Thai power plant to adopt digital architecture

An Emerson Process Management - Power + Water product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Nov 17, 2006

Emerson Process Management has won a contract to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture at the new Ratchaburi power plant in Thailand.

Emerson Process Management has won a contract to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation expert control system and Foundation fieldbus technology at the new Ratchaburi power plant in Thailand.

When completed, the two-unit, combined-cycle plant will have a production capacity of 1400MW.

The first 700MW unit is scheduled to begin commercial operation in March 2008, with Unit 2 to follow in June 2008.

The plant is owned by Ratchaburi Power Company, a subsidiary of Ratchaburi Electricity Generating Holding Public Company Limited.

Electricity generated by the plant will be sold to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand under a 25-year power purchase agreement.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), the engineering, procurement and construction contractor, selected Emerson's PlantWeb architecture with the Ovation system to monitor and control the heat recovery steam generators as well as balance of plant processes.

The Ovation system will also interface via TCP/IP to the MHI governor system, which controls the gas and steam turbines.

Emerson's complete control and asset management solution for the Ratchaburi power plant includes a total of 13 redundant controllers, eight Ovation workstations, AMS Suite: Intelligent Device Manager and 40 Rosemount 848T intelligent temperature devices.

For new plant construction, AMS Device Manager streamlines device configuration and commissioning, thereby contributing to more efficient plant startup.

AMS Device Manager also provides online access to instrument and valve diagnostics and automatic documentation of all field device maintenance information - all contributing to ongoing efficiency of plant operations and maintenance activities.

The scope of the project also calls for Emerson's Power and Water Solutions industry centre to provide system engineering and commissioning services.

Unlike proprietary control systems that are quickly outdated, the PlantWeb architecture is based on an open systems approach that keeps pace with new technologies, enabling customers to preserve the capital investment in their control system.

"Emerson's approach - one that leverages commercially available hardware platforms, operating systems and network technologies - gave us the confidence that obsolescence wouldn't be an issue in the future", said Haruhiko Kawaguchi, General Manager, MHI.

The PlantWeb architecture also makes it possible to lower startup and commissioning costs by reducing wiring costs and streamlining device installation, communications verification and troubleshooting.

These cost and efficiency improvements were other important factors in the decision to award the project to Emerson.

"Early adoption of PlantWeb technologies is a win-win situation for power generators and EPCs, as PlantWeb has been proven substantially reduce construction costs up front", explained Bob Yeager, President of Emerson's Power and Water Solutions Division.

"But the savings don't stop there: Power generators, like Ratchaburi, that rely on the technologies of PlantWeb can expect to experience long-term O and M cost savings due to the efficiencies of operating a highly automated, intelligent plant".