Power Plant Operations and Flexibility 2023

Name: Power Plant Operations and Flexibility 2023
Start: 2023-04-27T08:00:00
Location: The International Convention Centre

The International Convention Centre, Birmingham

27 April 2023

Booking multiple tickets (group discounts available), on behalf of someone else or need us to make a reasonable adjustment in order for you to attend this event? Please email us

Overview

This technical seminar will provide a unique insight into the ongoing collaborations between mechanical and operations engineers. With a focus on the safe, efficient, and reliable operation of power generation plants, this seminar will allow all delegates the chance to receive integral updates on developments in the changing energy market.

Led by the Institution’s Thermal Power Committee, the seminar’s core focus will be on thermal power plants, exploring common technical challenges and presenting solutions to them from key, industry-specific case studies.

Presentations will provide perspectives from engineers across multiple industries to share best practice, fresh approaches, and operational strategies for all attendees.

This seminar will also cover the emerging sustainable energy market and its influence on operational processing and associated safety concerns. Areas such as grid stability and the possibility of innovative Carbon Capture plants will present an opportunity to explore the impact of Net-Zero demands and the challenges they present for operations and maintenance engineers.

KEY PRESENTATIONS INCLUDE:

Gain invaluable insight from Health and Safety Executive on the safety concerns associated with the realities of decarbonisation and sustainability
Hear from BWSC UK Generation Services on design in relation to operational interests and the role of flexibility in relation to plant testing
Take on board learnings from Cognitive Business on the uses of AI and the role of anomaly detection in support of operations engineers
Discover more on the intricacies and application of asset management principles from NAES
Gain insight on the history and full life cycle changes of the Killingholme power station site from Uniper
Hear from FCC Environment on process water chemistry improvements and the previous and current state of water quality and processes

WHY OUR SPEAKERS ARE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE CONFERENCE:

"In the future with the uptake of hydrogen I expect the traditional CCGT will have to run more frequently but for short duration. Operators will therefore have to understand and adapt plant operations with this in mind...Forums like this are essential as they allow all the operational and safety lessons learnt to be disseminated throughout the industry."
Derrick Carter, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero

Read the full interview here.

" Sustainability in Design has evolved massively in past five years. We see far more major infrastructure projects in the UK driven towards meeting their sustainability commitments through their early design choices and construction practices...Events like these offer us chance to share lessons learnt during operations and maintenance. It is important to recognise considerations of operators and maintenance engineers in early stages of design."
Kusum Trikha, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero

Read the full interview here.

"The industry rightly regards safety as the number one priority. If plants cannot be operated safely and reliably, that will impact on availability. That will prove critical in maintaining a secure and stable electricity supply – increasingly so if capacity margins tighten as expected. Just think of all the crucial services which depend on electricity from the grid."
Graham Sorbie, SSE Thermal

Read the full interview here.

WHY YOU NEED TO ATTEND:

Receive updates on the changing electricity market and the direction of future trends and developments
Understand how to identify and meet the expectations and requirements of operations staff and their need to balance the market demands for efficiency, reliability, and flexibility
Learn about the impact of sustainability and decarbonisation demands on the realities of safe operational procedure
Learn about new business opportunities for thermal power plants and the technical challenges presented
Benefit from the experience of industry experts in managing and maintaining aging assets
Join discussions and networking between operations and other personnel involved in power generation

BRING YOUR TEAM - GROUP DISCOUNTS AVAILABLE:

For group bookings of 5 or more attendees, you and your colleagues can save 15% per place to join this technical event. This is a great opportunity for multiple engineers to:

Benefit from the topics and discussions
Maximise opportunities for learning and networking
Contribute to their ongoing professional development
Meet and collaborate with colleagues across multiple sites
Bring new/junior team members up to speed

To organise your group booking, simply contact our Event Enquiries team and we would be delighted to make all the arrangements.

COVID-19 GUIDANCE FOR ATTENDEES:

The Institution takes every endeavour to operate all our events as “COVID-safe” as possible. This includes additional preventative measures, such as cleaning rotas and air ventilation. For further information on our activities in this area, view our infection control solutions webpages.

