Testing Standards, Methods and Guidelines for Steam Surface Condensers: A Summary of the Options Available to Plant Operators for Ensuring Equipment Reliability and Maintaining Unit Performance

The availability and operational efficiency of a steam surface condenser is a critical aspect of, and significant contributor to, a power plants overall thermal performance. In order to ensure reliability and maintain operational efficiency, inspection and testing is often required to determine the condition of the condenser. Inspections tend to support condition based maintenance and usually assist with monitoring the real time condition of the condenser, they are essentially reactive. Regular testing has the advantage that it can be pro-active and provide valuable benchmark data which in turn can be used to monitor a condensers condition throughout its operational design life, and beyond. Testing also provides valuable recordable information which can be utilized in preventive maintenance regimes to minimize condenser deterioration, thereby helping to ensure peak efficiency, and in some instances it can even be used within predictive failure models. Testing often greatly assists with avoiding expensive & unnecessary shutdowns by helping to determine optimal timing for any necessary remedial and/or major repair work, as well as helping to identify and address real time issues.