Turbine Technology Services Corporation (TTS), a full-service gas turbine engineering firm based in Orlando, Florida, US, will participate in the 2012 7FA Users Groups Annual Conference in San Antonio, Texas, where a senior company engineer is scheduled to make a technical presentation addressing control system upgrade options available to F-class gas turbine users.

The 7FA Users Group event is of key importance to the power industry as there are over 1,000 "F" class gas turbines in operation worldwide in power plants and at facilities that depend on this equipment for energy generation.

The annual conference brings the users of the GE Frame 7 (MS70001FA) gas turbines together under one roof to feature latest products, services, software and specific presentations that focus on common themes specialists face in the industry. Here, power generation experts will deliver experience-based feedback on the common obstacles faced during the lifespan of power plants, turbines and parts.

TTS has been a regular attendee of the 7FA Users Group over the years and the company continues to increase its involvement in the event, which caters to a captive audience of power plant managers, gas turbine engineers and vendors from the power engineering industry.

Senior project engineer for TTS, Kevin Giroux and Turbomachinery business manager for ICS Triplex/Rockwell Automation, Rick McLin, are scheduled to speak on May 16th to discuss the issues of obsolete control systems and end-user solutions to successful 7FA maintenance.

As 7FA gas turbines often operate with the original SpeedTronic control system and use TMR processing, many fleet managers are facing the decision to maintain TMR capability through OEM upgrades or economically competitive aftermarket options. The presentation is designed to inform end-users and help to aid this decision making process through expert knowledge in the industry.

Their presentation, entitled ‘Maintaining Triple Modular Redundancy with Aftermarket, Open-Architecture Gas Turbine Control System Upgrades’, will focus on the payback analysis of control system upgrades, TMR options and benefits, and how open architecture platforms can increase operational flexibility while reducing costs – all important topics for 7FA users.

"To address the obsolescence of existing gas turbine control systems, TTS incorporates Rockwell Automation’s ICS Triplex line of TMR-based hardware to provide the customer with expanded system flexibility," says Kevin Giroux, senior project engineer at Turbine Technology Services. "This integration into our TMS-1000 control system retrofits offers gas turbine users economical alternatives to OEM systems."

In keeping consistent with its company values of increased transparency, system reliability and operational flexibility, TTS plans to share its knowledge and enable awareness to key factors involved in the decision of upgrading control systems to TMR technology. After market systems equipped with a fault detection and isolation rate exceeding 99%, OEM alternative and open architecture platforms for gas turbine controls can yield unique benefits to fleet managers and others involved when evaluating important system upgrades.

The 2012 7FA Users Group Annual Conference will be held at The Westin, La Cantera Resort in San Antonio, Texas on 14-18 May.