Gasre organizes turbine end user conferences together with GTUsers.com at regular intervals. One such end user meeting was held April 4 - 6 in Madrid, Spain. Although the conference featured Frame 6FA gas turbine, it exemplifies the importance of these type of meetings for end users. In fact, vendors, OEMs and sponsors benefit from these gatherings as well.
Here are 6 solid reasons for attending turbine end user conferences based on the recent Frame 6FA conference.
Reason #1: sharing knowledge and experiences with your peers
Plant technical presentations - or, end user presentations, as they are also called - are the perfect opportunity to share major events and lessons learned. Especially with suffient time to discuss these presentations with colleagues and the chance to continue the discussions. End user meetings are also a brilliant opportunity to network, meet new people and to put faces to some of the maybe already familiar names of colleagues in other countries.
Christian Behnke from E.ON Energy Projects opened the Frame 6FA end user meeting's end user day. His presentation was on advanced hot gas path upgrade experience. He discussed modifications, improved performance results, and longer maintenance intervals.
Dinners such as this one with compliments of GE at the recent Frame 6FA turbine end user conference offer great opportunities to network and continue some of the discussions of the day.
Reason #2: learning heaps of what is new in your gas turbine model
End user meetings are recognized throughout the power industry as excellent learning opportunities. The importance of these conferences as technical events for GT technology cannot be overstated. For instance, Ajay Gupta opened the GE day of the conference, which was again full of technical presentations and direct answers to questions from the end users.
Apart from Ajay Gupta, GE had a large technical crew with them that could tackle all technical issues.
Reason #3: learning heaps of what is new in the power industry
Tomás Alvarez Tejedor from Enel held one of the presentations that provided current or upcoming, more general, information regarding the trends as well as rules and regulations of the power industry. Alvarez's presentation was on the new emission regulation BREF-BAT in EU that will enter into force this year. The new regulations are highly complicated and strict in definining minimum efficiency, maximum allowed NOx and CO emissions, how the emissions are verified and measured like dust, etc.
Tomás Alvarez explained how to comply the new BREF-BAT emission regulations and what modifications are needed in existing gas turbines. How the regulations are interpreted in each country was also extensively discussed.
Reason #4: learning from case studies
Case studies offer concrete and invaluable lessons to be learned. Some of the case studies that were scrutinized at the Frame 6FA meeting in Madrid included a plant operation in Mallorca, lessons learned from a major overhaul inspection and audience interaction.
Sebastian Baltasar from Enel showed how plant operation in Mallorca has been re-arranged so that two plants are now operated from a single place.
Auginish Alumina's Sean Ryan reviewed lessons learned from a major overhaul inspection in a presentation titled 'MO findings and GE's repair procedures.'
Abel Rochwarger from Gas Turbine Controls (GTC) introduced some case studies as part of his 'GTC Control upgrades and support' presentation and invited the audience to interact.
Reason #5: sharing knowledge and experiences with vendors and OEMs
The vendor exhibition received a lot of interest and kept the vendors and OEMs busy during coffee breaks and exhibition opening times. The Frame 6FA end user conference was sponsored by GE, GTC, EthosEnergy, Sulzer, Freudenberg, PSM, Reman Europe Ltd and GTUsers.com.
Reason #6: having great fun and enjoying a break from the daily work routines
Dinners and other breaks are a good continuum of all the intriguing presentations and vendor exhibitions. Together they provide a motivating and welcomed break to the daily grind. The picture is from the Sulzer dinner at the Frame 6FA end user conference in early April in Madrid.