Method to select instrumentation for hydraulic turbines in retrofitting process

Almost 83% of the brazilin electric power generation is provided by hydroelectric power stations, most of them built in the 60's or 70's. The increase in the electric energy demand forces the power plants to increase their availability. That increase may be possible through maintenance policy improvement. Another alternative is the hydro generator retrofitting aiming at the extension of operational life, the use of remote operation techniques and the improvement of maintenance policy. This paper presents a method for instrumentation selection during the retrofitting design process aiming at applying predictive maintenance policy as a tool to improve equipment availability. The method is based on the Reliability Centered Maintenance (RCM) concepts to select the most critical components to apply on condition monitoring philosophy. That criticality is defined based on the component failure effects on the hydro generator operational condition. The method is applied on the selection of instrumentation for a Kaplan turbine.