Maintenance Procedure for Hydro Power Plant

Preventive Maintenance for Hydroelectric Power

Plant
INTRODUCTION
Preventive maintenance is planned maintenance of plant & equipment. It is
designed to improve equipment life and avoid any unplanned maintenance
activities.
Preventive Maintenance is the inspection, replacement, repair of any piece
of equipment or component Based on time and set parameters. It includes painting,
lubrication, cleaning, adjusting and minor component replacement to extend the
life of equipment and facility. Its main purpose is to minimize break down and
excessive deterioration
 Preventive Maintenance is based on schedule inspections of plant and
equipment.
 Its purpose is to minimize breakdown and excessive depreciation.
 The main parts of a hydroelectric power plant using reaction turbine are
inspected and maintained on quarterly, half yearly and yearly basis.
In most of small hydro plants preventive maintenance approach is preferred
over other Approaches. Following inspection checks are done in this type of
maintenance:
 Daily checks
 Weekly checks
 Monthly checks
 Quarterly checks
 Half yearly checks
 Annual inspection and maintenance of components of plants
 Capital Maintenance
1. Daily Checks
2. Foundation parts and Expansion Joints:
• Checks for any leakage in draft tube manholes, spiral casing
manhole, expansion Joint.

3. Vacuum Breaking Valve/ Air Admission Valve:

• Checks the working of both vacuum breaking valve and see that
there is no Abnormality in the springs, seats etc.

4. Water Seal and Air Seal:

• Checks the position of water leakage of the water seal and see that
there is no Excessive splashing and water level do not rise in top
cover.
• Note water pressure of water sealing /under sealing.

5. Turbine Guide Bearing:

• Checks the oil level (stand still machine /running machine)
• Note the temp. Of bearing and check that the temperature of oil and
guide bearing pads Are within limits.
• Note the maximum and minimum temperature and compare with
readings of the previous day.

6. Guide Apparatus:
• Check any leakage from GV servomotor and its piping.
 2. Weekly Maintenance Checks
1. Greasing of guide vanes and servomotor with centralized grease
lubrication system And manually.
 Oil in the gear box shall be checked.
 Check for any leakage.
 Working of end pressure relay and solenoid valves, if defective,
should be Reported.

2. Cleaning of OPU filters.

3. Cleaning of throttle filters in the governor mechanical cabinet.
4. Cleaning of governor compressor air filters and checking of oil levels.
5. Checking physically oil of OPU of the running machine, after taking
sample through The sampling cock, do the crackle test for detecting
presence of water. Take remedial Measures.
6. Check oil level of all the bearings.
7. Check wobbling of shaft at coupling flange and at oil header servo tube.

3. Monthly Maintenance Checks

All the checks covered in weekly maintenance as above are carried out
monthly also. But While carrying out these checks more attention is paid and
short shutdowns, if required, for Rectification are taken.
Monthly inspection and maintenance are carried out for the following parts.
i. Turbine cover parts such as drainage holes, leakage unit, servomotor
connections, turbine shaft and cover, oil pump, its auxiliaries and
ejector Cabinet.
ii. Guide vane mechanism.
iii. Operating ring of turbine.
 4. Annual Inspection and Maintenance of Hydro
Turbine
After successful running of plant for about one year few weeks are
required to be allotted to Inspect rotating parts, control equipment and measuring
instruments etc. And analyses cause Of change in the performance characteristics,
if any. Modify / repair / replace (wherever Required) the worn out parts in order to
prevent forced outages of machine at later date.
After every five years it is necessary to inspect the machine more
critically for abnormalities Like fatigue defects for excessive wear and tear of
some parts or any change in original Parameters / clearances etc. This exercise
becomes very essential in cases where Performance level has been observed to
have gone down in 5 years operation. The checks for annual and five yearly
maintenance designed for a hydropower station are Enlisted below:
a. Foundation Parts:
b. Runner:
c. Guide Apparatus:
d. Guide Bearing:
e. Shaft Gland Seal and Air Seal:
f. Emergency Slide Valve:
g. Centralized Grease Lubrication System:
h. OPU:
i. Oil Header:
j. Oil Leakage Unit:
k. Oil Cooling Unit:
l. Governor Mechanical Cabinet:
 5. Capital Maintenance of Hydro Power Plant
Overhauling or capital maintenance of hydro set is usually recommended
after about 10 years Of operation services. The whole unit is to be stripped off
during capital maintenance and all The defective/worn out parts/components
repaired /replaced with new ones. Then the unit Decommissioned as per originally
established commissioning practice of the power station. After capital maintenance
the unit are subjected to all periodic maintenance exercise outlined
Above before it reach the next cycle of capital maintenance.
Following check are to be exercised during capital maintenance of a hydro set:

