UPTIME • December 2013/January 2014

AES Southland provides power to Southern California from a multitude of power resources. In 1998,  AES Southland acquired the Alamitos natural gas power plant from Southern California Edison. Since that time,  AES has undertaken a number of programs to modernize the generating station and improve the reliability of the Alamitos facility.

In 2010, AES Alamitos’ Units 3 & 4 boiler circulating pumps and Units 5 & 6 exciters were identified as having reliability issues. These machines were never equipped with vibration probes and only the metal temperatures of the exciter pedestal bearing and common lube oil drains were monitored by the control room recorders. Due to the low cost of implementation and OMNITREND® software compatibility, it was decided to purchase and install a VIBNODE® monitoring system to improve the reliability of the AES Alamitos Units 3 & 4 boiler circulating pumps and the Units 5 & 6 exciters.

Download the entire article RETROFIT MONITORING WITH BIG PAYOFF RESULTS by Jim Cerda and Greg Lee.