Why do gas turbines (and other plant equipment) fail in the winter?

A 2-minute thread on the "brains" behind a power plant: instrumentation

A typical plant can have over 10,000 "instruments" - electrical sensors used to monitor pressure, temperature, vibration, flow rate, etc.

Arguably the most common sensor is a pressure sensor

Pressure sensors are used to measure the difference in pressure (DP) between two points (P1 and P2)

Pressure taps at locations P1 and P2 feed into a high pressure side and low pressure side of a pressure sensor

The sensor measures the DP and converts it into a flow rate

To protect the equipment, plant control systems initiate a shut down if the calculated flow rate exceeds (or falls beneath) a certain value

But in the winter, this causes an issue..

These pressure "taps" are made of 1/4" carbon steel tubing and are often not insulated.

If one of these taps freezes, the sensor can no longer read the true pressure of P1 or P2

Garbage in = garbage out

If the sensor can't get a good measurement, the flow rate calculation fails, and the control system shuts down the equipment

This is currently happening to gas turbines across Texas

Plant electricians are spending night/day working to fix instrumentation and get gas turbines running again

So the next time you see a local plant electrician, thank him/her. Their efforts kept your heat on last night //

And if you were curious, here's a picture of one of these pressure sensors measuring flow through a pipe

// end thread