With changes in the energy landscape, many older plants need to adapt to more flexible operation to fluctuating needs of the grid and remain economically viable. This flexibility often includes operation outside of the original design of the plant and its equipment.
A Midwest coal-fired power plant recently found themselves in this position. The plant had been designed for a minimum commercial load of 350MW, but they were considering reducing the load to 300MW. Plant engineering wanted to understand what risk operation at this low capacity posed to equipment reliability operation and life. The power producer contacted Hydro Reliability Services to develop an on-site test plan for their condensate, boiler feed booster, and boiler feed pumps to better understand how this operation would impact these critical pumps. Continue reading
A municipal water treatment plant recently had one of their service water pumps refurbished. The refurbished pump is a single-stage, bottom suction BB1 (between bearing) pump with a double suction impeller. In order to validate the performance of the pump, the plant requested testing services from the Hydro Performance Test Lab. The testing services included a Hydraulic Institute certified performance test, a Net Positive Suction Head (NPSH) test, and a bearing housing vibration test. 
Pump testing is an essential step in evaluating the hydraulic and mechanical performance of a pump before installation. Testing is applicable to new pumps, refurbished pumps, or re-engineered pumps and offers insights into equipment reliability, performance and can measure the effect of design changes.
Understanding the power and benefit of aftermarket testing can be confusing. Especially without the knowledge of the various testing capabilities available. Hydro’s testing facility is designed in compliance with Hydraulic Institute Standards and API 610. It’s capable of testing horizontal, vertical and submersible pumps up to 5,000 horsepower. This webinar will focus on aspects of aftermarket testing on problem pumps by diving deep into several case studies where issues were found with a pump prior to assembly—helping save time, headache, and money.
We are very pleased to announce that Hydro’s Test Lab is the first test lab to be certified by the Hydraulic Institute in their