In September, the IGS team mobilized to a Philippines Power Plant to deliver a critical HVTS cladding project inside their boiler. This plant is one of three owned by the Philippines independent power producer fleet, supplying power to the Visayas region.

Erosion Problem in the Boiler

The boiler (Unit 1) was commissioned in 2010 and required erosion mitigation. A thermal spray vendor previously applied a coating onto the waterwalls that was underperforming. IGS was invited to refurbish that failing boiler tube protection, and ensure reliable operation until the next shutdown, by protecting these and other critical areas with high erosion rates from degradation.

Abundant Covid-19 Requirements – a Cause for Concern?

At first, navigating Covid-19 requirements has proved to be difficult in the Philippines. IGS worked together with the power plant and IGS’ in-country network to identify and collect all government requirements, as well as engage the necessary agencies to facilitate successful mobilization.

Ed Griffith, IGS APAC Director, commented: “IGS and the client took ownership of dissecting the Covid situation and IGS helped to identify and navigate these requirements. We completed two weeks of quarantine in the country prior to application, followed by multiple rounds of test results. Then, another test and a province-specific quarantine. The team spent 19 days in the country in quarantine before the work began, and the project itself took 16 days to complete.”

Developing a Customized Solution

The work scope continued to evolve as the inspection and condition assessment was completed. The IGS team had to make decisions in real time and update the recommended protection scope during inspections. In the end, 50% (~90m²) of the previous vendor’s thermal spray coating has been refurbished with IGS HVTS alloy cladding. A new area of ~15m² was also protected, prioritizing the highest erosion zones.

Planning for 2021 Shutdown

During the September 2020 outage, IGS performed magnetic lift-off inspection, waterwall condition assessment, and analyzed UT data to determine the work scope. From this data, the IGS team made recommendations for outage planning for the other two boilers on site in Q1 2021.

Read about another recently completed project: IGS Middle East Team Delivers Two Critical Projects During the Pandemic!

IGS Covid-19 Response

In these unprecedented times, delivering specialized services for mission-critical equipment in the energy sector is a challenge. To this, we say – Challenge Accepted! For IGS, it is essential to keep delivering the quality of services that our clients around the world expect from us so they, in turn, can continue to provide critically important services to the world.

Expertise and Local Infrastructure

Ed Griffith added: “IGS Clients expect us to outperform and deliver under difficult circumstances, Covid is just today’s challenge. The Covid situation has been yet another opportunity for IGS to showcase our professionalism and ability to execute world-class international Engineering work. We gladly accept this challenge to adapt quickly and perform under unique challenges. Work IGS has done to build out expertise and local infrastructure globally over the past few decades is paying dividends today for our global clients who can expect the same level of service amidst a global health crisis.”

Strategic Locations

IGS teams are stationed in multiple strategic locations around the world to enable the swift mobilization of our crews to any job site anywhere and at any time. From maintaining critical infrastructure in Poland to ensuring the reliability of petrochemical complexes in the Middle East, all while completing colossal projects in Japan, Indonesia, France, and the USA, IGS has never stopped delivering projects across the globe.

Every day, our dedicated local teams continue to perform safely and efficiently in these challenging conditions. IGS’s top priority remains the health and safety of our people and the customer’s personnel. All while ensuring the reliability of the most critical energy and chemical producers to facilitate the continuity of essential services in these challenging times.

Going Digital: Continuing Education and Information Sharing during the Pandemic

IGS continues sharing best practices, information, and general education through webinars, white papers, and videos, by collaborating with prominent industry associations, including NACE, Refining Community, Euro Petroleum Consultants, and AmmoniaKnowHow, among others.

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