Energy Efficient Operation of Gas Turbine Compressor Sets

Abstract

This paper presents techniques in which greater productivity and fuel savings can be achieved by the use of online monitoring and diagnostic systems and compressor management systems applied to turbo-compressors. With maintenance life cycle costs for gas turbines being about one-fifth of fuel life cycle costs, the incentives for maintaining good operating efficiency is high. An online monitoring and diagnostic system can go a long way in pinpointing areas in which performance decrements occur. There is also large monetary savings by operating load compressors with minimum recirculation. Secondary benefits of such systems include automated vibration analysis and automated diagnostic of common faults. This paper also covers some case histories that illustrate benefits and generic system diagrams that illustrate such systems.