Control system to boost power plant performance

An Emerson Process Management - Power + Water product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Oct 8, 2004

Emerson Process Management has won an $8 million contract to upgrade the control systems for Sunflower Electric Power Corp's Holcomb Generating Station in Kansas.

Emerson Process Management has won an $8 million contract to upgrade the control systems for Sunflower Electric Power Corp's Holcomb Generating Station in Kansas.

The consumer-owned electric generation and transmission utility also has awarded Emerson a $1 million contract for asset management software, field instrumentation and services.

Sunflower Electric Power Corp is operated by six rural electric distribution co-operatives and serves 34 western Kansas counties.

"We selected Emerson because they not only offered a comprehensive instrumentation and control solution, but also a knowledgeable and dedicated team that was willing to go the extra mile for us", said Brad Schimke, Senior Manager, Power Production for the Holcomb Station, which is located in Garden City, Kansas.

"It's that combination of industry-leading technologies and technical expertise that really set Emerson apart from the competition".

Emerson's Power and Water Solutions industry centre will install its Ovation expert control system at the 360MW, coal-fired Holcomb plant, replacing the station's legacy Bailey and Honeywell control systems.

The Ovation system, a key technology in Emerson's PlantWeb digital plant architecture, will manage 8000 I/O points and provide data acquisition and optimise, control and monitor the plant's steam supply processes, including the boiler, burner management system, scrubber, and turbine (including startup, rotor stress analysis and vibration monitoring), and the balance of plant processes (including coal handling and water treatment).

To further optimise control and monitoring of plant processes, Emerson's SmartProcess Combustion Optimizer and SmartProcess Sootblower Optimizer software modules will be integrated seamlessly with the power-specific control algorithms in the Ovation system's APC (Advanced Process Control) toolkit.

"Time and time again, across a broad range of industries, we've seen how Emerson's digital PlantWeb architecture can boost the availability, capacity and response of our customers' plants while at the same time reducing operations and maintenance costs", said John Berra, President of Emerson Process Management.

"Now, increasingly we're seeing power companies use PlantWeb with the Ovation system as they look to gain and maintain a competitive advantage".

The asset management software, field instrumentation and services contract includes Emerson's AMS Suite' applications for predictive maintenance of mechanical equipment and field devices, as well as Hart field devices, including Fisher valves and Fieldvue valve positioners and Rosemount smart transmitters.

Control system installation will take place in two phases to take advantage of scheduled outages.

Phase one (Q3 2004) includes installation of control systems for the scrubber, coal handling and flame scanners; installation of the Ovation communication network backbone and new power supply systems.

The second phase, featuring installation of the BOP control systems, is scheduled to take place in Q1 2006.

PlantWeb and Ovation: Powerful Solutions For Emerson customers, PlantWeb is the blueprint for implementing a comprehensive, digital solution that delivers installed cost savings and operations savings.

This automated solution delivers asset management, process control and management execution through intelligent field devices and critical plant assets, standards and scalable platforms, and integrated modular software.

Tailored to meet the challenges of the power generation industry, Ovation ensures full optimisation of critical processes.

Built using the latest commercially available hardware platforms, operating systems and network architectures, only the Ovation expert control system stays new in the face of rapidly advancing computing technology.