Credibility
The governor is usually older than the people maintaining it.
Steam turbines are among the longest-serving machines in industrial and power generation facilities. Many remain mechanically sound while relying on aging mechanical-hydraulic governors that are becoming increasingly difficult to support. Replacement parts can be hard to source, experienced specialists are retiring, and control performance can deteriorate over time. These issues can appear as unstable speed control, nuisance trips, reduced process availability, and increasing maintenance demands. In more serious cases, an aging governing system can introduce additional overspeed risk on equipment with significant stored energy.
Innova Technologies engineers digital control and governing systems for steam turbines in both generator-drive and mechanical-drive applications. This includes power generation and cogeneration units, as well as turbines driving compressors, pumps, and other critical equipment. Our experience is independent of any single turbine or governor manufacturer and includes solutions for GE, Elliott, Dresser-Rand, Siemens, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Terry, Shin Nippon, ABB Stal, Ruston, and Skoda turbines. Governor modernization experience also includes Woodward, Metso and Neles, Voith, and TG Drives systems.
Schemes and standards we design to
Innova Technologies has delivered applications with SIL 2 requirements. SIL 3-capable logic solvers can also be incorporated where specified, but Innova does not represent these as delivered or verified SIL 3 systems.
Applications
Aging mechanical-hydraulic and early analog governors can be replaced with modern digital controls while retaining serviceable hydraulic actuators and, in some cases, the existing servo valve. Reusing suitable field equipment can reduce project scope, shorten the outage, and lower modernization costs.
Independent hardware-based overspeed protection is provided separately from the turbine governing system. Protection architecture and required safety integrity level are defined according to the project's risk assessment, operating requirements, and applicable standards.
Steam turbine controls can be integrated with API 670-based vibration monitoring and machinery protection systems. Monitored parameters may include casing vibration, shaft position, axial thrust, and bearing temperatures, with alarm and trip functions configured to OEM and site requirements. Condition data can also be made available to operator displays and plant-level systems.
Digital governing provides precise isochronous speed control and stable load response through changing operating conditions. Control is tuned to the turbine's inlet steam conditions, stage configuration, and driven equipment characteristics to maintain reliable regulation from minimum governor speed through maximum continuous rating.
Generator-drive applications can include synchronization, isochronous and droop operation, load sharing between parallel units, VAR and power factor control, and black start capability where the turbine is expected to support plant or grid restoration.
Real-time performance monitoring can track steam consumption, efficiency, and other operating indicators to support optimization and maintenance planning. Valve commands can also be continuously compared with actual valve position, helping identify actuator, valve, or feedback issues before they lead to larger operating problems.
Control strategies can support full-arc and partial-arc admission, as well as single-valve and multi-valve configurations. Closed-loop valve position control with hydraulic or electrohydraulic actuators provides accurate, repeatable steam admission across the turbine's operating range.
For turbine-driven compressors and pumps, the turbine governor can be integrated with the driven equipment controls, including anti-surge and capacity control. This coordinated approach allows turbine speed and process requirements to operate as one control strategy rather than as separate systems exchanging limited signals.
Intake gate and penstock isolation valve control integrated with turbine governor and protection logic for safe isolation, emergency closure, and coordinated startup.
Extraction turbines often require speed, load, extraction pressure, and back-pressure to be managed together. Innova Technologies applies coordinated multivariable control strategies to maintain stable extraction pressure through load changes, admission transitions, and changing back-pressure conditions while protecting the process steam system.
Automated sequencing can manage valve operation, temperature soak periods, acceleration through critical speeds, loading, and normal shutdown. Sequences can include operator-selectable automatic and manual modes, defined hold points for field verification, controlled unloading, coast-down, and final valve position confirmation.
Where We Work
Why Innova
From engineering and manufacturing through installation, commissioning, and ongoing support, we deliver a complete solution with a single point of accountability.
Trusted Worldwide
Independent control for every turbine class.
Anti-surge, loadshare, performance, and capacity control.
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Single-source
A MESSAGE FROM JOHN KAZOUR, CEO
To our customers and partners,
For more than 50 years, our team has helped customers keep critical operations running. We built our reputation as Petrotech by taking responsibility for control systems on important rotating machinery.
As more industries came to us with similar challenges across power generation, compression, and hydro applications, our engineering team kept finding ways to solve them. Eventually, the business outgrew the Petrotech name.
We are entering our next chapter as Innova Technologies. The new name reflects the full scope of our work as a rotating machinery control systems specialist. We engineer controls around the machine, deliver complete projects from design through commissioning, and provide support that stays with the problem until it is solved.
Our name is changing, but the people, engineering experience, and commitment behind the work continue. Our responsibility to active projects and installed systems carries forward under the Innova Technologies name. Your current contacts remain the right place to start, and we will communicate directly if an administrative record requires an update.
We appreciate the trust you have placed in us over the decades, and we look forward to continuing that work as Innova Technologies.
CEO, Innova Technologies
