ROLE OF C&I & IT IN THERMAL POWER

GENERATION

PM Bhardwaj
Director(P)
Instrumentation Ltd

OutlineofPresentation
PowerSector:KeytoEconomicGrowth
IndiaEnergyScenario:DemandvsGap
CrucialRoleofC&I
PLFsofPowerplants
Benchmarkingexercise
g
TrendsonDCS
BroadObjectivesofDCS
IntegrationofITwithC&I
Integration of IT with C&I
C&I RoleinmakingIndianpowerplantsworld
Class
BenefitsofITsolutionstoPowerPlants
ChallengesofToday

PowerSector:KeytoEconomic
Growth
Electricityy - Critical infrastructure component
p
for rapid
p
economic growth
Reliable and quality power at competitive rates is key to
Industrial Growth .
Importance of Energy for the Economy :
President Barack Obama immediately on assuming office as
US President signed an Executive Order Aimed at Energy
Independence.
P
Per Capita
C it consumption
ti off electricity
l t i it iin IIndia
di (704 units)
it ) iis
very low compared to developed nations (17000).

NeedtoIncreasePowerGeneration
IndiasGDPhastakenabigjumpandisgrowingatarateof7
8%.
8%
The
Thegrowthoftheeconomycallsforamatchinggrowthrate
growth of the economy calls for a matching growth rate
ofinfrastructurefacilities,especiallypower.
Thegrowthrateforpowerindevelopingcountriesishigher
thanGDP.
HencegrowthratioofGenerationshouldbeminimum1112
%.
%.

IndiaEnergyScenario:DemandvsGap

Indian Electricity Sector has made remarkable progress during the last five
decades in the field of
Generation
Transmission and distribution
Utilization of electricity.

However, the demand of electricity has always been more than supply.

Present
P
t Status
St t :
Status:
Per capita consumption 704 units per annum against worlds > 17000
units
Installed Capacity 1,47
47,,457 MW as per CEA data of 31st Jan,
Jan 2009

 In FY08, the total power generation was 704 billion units as compared
to 663 billion units in FY07
FY07, ( 6
6.3%
3% growth Year on Year basis) .
India is facing Power shortage in terms of energy and Peak shortage
- Energy shortage is about 8%
- Peak Energy shortage is about 13.8%.
February 2008 recorded a Peak Shortage shortage of as high as
14.5%.
Projected power requirement and capacity addition by year 2012:
Per capita consumption about 1000 units per annum
Installed capacity about 2,10,939 MW

InstalledCapacityinthecountryatEndof
10th Plan(31/3/2007)
Plan ( 31/3/2007)

Coal based Power Plants are Backbone of Indian Power Sector forming 53% of the
CoalbasedPowerPlantsareBackboneofIndianPowerSectorforming53%ofthe
installedcapacityofPowerGenerationason31/12/2008.

Demand Supply Gap can be bridged by

DemandSupplyGapcanbebridgedby

Sustainable Large Capacity Addition

Program
g
Increasing
g efficiency
y of existing
g units
Upgrading
pg
g fleet of Old Power Stations
which are inefficient and have poor
y
availability

Need to Improve performance of the Existing

thermal power plants
In the p
present scenario,, apart
p from capacity
p
y addition,,
there is an great need to improve the performance of
existing units.

Goals of Power Generation

GoalsofPowerGeneration
Lower Cost of Generation
Higher
Hi h Effi
Efficiency
i
& hi
higher
h output
t t (i
(increasingplant
i
l
loadfactorandplantavailability)
Good Quality
Higher Reliability
Reducingtransmissionanddistributionlosses,
Environment Friendly , Clean and Green
Sustainable Power is need of the day.
Energy
E
S
Security
it

CrucialRoleofC&I
Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization has effected
power sector also.
It is gradually moving from a regulated to a non-regulated
non regulated
system with high competition.
For achieving above in fast manner increasing the efficiencies
of electric generating plants is critical.
Power Plants efficiency is dependent on quality of its
operations and maintenance and C&I has a crucual role in it.
C&I has very important role in stabilization of various
subsystem
b
t
off Power
P
Plant
Pl t through
th
h

tuning and commissioning of various Loops

performance monitoring of various subsystems
optimal operation of the plant at the target performance level
Prevent Tripping and Forced shutdowns

Use of Latest C&I systems has resulted in increase in PLF

and decreasing the manpower required per MW.

