Deviation Caught: Avoiding Component Damage & Efficiency Loss on a Combustion Turbine

Industry: Power Generation
Region: N. America
Asset Type: Combustion Turbine

A deviation on a combustion turbine was detected at a U.S. Power site using GE Vernova’s predictive analytics software, SmartSignal. The digital twin of a combustion turbine from SmartSignal showed that that the coupling end vibration sensor increased to above normal thresholds. Many other turbine vibrations also showed similar increases. This anomaly was not isolated, as many other turbine vibration metrics exhibited similar upward trends. In response, the GE Vernova Engineering team, Industrial Managed Services (IMS), promptly included this issue in the weekly report for in-depth discussion with the customer.

Following the alert from the IMS engineering team, further investigation by the customer revealed that the increase in vibrations was attributed to issues with clutch engagement. Once the customer addressed and resolved the clutch problem, the bearing vibrations returned to values predicted by the model, indicating normal operation.

The early notification, sent in August by GE Vernvoa IMS team, allowed the customer to closely monitor the turbine's bearing vibrations and strategically plan for a repair during scheduled downtime in November.
By fixing the clutch during this pre-planned maintenance period, the customer avoided a costly unscheduled outage. The IMS team further confirmed the success of the maintenance actions by observing that the actual values matched the expected model values post-repair. This proactive approach is estimated to have saved the customer approximately $120,000 in avoided costs, based on the North American average production loss.