1. Turbine Bearing:
2. Gland Seals and Isolating Air Inflated Seals:
3. Clean Water System:
4. Guide Vane Servomotor:
5. Guide Vanes Bush Housing:
6. Governor:
7. Under Water Parts
8. Runner
9. Leakage of oil.
Following Checks are also essential
 Checking and attending leakages from Valve & dismantling joint.
 Checking and attending oil leakages from Servomotor
 Checking the operation of operating valves.
 Checking and attending the setting of Limit Switches & Operation of the
same
 Checking and attending leakages of distributing valve
 Checking the correct working of the pressure gauges. Lubricate the parts if
necessary.
 Checking and attending for leakages in the piping.
 Checking all the MIV System connections & Union for tightness
 Checking all the MIV servo linkage during operation, looking for backlash
 Cleaning of valve body, seal & solenoid valve
 Checking the actuating solenoids for operation of valve. Cleaning the
contacts and Rollers.
 Checking the operation of bypass valve
 Checking for cracks, pitting and cavitation etc. of MIV and Servomotor
 Inspection of Rubber Seals
 Checking grunions & bushes, bolts & nuts etc.
 Checking gland packing’s and lubrication.
 Checking foundation bolts and nuts of valves & servomotor. Cleaning the
bolts and nuts etc.
 Checking servomotor piston and its collars & its gland packing.
 Checking hole of the servomotor cylinder.
 Checking the pins and bushes of servomotor & its air valve.
 Checking the diaphragms in the opening & closing circuit.
 Checking the opening & closing times of the MIV.
Predictive maintenance for Hydroelectric Power Plant

INTRODUCTION
This sort maintenance ensures ability to judge when a piece of equipment is
going to fail and Replace the same before it does. Usually it requires some form of
testing and analysis which Helps predict an eminent failure. Predictive
maintenance can be used in conjunction with Preventive maintenance practices. In
hydro power station there are many monitoring Systems, which can be used to
predict problems and possible failures. These include Vibration monitoring, oil
analysis, temperature, systems ampere readings resistance readings Of motors,
efficiency in power generation out put, leakages of oil and water. All of these
Things can be captured and tracked by computer system. The analysis of data can
predict the Future.
Optimal operation of hydro power plants could give substantial cost savings.
Typically, daily operation and Maintenance of the plant is carried out based on pre-
scheduled events and manual inspections. This can give Unnecessary stops and
downtime, in addition to extra man-hours. With a real-time monitoring system
analyzing the Health of the plant components, action can be taken in a timely
matter, extending operation and giving better Planning for scheduled maintenance.
Using a dedicated data center with central storage and analysis of process data
From a large number of plants, incidents and suboptimal operation can be
compared between them.
1. Overall system
A sample-rate of high frequency is necessary for capturing important dynamics of
the plant and waterway, such as Pressure fluctuations and electrical dynamics. The
condition monitoring system developed by Hematic Controls for Streaming. An
overall schematic of the system requires next-generation infrastructure and
storage, moving the platform away from traditional simple Rack servers in the
plant, to storage in dedicated centralized data centers. Data quality (resolution and
consistent time Stamps) is paramount for plant analysis purposes. Without the
correct quality, machine learning methods fail to Provide the correct estimations.
The system is designed for machine learning from the ground up, where data loss
is Minimized in each part of the system.

2. Condition monitoring of the servo system of a Francis turbine

•Problem Description : By monitoring the development in friction forces on
the guide vanes in a Francis turbine over time, changes in the Condition of the
turbine and servo system can be determined. This case studies data from large
units (>300 MW) Where changes in servo forces are determined using a
machine learning method. Four identical Francis turbines from The same plant
are studied, called unit A1-A4. Data sampled during two different modes of
operation is tested to Determine the boundary defining the nominal differential
forces for different loads. Then, new samples can be Compared with this model
to determine if there is a change in friction forces, indicating wear of the
system.
3. Condition monitoring of Pelton injector faults
•Problem Description : Data from a Pelton injector fault is analyzed using
machine learning, to determine if early indications of the fault is Detectable.
With a system giving warnings ahead, maintenance can be planned and a
potential breakdown with Downtime and damages to the plant components may
be avoided. In the reported fault, one of two pairwise operated Injectors lagged
behind the other.
4. Life cycle prediction
The part of the paper describes how to calculate the lifetime of a
mechanical component that is exposed to Dynamical loading. It is created a
digital twin of the component, which includes the lifetime model. The output
can Be plotted on a monitoring system, showing the calculated remaining
lifetime that will decrease with the operation Time. The actual inclination of the
decreasing lifetime will be dependent on the mode of operation. Main
application For this method will be the lifetime prediction of a Francis runner.
5. Site measurements
On the component, resistance strain gauge measurements have to be performed.
The placement for the resistance Strain gauge should be near the location and in
the direction where stresses are highest. Stress amplitude Measurements should
be performed for the complete operating range and all operating situations like
start/stop of the Unit
6. Using the analysis method in a real-time monitoring system
While model development can be a time-consuming and a difficult undertaking,
the end results are models which are Easy to process in real time. The machine
learning methods, as well as first-principle models, are compiled and Deployed
to the Hematic Controls Condition Monitoring System. This system is running
the models in the cloud Solution, where a continuous stream of real-time data is
analyzed. As more data is available, the models can be Retrained for better
performance. For such a system to work optimal, data will have to be streamed
continuously to The analysis platform at the required sample rate.
 Conclusion
Maintenance is a difficult process to manage due to production disruption due
to the interruption Of production during the process, costly in terms of time,
labor and material requirement and due to the Specific limitations of these
components. In this context, in this study, an application has been realized
Based on the importance of maintenance planning on the preventive and
Predictive Process.