Kermit Richard Wescott

Field Experience With the Pace Control System

The Westinghouse PACE 260 combined cycle control system was first shipped to the field January 1973. It was shipped to the Comanche Site of Public Service of Oklahoma, at Lawton, Okalhoma, Fig. 1, to control the Westinghouse prototype combined cycle plant. Since then, nine other PACE 260 control systems have been shipped to other combined cycle plant sites. The PACE control system was a new system controlling a new process, the combined cycle. Problems were experienced and problems were solved. At this date, all the control system functions, both analog and digital, have been field tested and are functioning. This paper discusses the experiences at the installed PACE 260 combined cycle plants which were on line producing megawatts at the time this paper was written. The sites are: Dos Bocas and Gomex Palacio in Mexico for the Mexico Commission Federal de Electricidad; El Paso, Texas for El Paso Electric; and Comanche for Public Service of Oklahoma. Changes were made to the process, to primary sensors, final control elements and to the control system. This paper discusses some of these changes, the reason for them, and the effects of implementing them.Copyright