Manchester Street Station is a 495-megawatt electric generating plant located in Providence, RI. Built in 1903 to power the Providence electric trolley car system, the plant has undergone many expansions and modernizations over the years. Between 1992 and 1995, a landmark re-powering project transformed the plant into one of the cleanest and most efficient fossil-fueled generating facilities in New England. The upgrade included the addition of three Siemens model V84.2 combustion turbines.

Since the completion of the re-powering project in 1995, a program of continuous plant improvement has been in place. Some of the goals of this initiative are to increase efficiency and reliability, minimize environmental impact, and enhance workplace safety.

One of the items identified, as a candidate for improvement was the combustion turbine flame monitoring system. The system supplied by the turbine manufacturer was a European product based on a now dated technology. Over time, system reliability had declined and it had become labor intensive and expensive to maintain. Replacement parts were costly and delivery times extended.

The scope of the Flame Monitoring System Replacement Project was to remove the existing flame scanners, signal processors and the interconnect cabling running from the scanners to the junction boxes on each combustion chamber. These components were replaced with the following modern equipment manufactured in the United States by IRIS Systems, Inc.:

• S550 Dual UV/IR Viewing Heads

• P520 Signal Processors w/ rear circuit boards

• FACF 19" Card Frame

• C328 Viewing Head Cable

The IRIS Systems components were chosen based on cost, performance, ease of installation, and favorable recommendations. The viewing heads were direct replacements for the existing flame scanners. The signal processors and new card frame were installed in the turbine control cabinet, below the existing devices, while the turbine was still in operation. All field wiring between the combustion chamber junction boxes and the control cabinet was compatible and could be re-used, eliminating the need to replace long cable runs. By pre-installing the signal processors and pre-fabricating the new cables between the viewing heads and combustion chamber junction boxes, the system replacement could be easily accomplished during a combustion turbine minor inspection outage.

Plant maintenance staff activities associated with this project included removing and replacing the viewing heads, removing and replacing cabling running between the viewing heads and the combustion chamber junction boxes, mounting the new card frame in the turbine control cabinet, and making the new connections between the card frame and the cabinet terminations.

Engineering, Start-up and commissioning of the replacement system progressed smoothly with the assistance of an IRIS Systems field service engineer. The flame monitoring system has functioned satisfactorily and has met all project expectations. Subsequent to the installation on the first combustion turbine, the flame monitoring systems on the remaining turbines were also replaced.

Rich Desmond
Plant Controls Engineer
Manchester Street Station

Safety and reliability are paramount to our operation... Iris has never let us down. The products and service have always been "top Notch".

Ray Kjenner
Utility Services Manager
University of Alberta, Edmonton

The equipment performed as advertised, deliveries were on schedule, and assistance was only a phone call away.

Larry Bachus
Technical Specialist
Parsons Energy & Chemicals
Houston, Texas

Jack Brown
Chief Power Engineer