Setting A New Standard in Power Plant Performance
- Co-Generation
- Thermal
How a Power Company Reduced Emissions While Achieving a Record Heat Rate Improvement and Operating Capacity
THE CHALLENGE
What Challenges Did EtaPRO Help the Power Company Solve?
In a dedicated effort to improve efficiency and reduce emissions, a large Midwest thermal power company teamed up with the Sierra Club to champion environmental protection. Their ambitious agreement promises to reduce emissions and boost efficiency, setting a new standard for more environmentally friendly energy. The new solution they adopted has already delivered rapid, dramatic, and continuous results, transforming the city’s energy landscape and paving the way for a greener future.
Emissions
Meeting emissions-reduction commitment while running coal and combined-cycle units at high output.
Performance Deviations
Detecting and addressing performance deviations that caused lost capacity and higher fuel consumption.
Quantifying Impact
Quantifying the actual impact of operational changes and capital projects to verify gains and justify investments.
Heat Rate Improvement
Achieving and sustaining lower heat rates across units and tracking improvements in real-time.
Fleet-Wide Visibility
Giving plant operators easy-to-understand, fleet-wide visibility to target specific deviations from design performance.
Monitoring & Modeling At Scale
Scaling a robust, flexible monitoring and modeling solution across a diverse fleet of six coal and combined-cycle plants.
PROVEN RESULTS
What Did the Company Achieve in Power Plant Performance with EtaPRO?
Btu/kWhr
Achieved record heat rate
Heat rate improvement
projected year-over-year
Maximum
achievable capacity
Operation
Making Operational and Heat Rate Goals a Reality
EtaPRO’s real-time “gap” analysis pinpoints performance deviations that lead to lost capacity and increased fuel consumption. The system sets realistic operational and heat rate targets that can be achieved through strategic operational changes and routine maintenance. Additionally, EtaPRO provides real-time financial insights, empowering the company to justify equipment and process improvements with solid data.
With "What if" scenarios and virtual modeling, VirtualPlant allows engineers to quantify the impact of changes in equipment condition before they actually implement them to determine what modifications are really needed. Together, these tools offer real-time insights into system conditions and powerful modeling capabilities to predict the outcomes of various responses, ensuring optimal performance and efficiency.
With FastStart, we look at the live EtaPRO system with their performance team every other week. During one recent session, staff noted that a growing number of reheater tubes were running at higher-thannormal temperature,” explains the client. “After some follow up investigation, the EtaPRO team alerted us that some of the tubes were exceeding allowable temperature limits, which could lead to tube leaks and premature failure. This prompted a retuning of reheat temperature controls.
POWER PLANT PERFORMANCE GOALS
Achieving Record Low Heat Rates Soon After EtaPRO's Implementation
After installing EtaPRO and VirtualPlant, the team gained unprecedented insight into their system’s performance and the remarkable improvements these solutions delivered. “EtaPRO provides plant personnel with feedback to effectively monitor incremental improvements in plant operation,” noted the plant’s Principal Performance Engineer.
The plant operators and engineers see lower heat rates on the screen with every improvement they make. We’re also validating the results by running EtaPRO reports and comparing them to a separate report created by the fuels department. When the heat rate results concur on both reports, this confirms that the improvements are really paying off.
Deploying new technologies in the plant goes beyond just end-user training. EtaPRO’s FastStart™ service kicks off immediately after a system is installed and commissioned. Routine, scheduled, collaborative sessions immerse the plant staff in EtaPRO’s state-of-the-art capabilities, addressing specific challenges they face.
THE SOLUTION
Becoming Part of the Team to Foster the Solution
The company’s performance teams dive deep into operational and equipment changes using EtaPRO’s cutting-edge VirtualPlant models to quantify the resulting boosts in capacity and heat rate. When an operating change or maintenance action is implemented, plant personnel track key performance indicators in EtaPRO to verify real-world improvements.
FastStart collaboration empowers the client’s team to identify issues and master the solution’s intricacies. For instance, during a major turbine overhaul, the team swiftly determined the HP turbine efficiency gain from the capital project, thanks to EtaPRO’s ability to calculate and record HP turbine efficiency data in the plant historian before and after the upgrade.
- Having quick confirmation helps fine tune the process. And it provides the data in such a way that it’s easy to understand and easy to disseminate across the plant. EtaPRO provides additional levels of information that allows our plant performance engineers to target and improve specific areas of deviation from design plant performance.
-Principal Performance Engineer
- When we looked at the whole fleet, we wanted to go with the best technology. We wanted a solution that was robust and flexible to handle all our plants, and we knew EtaPRO was the right answer.
-Principal Performance Engineer
POWER PLANT PERFORMANCE RESULTS
Improving Heat Rate 1%-2% Year-Over-Year
The urgent need to reduce carbon emissions has sharpened management’s focus on plant performance like never before. By zeroing in on heat rate improvements at its coal units, the company has adopted one of the most effective strategies for cutting carbon emissions.
Following the implementation of these measures, the fleet achieved a record-breaking heat rate of 9,900 Btu/kWhr, operated near full capacity, and was on track to achieve a year-over-year heat rate improvement of 1%–2%.
Inspired by the early success at the power plant, their ambitious CO2 initiative, and their agreement with the Sierra Club, the company fast-tracked the deployment of EtaPRO across its entire fleet of six coal and combined cycle plants. This bold move promises to drive even greater efficiencies and environmental benefits across their operations.
ABOUT EtaPRO
Superior Asset Performance Management Software
EtaPRO is a single intelligent real-time performance and condition monitoring platform combining four powerful technologies.
- Reduce unplanned downtime with APR.
- Model performance using digital twin solutions with VirtualPlant.
- Detect, diagnose, and predict faults with Predictor.
- Manage plant data in an intuitive historian with Archive.
Set a New Standard in Plant Performance & Reliability
Learn how EtaPRO's monitoring and diagnostic services can protect your assets, reduce downtime, and deliver measurable savings.