Responsibility for keeping power plants running falls directly
on the shoulders of plant personnel, so they need to understand
what can go wrong, receive information on the current condition
of the equipment, and fix things when equipment fails or
performs poorly. Many reports, tests, conferences and case
studies have been published on maintaining and upgrading
boilers, steam turbine-generators, heat exchangers,
environmental control equipment and other major equipment items
in fossil steam plants. Many of these ways of using better
technology have been demonstrated in operating plants around the
world. As innovations continue to emerge, it is valuable to
review and assess the advances for plant operators. This also
supports the steadily growing requirements for plant staff to be
trained in the best methods to detect and avoid equipment
failures and anomalies to minimize operating and maintenance
costs. The Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) report,
Productivity Improvement Handbook for Fossil Steam Pla