling
Component aging and impact of fatigue cycling on aging components
Capital and O&M accounting and how to associate costs to cycling damage and unit reliability
Relevant industry databases
Statistical modelling, unit commitment and production cost analysis

Review and critique of cycling cost methods used by the utility.
Development of improved cost estimates, including software and training to help utility engineers update these estimates.
Testimony preparation for state commission consideration of cycling costs and their impacts on non-utility generators, merchant plants, and their effects on utility power plants.
Recommendations on use of improved cycling cost information in system operations and planning.
Recommendations for operation improvements.
Recommendations for capital projects to reduce cyclic damage.
Optimization of plant capital and O&M spending with respect to plant cycling, life and reliability
Cycling Operation Benchmark analysis using INGRID

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