Day 1

08:30 - Draft Agenda

09:00	Registration and Refreshments
09:30	Chair’s Opening Remarks: Graham Sorbie, Engineer – Pressure Systems, SSE Thermal
09:40 Keynote	Impact of sustainability and decarbonisation on operational reliability Paul Grady, HM Principal Specialist Inspector (Mechanical Engineering), HSE
	Operation Process Safety
10:10	The challenges of implementing plant design versus operational reality and capability with regard to present and future asset life Sean O’Neill, Shift Team Leader, BWSC UK Generation Services · Examples of unforeseen issues and changes to design intent due to operational problems. · Role of operational flexibility and business model with regard to asset operation, operational safety and life cycle. Examples of start-up / shutdown – plant testing. The human aspects involved. · Continuous improvement based on operational experience and life cycle changes
10:35	Aging assets, asset integrity and operational safety concerns Stuart Noble, CDC and Killingholme Power Station Maintenance Delivery Team Leader, Uniper History of Killingholme Power Station Site · Sync comp unit integration into existing assets and resulting safety consideration · The future of the site
11:00	Lessons Learned: Application of Asset Management Principles in Power Plant Operations and Maintenance John Burnett, Operations Director, NAES · A number of examples from different power plants with lessons from application of asset management principles and ISO 55000. · Examples will include how effective asset management has enhanced process safety, and how consideration of Human Factors can aid implementation. · Lessons will be drawn from assets across the asset life cycle, giving insight from the beginning, middle and end of a plant’s operations
11:25	Networking Refreshment Break
	Operations and Reliability
11:55	UK Government’s role in developing dispatchable power: Carbon Capture storage projects Kusum Trikha, Senior Policy Advisor – Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero Derrick Carter, Head of Engineering for Power CCUS, Department of Energy Security and Net Zero
12:20	Training standards, safety and facilities: How to maintain necessary skills Richard Bottrell, Consultant Training Engineer, Power Plant Training Ltd. · What does training achieve? · Competency: A definition · Assessment of competence using simulation
12:45	Networking Lunch
13:45	Managing the risk for torsional interaction in the ongoing energy transition Frits Petit, Expert Vibrations & Mechanics, Engie Known interaction phenomena drawing on available case studies Risk mitigations actions (power plant side, grid side)
14:10	Process Water Chemistry Improvements Adam Drewery, Operations Manager, FCC Environment The previous state of water quality and processes Improvements made and cost savings The current state of water quality and processes
14:35	Networking Refreshment Break
	Operational Optimisation
15:05	Improving reliability of feed water pumps for flexible operation in power generation Peter Irlam, Retrofit Sales Manager, Sulzer
15:30	O&M Asset Intelligence: Lessons learnt from Digitalisation Lee Beresford, Head of Engineering Analytics and Services, Cognitive Business · Expectations and buy in - It’s not magic, but it can help. · Solve a problem - Digital, AI, Machine Learning, Industry 5.0 promise to add value, but how? · Working with people - Data is central to digitalisation, but the people are critical. · Make it last – ensuring that the value return continues and grows with time. · Case study – anomaly detection supporting operations
15:55	Chair’s Closing Remarks
16:00	End of Seminar

Paul Grady: HM Principal Specialist Inspector (Mechanical Engineering), Health and Safety Executive

Paul holds the HSE Portfolio for Machinery Safety and Pressure Systems. This involves technical input to HSE policy on British, European and International Standards on these subjects, together with liaison with industry user-groups and trade associations. Paul is the main author of HSE guidance INDG 392 (recover paper safely), GS4 (Safety in Pressure Testing) and PM73 (Safety requirements for Autoclaves). Paul is also the chairman of the BSi Machinery Safety national standards group MCE3 and was actively involved in representing HSE in the development of BS14100, revision of PD5304 and current development of BS14200 for the maintenance of machinery. Previously Paul managed a team of mechanical engineers, providing technical direction and advice to incident investigations to a diverse range of general manufacturing, construction and fairground applications.

Stuart Noble: Maintenance Delivery Team Leader, Killingholme Power Station, Uniper

Stuart began in the electrical supply industry in 1988 working for the Central Electricity Generation Board (CEGB) at Elland Power station, and worked at a number of Coal and gas sites during the following 35 Years. The majority of this time he has been part of the production department. To manage expected change in the medium term within the team, Stuart changed disciplines and now manages the maintenance teams at CDC and Killingholme Power Station.

John Burnett: Operations Director, NAES

John Burnett is a Fellow of the IMechE and Chartered Engineer. He has twenty years operational management experience in the power industry. John has worked on a number of thermal power plants predominantly in the UK and Middle East, from new build and mobilisation, mid-life, aging and decommissioning stages. He studied Mechanical Engineering at Bristol University and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and has an MBA from Warwick Business School

Lee Beresford: Head of Engineering Analytics and Services, Cognitive Business

Lee has 22 years of experience delivering comprehensive condition monitoring support to the power generation sector, with a background in mechanical engineering and aerospace maintenance. As the Head of Engineering Analytics & Services at Cognitive.Business, Lee is well-versed in utilising a mix of data-driven techniques to provide clients with improved asset operation and availability

Sean O’Neill: Shift Team Leader, BWSC UK Generation Services

Sean has over thirty–five years’ experience in the power industry working in a number of different positions across engineering, maintenance and operations at various levels of responsibility.Over the last five years he has made the transition from fossil fuel generation into the renewable sector. Sean is currently a shift team leader at a straw fired plant in Lincolnshire and is very interested in the synergies between traditional solid fuel generation and the biomass sector. Sean is keen to pass on some of the valuable lessons and knowledge acquired throughout his career to people new to the industry.

