Coal-fired power plants adopt digital architecture

An Emerson Process Management - Power + Water product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Dec 1, 2006

Emerson Process Management has been selected to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation expert control system at seven new coal-fired power plants.

Emerson Process Management announced today that in 2006 to date the company has been selected to install its PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation expert control system at seven new coal-fired power plants, all slated to go into commercial operation within the next five years.

These new plants represent an additional 5505MW of new generating capacity that will help US utilities satisfy the country's growing appetite for electricity.

In addition to these contracts, Emerson anticipates receiving additional new plant awards before year's end.

Emerson control systems are already installed in plants representing more than 230,000MW of generating capacity, or more than 35% of electricity generated in the USA.

These latest contracts further reinforce Emerson as the number-one control system supplier to US power generators.

Emerson's PlantWeb solution incorporates high-speed communications networks, intelligent field devices, asset management software, and bus I/O technologies to help power producers control critical plant processes, increase plant efficiencies and megawatt production, and realise long-term operations and maintenance savings.

Emerson's Ovation control system, a key technology of PlantWeb, is designed specifically to meet the challenges of the power generation industry.

The Ovation system boasts a number of industry-leading advanced technologies, including incorporation of embedded advanced control algorithms; a mission-critical, Fast Ethernet network for high-speed communication of plant information; the industry's most powerful controller with the fastest duty cycle available to optimise plant performance; and a full line of analogue, digital and special-purpose turbine and boiler I/O modules; among others.

For new plants, deployment of PlantWeb technologies helps power generators lower wiring costs and streamline device installation, communications verification and troubleshooting - an approach that translates into reduced startup and commissioning costs.

In fact, a recent study conducted by JDI Contracts determined that utilising the engineer-procure-construct (EPC) approach, combined with the integrated, intelligent and highly automated digital architecture advocated by Emerson, can result in total project cost reduction of as much as $20 million for a 600MW coal-fired plant.

Given the restructuring that has introduced competition into the industry, evolving environmental regulations, and an increased focus on fiscal responsibility, it is critical that power generators use advanced automation technologies that will provide a sustainable operational foundation for the expected 30-plus-year plant life, while at the same time addressing current business realities.

And because the majority of new coal plants in the USA are expected to become operational in the 2008 through 2012 timeframe, power generators must begin now to carefully evaluate their options based on a strategic vision for where automation technology will be going in the future.

"Laying the right foundation is crucial for utilities navigating this ever-changing landscape", said Bob Yeager, President of the Power and Water Solutions division at Emerson, who points out that many leading utilities - in the USA and around the world - rely on Ovation to simultaneously reduce costs and optimise plant performance.

"More and more we are working upfront in a collaborative environment with utilities and their architect-engineering firms as they move toward implementing a flexible, long-term automation strategy that offers operational and economic advantages while also helping meet the country's growing demand for efficient, reliable and affordable electricity well into the future".