Development of Standard Operating Procedure for a Combined Cycle Power Plant: A Case Study

Abstract

This study is carried out to understand the effect of Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) in a Combined Cycle Power Plant (CCPP). We chose Khulna 225MW CCPP as the study field. The study is qualitative rather than quantitative in nature. Initially, operational system practiced in this power plant was observed closely by participating with the operation team. Afterwards, for some selective jobs SOP was developed, tested, corrected and released for practical implementation. Sufficient training was conducted to habituate the operator for using the SOP. Then a survey was carried out to understand the effect of SOP. In most of the cases outcomes of the study is in-line with the expected outcomes assumed initially during the study. That is, SOP is helpful to ease the operational process, to uniform the operational activities, to improve compliance related to organizational policy, HSE and Legal Issues, to reduced trouble in decision making and to increase plant availability factors in long run. However, some operators opined that in some cases SOP is not significantly helpful and some operators found SOP makes no difference on some points. Operators with more experience opined in every case that SOP is significantly helpful for reducing human error