Adam Drewery: Operations Manager, FCC Environment

Adam started his career with British Steel in 1999 as a Mechanical Engineering Apprentice, he continued his career within the engineering department in a rolling mill where later he became a Production Shift Manager. Since this time Adam has continued his career within the Energy sector gaining experience in both Operational and Maintenance roles, currently Adam is the Operations Manager at The Lincolnshire EfW Plant.

Richard Bottrell: Consultant Training Engineer, Power Plant Training Ltd.

Richard entered the electricity supply industry on June 3rd 1973 and worked for twenty-one years on maintenance and operations in CEGB power stations. Joining the Powergen Technical Training Centre in 1994 he began a career in training as a simulator driver and technical trainer. Working for Powergen, Empower Training, Eon and Uniper he has delivered training, training needs analysis and consultancy worldwide. He has published books on Coal Fired Power Plant Efficiency and CCGT Availability and Efficiency. He still works part time in the industry and volunteers with the Canals and River Trust.

Frits Petit: _, Engie

Frits Petit obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering at the University of Ghent. He started working at ENGIE Laborelec more than 10 years ago and developed his expertise assessing the structural integrity of different critical components with a focus on flexibility, fit for purpose and lifetime extension, this according to the existing codes and supported by finite element calculations. He has been involved in many different RCA's related to steam turbine creep-fatigue cracking and co-developed the Laborelec Rotor Stress Evaluator.

Kusum Trikha: Senior Policy Advisor – Carbon Capture Utilisation and Storage, BEIS

Kusum is a versatile Chartered Mechanical Engineer with over eleven years of private and public sector experience in delivering large-scale energy transition projects in over 5 countries. She has extensive experience in implementing sustainable energy processes such as Carbon Capture Usage and Storage(CCUS), Allam-Cycle, Biomass-Gasification, Energy-from-Waste, Combine Heat and Power, and Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion. Currently she is responsible for delivering the UK's commitments to tackle climate change through deployment of UK’s first CCUS Power Projects for Track-1 clusters. Kusum is passionate about developing others and would love to share her knowledge acquired about the CCUS market, project development and risk appetite in the UK.

Derrick Carter: Head of Engineering for Power CCUS, BEIS

Derrick is Head of Engineering for Power CCUS at Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and has experience with onshore and offshore Oil and Gas production plants. He has over 30 years of experience and to date his career has involved him in many stages of the life cycle of process plants, from initial inquiry through design and construction to operations. Over the course of his career he has specialised within the international oil & gas industry on CO2 capture and storage, liquefied natural gas (LNG), gas-to-liquids (GTL), oil and gas processing, refinery and sulphur facilities providing expert advice and leadership to teams undertaking gas processing and LNG projects.

Peter Irlam: Retrofit Sales Manager, Sulzer

Honours degree qualified engineering manager with good presentation and communication skills. Having willingly travelled throughout UK, Europe, Africa, Middle East and Asia, I am experienced in generating both solicited and unsolicited pump and pumping system improvement business opportunities specific mostly to conventional power, and the oil & gas industry. I was instrumental in the successful upgrades of large pumps at conventional and nuclear power stations in UK and Europe.

Graham Sorbie: Engineer – Pressure Systems, SSE Thermal

Graham has a BA in Engineering, an MSc in Mechanical Engineering (Thermo and Fluids) and over 38 years’ experience in boilers, HRSGs, steam pipework and associated equipment. Graham joined Babcock Energy in 1984, working on thermal R&D projects for coal-fired and CCGT plant. He moved to Marconi Simulation in 1995, developing modelling for Sizewell B and CCGT training simulators. He joined SSE from NNC in 1999, providing technical support and asset management, leading Technical Reviews and failure investigations, trouble shooting and managing site outage works. In recent years, he has been increasingly involved with supporting new build plant – including energy from waste plants, Keadby 2 and proposed carbon capture plants. Graham currently sits on EEMUA’s Pressure Relief Systems and the IMechE’s Thermal Power committees.

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