Upgrade of steam turbine and power management control
LaFourche Sugars LLC located in Thibodaux, Louisiana, USA is one of the leading sugar mills operating in Louisiana, producing 120,000 tonnes of raw sugar annually. Apart from sugar production, the mill also had a Co-Generation plant comprising of 1 x 4.5 MW steam turbine generator, with 650 PSI supply steam. Apart from producing power to reduce the mills’ import power from the Grid supply, the steam turbine generator also produces exhaust steam pressure at 180 PSI, for supply steam to the steam turbine drives (e.g., mills, fans, pumps, etc.) as well as the entire factory electrical load.
The main issue that LaFourche Sugars faced was poor regulation of steam turbine control (via the existing WW 505 digital governor and EG10P electro-hydraulic actuator) requiring manual intervention by the operator during synchronizing, loading, and load variation during abnormal boiler conditions.
