Solar Turbines and Saturn Gas Turbines

The gas turbines operating hours are calculated (Understood) as

Numbers of hours run(as baseload)+numbers of hours(peak load)*factor(more than one)+ Numbers of starts*FACTOR(Higher than 10)

In other words the life of hot parts and other critical components decreases with numbers of starts.

Solar people guide you how much will it costs.

You can justify the same as per your requiement.

I think that the only answer is "a severely shortened lifetime of most parts!"

Why in God's name do you want to do this?????

Think it over most carefully......

That is unusual to turn on a small unit so frequently. Why don't you get a diesel instead? Component life is greatly shortened with such quick turnarounds

GA from me.

I work in the jungle, next to Amazonas river

When sarts to rain, the gas pressure decreasse and there isnt enough gas for the plant, I sometimes have to turn off the turbines,, for one or two hours, after that when the gas presure is normalized, I turn on the turbine,......

Then you need to locally store enough gas (like a capacitor in an electronic circuit) to tide you over the times of low pressure.

or

increase the diameter of the pipe to allow more gas at a lower pressure through

or

insulate the pipe to stop the (probable) cooling effect of the rain which is dropping the pressure.....

It sounds as though the original designer simply did not do his "homework" correctly, ask him for a proper fix!!! for free!!!

........or bandy his name around together with the problem on the internet.....he'll come running.....!!!

"Then you need to locally store enough gas (like a capacitor in an electronic circuit) to tide you over the times of low pressure."

This is not really an option as these units consume a good 1000+SCFM - run it in liquid fuel.

Surely this depends upon 2 quantities that we have not been given:-

1) How long can a "low pressure" take maximum.

2) How much lower than normal is the low pressure eg. what percentage of gas pressure is missing?

The amount "missing" might be as low as 1% and could easily be handled....

Furthermore, if the rain cooling the pipe is the REAL problem, then good insulation from the rain and the cooling effect would appear to be an answer.....or at least part of the answer.....

We need more exact info.......

Install a tank and fill it with #2 fuel oil and run it on liquid fuel when gas is not available.

Depending on your situation, frequently turning off the gas turbines may be the best answer. Comes down to two factors: 1) cost of extra repair/maintenance due to reduced life of turbine components, and 2) cost / time of the downtime. If the cost / downtime is greater than desired, then cost out potential solutions versus repairs / maintenance / downtime.

From the manufacturer or turbine manuals, get an idea of how much life is lost for various turbine components, and price out the cost of replacing the parts as well as the labor and downtime over the life of the turbine. From there, you can cost out potential solutions versus the increased cost of more frequent repairs / maintenance and downtime.

However, before throwing money at potential solutions, spend some time investigating why the gas line pressure drops. For example, Andy's post mentions the cool-down effect of rain. So you could check gas line temperatures when the turbines are running fine, and check again when not getting enough gas supply. If there is a noticeable difference, then insulation may work, or simply something to keep the rain off of the gas lines.

Also check how the gas is supplied. Are pumps used to pressurize the gas line? If so, are the pump inlet / outlet pressures changing? In this case, maybe adding a pressure boost pump would help, or an accumulator plus a pressure boost pump. As Andy has said, storing gas could be helpful. Adding a pressure boost pump, or pressurizing a storage tank, would help make your gas turbine operation less dependent on the gas line pressure. Just comes down to whether the pressure reduction is a little low, or a lot low. If a little, a pressure boost may be enough. If a lot, then probably need a storage tank along with a pressure pump.

When you have better information on the temperature changes and pressure changes between good gas supply and bad gas supply, a consultant / designer should be able to identify a good fix and cost assessment for comparison with the cost of frequent start/stop of the gas turbines. Then you can decide on the best approach to meet needs.