POWER April 2017 - 23

OPERATIONS & MAINTENANCE
1. The digital revolution. New technology, such as GE's Predix system, has allowed
many power plants to optimize performance. Courtesy: GE Power
needed to take action based on the monitoring
team's analysis, resulted in the discovery
of a very large crack in a high-pressure
steam turbine
rotor. Although the team
could not pinpoint the exact problem while
the unit was online, pattern recognition software
identified a vibration anomaly that had
gone undetected by control room operators.
After further analysis, the team determined
that a thorough examination was warranted.
The unit was shut down, avoiding catastrophic
failure, and the crack was found
during the inspection.
Duke Energy's Monitoring and Diagnostics
Center reported 555 finds from 2013
through 2016. The company estimates that
the center has more than paid for itself
through cost avoidance attributable to the
center's finds during the period.
able to profit from.
" [Exelon is] just an incredible, incredible
partner for us, " Chotai said. " They're early
adopters. We think we're early in this journey.
We spent about the last 18 months really
piloting a lot of technologies . . . They
bought everything that we had. "
Another example of an early adopter is
Duke Energy (the company's Renewable
Control Center is shown in the opening photo).
Michael Reid, general manager of technical
programs for Duke Energy's Fossil
Hydro Group, gave a presentation showing
how Duke Energy has applied technology-
building off the online-monitoring concept-to
detect equipment failures earlier
than was previously possible. He noted that
the earlier problems are detected, the more
time there is to plan, prioritize, schedule,
and execute repairs.
Although a common perception is that
equipment wears out over time, Reid said
most equipment failure occurs randomly.
That fact offers an opportunity for companies
with a proactive mindset. Duke Energy
has added more and more field sensors to
monitor plant components with the goal of
avoiding catastrophic breakdown. It now acquires
much more data than it used to, and
it exploits that data to detect potential problems.
One game changer was the ability to
utilize wireless connectivity.
" We have many sensors applied on our
They're hardwired to numerous
data acquisition systems around the station.
Those data acquisition computers then send
information to the plant server wirelessly, "
Reid explained. " If we didn't have that architecture,
it would be far too expensive to
install this, because really 75% of the cost
of the project is related to installation of the
wiring for the sensors-and that's just for a
assets.
April 2017 | POWER
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23
very short distance to these computers. "
Reid said thoroughly reviewing all of the
data that is collected is not humanly possible,
so Duke Energy has several software
tools that it utilizes for the task. The company
has created virtual plant models-Duke
Energy currently has more than 10,000
models-and it monitors thermal performance
at plants looking for optimization
opportunities and other issues.
" Once we have alarms going off and telling
us, this is not expected behavior, then we
have our experts start to dig into this problem
and use the tools that we have, " Reid said.
One " find, " or situation in which a plant
Modeling Plants Pays Dividends
Randy Bickford, president and CTO of software
firm Expert Microsystems, agreed that
modeling expected performance parameters
is key. " The most accurate expected values
give you the earliest and most accurate
predictions of potential problems, " he said.
Without a good model, it's much harder to
use plant data effectively. One problem with
relying directly on sensor data is that many
problems can display the same symptoms,
making it hard to tell what's really going
on. " With that model, you know when and
where problems will occur. "
Stefan Bungart, global head of digitalization,
power generation services for Siemens
2. Putting it all to work. Connecting a power plant can help make emissions compliance
more efficient and accurate. Left to right: Steve Piche, software director with GE Power
Digital Services; Tom Overton, POWER associate editor; and Philip Black, product marketing
director with the Wood Group. Source: POWER/Aaron Larson

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POWER April 2017

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