Design codes for equipment in a power plant located in the US

[MechMad1]

General question:
If you are building a combined cycle in the United States, the Steam/Gas Turbine & HRSG must be designed according to US standards?

Let's say that the owner of the plant is not indicating anything concerning the design codes.

 

[metengr]

Design codes for the US;

ASME Boiler and Pressure Vessel Code - Section I, II, V, and IX
ASME B31.1
ASME B16.xx
ASME CSD-1
NFPA

.. for starters

 

[marty007]

Normally you'd be looking at ASME in North America.
ASME Section 1 / ASME B31.1 for the boiler system and boiler external piping.
ASME Section VIII-1 (or VIII-2) / ASME B31.3 for everything outside of the boiler system.

Cheers,

 

[JStephen]

Boiler laws and required codes are by individual states.
Some states regulate unfired pressure vessels, some don't.
Building codes, fire codes, electrical codes may be by local city or county governments or may be statewide, or in some cases, there may not be any.
Federal OSHA rules (or similar state OSHA rules) may also come into play.

 

[marty007]

One resource is put out by the NB. This can be used as a start, but the in-effect laws should be checked before you get too far: National Board Link

 

[MechMad1]

Reading the NB link, I get the picture of Boilers and Pressure Vessels ...
For example, in Connecticut, it is mandatory to comply with ASME I and II, but not with ASME VIII.



For Turbines, is it mandatory to design these equipment according to US standards? (ASME, API, etc.) I mean, by law, or for plant legalization.

I have an European supplier that is designing a turbine according to European standards (EN), and I don´t know if I will have legal problems (or other kind of problems).

Thank you!

 

[racookpe1978]

You need to do the "financial research" before going further: If you are asking such basic questions, I'd (as a potential customer) would be wondering how you could support and maintain a turbine-generator-rotor-HRSG-steam plant for the next 45 years.

 

[Tmoose]

Hartford Steam Boiler gets mentioned a bit.

 

[MechMad1]

Thanks for your answer racookpe, much helpful!

 

[someguy79]

Building codes and fire codes are going to be per the local authority. A good first guess would be IBC and NFPA requirements. Many jurisdictions will go above and beyond or directly contradict those in some details. You'll have to be familiar with whoever inspects & approves the buildings.

Marty007 has it right for the piping and boiler codes.

Fuel gas and a lot of the plant (power block) fire protection codes are from NFPA. These are typically not covered in local building codes, though some inspectors will want to see all that anyway. I've come across the odd insurance requirement to use FM for certain things. I can't remember which (sorry).

Don't forget the emissions. You're going to have a bunch of regs and standards here. Most of the pain is going to be around the air permit. However, you'll probably also have some things like backup/black start generators, or diesel driven fire pumps. Those will have EPA and possibly state requirements.

I think I'm starting to see the scratch on the surface for this issue. How far do you want to go? How much detail do you really need here?

 

[chicopee]

There is such a power plant in my neighborhood owned and operated by Eversource Energy (formely North Utilities) at 327 Moody St, Ludlow, MA. Get hold them if you can visit the plant. In the past, related organizations could visit such location, perhaps they could extend the courtesy to you.

 

[racookpe1978]

Add ground water, access permits (road, bridge, toll, and heavy-load trucking or less-common rail) and cooling water permits and evaluations for the cooling water (or air cooling) for the steam side of the combined cycle plant.

In fact, Athens NY co-gen plant needed air-air (no water) cooling fans because the local officials did NOT want vapor steam clouds over "their valley" near the Hudson.