Safety, reliability and profitability are top priorities for GE Energy's Operations and Maintenance team. Recently, the Combined Cycle Journal recognized several GE Energy teams with awards for best practices in safety and operation and maintenance.

At the Whiting Clean Energy facility in Whiting, Indiana, USA, the team was recognized for process improvements and excellent safety practices. The Fast Ramp AGC process enabled higher load-ramp rates to provide grid support with the designated plant load and ramp limits. It has also helped to increase revenue by providing ancillary load-frequency regulation services.

Another best practice the team was recognized for, the HRSG stack balloon, allows holding of sufficient heat in the system to prevent freeze-up. It produces savings associated with decreased startup time, reduced component cycling and fewer unit trips caused by frozen systems and instrumentation.

As a result of their commitment to safety, the team was awarded for establishing plant-wide access to an accurate list of chemicals onsite and material safety data sheets (MSDSs). They improved documentation and management of all onsite chemicals in support of regulatory and audit compliance, which reduced time spent confirming plant chemical inventory levels and accessing current MSDS information by 90 percent.

The team in Franklin, Georgia, USA, was also recognized for improved safety and productivity. The battery-electrolyte check and fill empowered site personnel to incorporate safety solutions into their daily work tasks and reinforced a strong safety culture at the facility. The Franklin team was also awarded for optimizing the steam-turbine automatic startup program. This optimization ensures that allowable stress limits are not exceeded, which prevents rotor stress from exceeding the recommended values. In addition, it provides a consistent reduction in startup time, saving approximately $100,000 in fuel costs annually.