August 17, 2010 - NextEra Energy Seabrook Station is just 50 miles north of Boston, MA on the New Hampshire coast. The total plant output is 31,200 megawatt-hours per day. Recently, the plant upgraded its turbine control system to the Mark VIe Triple Modular Redundant (TMR) from GE Energy. This modification makes the turbine generator more reliable and easier to maintain, reducing the number of forced outages and power reductions. The end result of this upgrade is that it makes existing power generation and delivery systems more reliable, thereby reducing the overall cost to produce power.
GE Energy supplied all control equipment, engineering, drawings, technical direction, start-up, and commissioning for the new turbine control system. The scope also included a simulation trainer for the equipment supplied, on-site training, and spare parts. The new Mark VIe TMR digital control system replaced the old analog system and provides a road map for maintainability into the future. The Mark VIe TMR eliminates single points of failure with mechanical devices in the Front and Mid Standards by modifying speed picks, trip interface, and thrust. The upgrade includes trip reduction software, which eliminates the need for online overspeed testing.
System redundancies also further eliminate single points of vulnerability and reduce downtime.
Benefits of the Mark VIe TMR digital control:
- Reduced maintenance, costs, and downtime
- Increased mean time between failures (MTBF)
- Modern maintenance tools and diagnostics for troubleshooting in real-time
