Condition monitoring specialist Sensonics has made an important contribution to the upgrade of turbine supervisory and vibration monitoring installations at a coal-fired power station in South Wales
Originally owned by Welsh Power, but now a Scottish and Southern Energy facility, the Uskmouth Power Station in Newport has three 131MW generators which supply power to the Newport and surrounding area.
Prior to the upgrade, other types of monitoring equipment were being used including GEC Type 6 turbine supervisory systems and Alstec Type 7 equipment for vibration monitoring. Engineers at Uskmouth acknowledged that both these systems were obsolete and this was causing problems in terms of support and reliability of operation. As part of the upgrade, Sensonics supplied and fitted their Aegis VME (Vibration) and Sentry turbine monitoring systems to the turbine and alternator.
Vibration sensors fitted included Sensonics PZV2 piezo-electric velocity transducers. These units were selected, rather than accelerometers, on the grounds of their superior noise performance in heavy industrial environments and unique internal signal processing which eliminates the potential for resonances through such causes as steam noise.
They also offer an advantage over traditional moving coil velocity transducers with a superior frequency response and no moving parts. As a result of installing the new monitoring equipment, the problems associated with the previous system have been eliminated.
"The high build quality of the Sensonics equipment is particularly appreciated, and the modular design of the units makes the system easy to support and expand if needed in the future," said John Phillips, Instrumentation Engineer at Uskmouth.
Sensonics has over 30 years experience in providing vibration, displacement and speed instrumentation solutions for demanding environments. Not only can they supply a full range of sensors and API 670 compliant measuring and protection equipment, but also design through to installation and commissioning.
