Making the Most of Available Assets - How Intelligent Add-on Technology Helps to Upgrade Boiler Performance

摘要

Utilities and companies in the power generating market not only face the competitiveness of the global markets but have to cope with an ever increasing hunger for power while simultaneously being challenged with climate change issues and emission regulations. The age of the existing fleet of power plants - many of them more than 30 years old - contributes to these problems. Hence the search is on to find effective and efficient ways of improving plant performance, reducing emissions and costs while reliably providing power, at a competitive market price. Next to building new, state-of-the-art plants to replace their obsolete counterparts there is the option of upgrading older units to meet acceptable standards, thereby keeping capital expenditure in check. The overall performance and availability of a fossil-fired thermal power plant is predominantly affected by the steam generating unit and the combustion process [1]. Even though conventional plant control systems ensure a safe and reliable operation, they do not rigorously optimise boiler operations or take care of special combustion problems. Not to mention that much of the information gathered by modern IT systems and advanced monitoring equipment remains untapped. Thus, many plant operators decide to unearth these "hidden reserves" by way of software driven intelligent add-on technologies supported by advanced measurement diagnostics. The article at hand not only illustrates the achievable benefits of an advanced real-time boiler optimisation solution but also touches on the decision-making and implementation process.