ALLINDIAPLF(%)OFTHERMAL
POWERSTATIONS
78. 6

78

C H A R T : 13 7 6 . 8
7 4 . 87 4 . 3

73

72. 7
69

68

67. 3
63

63

61
60

58
56. 5
53. 2
53
52. 4
48

Y ears

56. 5
55

57. 1
55. 3
53. 9

64. 6
64. 4 64. 7

72. 2
69. 9

Manpower per MW
ManpowerperMW

FiguresforNTPCPowerPlants(SourceNTPCannualReport)

BenchmarkingExercise
In this benchmarking exercise data from 19 thermal power generating units was
collected & comparison was made of the best figures in each parameter
achieved by any Indian power plant over three years (2001 2004) with such
figures for 2004 2005 of relatively high performing India power plants.
Performance of a
B t Performing
Best
P f
i
Unit

Average Performance of
off allll IIndian
di th
thermall
Power Plants
Suratgarh

Forced outage %

4.44

8.84

Planned maintenance %

1.03

8.23

Operating availability factor %

93 6
93.6

82 93
82.93

Plant load factor

93.18

74.82

1 2 ml/unit
1.2

1 37
1.37

7.53

8.57

Specific fuel oil consumption

Auxiliary power consumption %

93.10

Inferences from the comparison

Inferencesfromthecomparison
Performance figures of average Indian thermal power
generating
ti units
it and
d th
the fifigures off th
the best
b t performing
f
i
power generating unit indicates that the potential for
performance improvement is tremendous in Indian
thermal power generating units
units.
If the availability factor of the existing thermal power
generating units is increased by 10%
10%, from the present
level the capacity addition requirement will come down
by approximately 12,000 MW. This will reduce the
investment requirement of about Rs 50
50,000
000 Crores
Crores.

TrendsinDCS(Technology)
Summary showing great
improvement in following

1988
16000 Tags
g for the total system
y
Proprietary OS for operator stations and controllers
16 bit CPU for Operator station
8 bit for controller, 8 Mhz speed
Bus speed 1 MB or 2 MB
1998
16000 Tags for each controller,
200000 tags for the system
Both ON/OFF & moudlating control in same controller
Integrated engineering and documentation functions
Windows or Unix OS for operator stations.
16/32 bit CPU for controller
66 MHZ Pentium or Unix based workstations.
Bus speed 100 MB
2008
32000 T
Tags ffor each
h controller
ll
More than Million for the system
400 MHZ Operator stations or Unix workstations.
industry Standard CPUs at controller level.
Gigabit Bus speed

CPU Power :
Capacity of System
in terms of NO. of Tags

Standard Operating
System
Bus Speed

Interfaces to Third
Part Systems
Remote Connectivity
Communication
information security

OBJECTIVEOFC&ISYSTEMS
Sa
Safeoperationofplant
e ope at o o p a t
Bettervisibility,closemonitoringofPlant
p
parametersandeventsforfaultanalysis
y
Lowerthecostofgeneration
q p
Increaseequipmentlife
Minimizeenvironmentaleffect
y
Maximizeefficiency
Energyconservation

TrendsinDCS(UserInterfaces)

Thefirstdirectdigitalcontrol(DDC)systemsof
g
(
) y
the1970sofferedPlantMimicsinsemi
graphicsmodelikeconventionalBTGboards.
Displayswereineffectivebecauseonlypartof
theprocesswasvisibleatanyonetime.Onlya
small number of variables could be shown on
smallnumberofvariablescouldbeshownon
thelowresolutionmonitorsthatwere
available.Operatorswereonlyabletoviewa
verysmallnumberofplantvariablesatany
timeandwereneverabletogetthecomplete
pictureofaplant.
i
f l
Inthe1980stheDCSstartedofferinglarger
displays.Historicalinformationandtrending
wasavailabletoseeprocessdynamics.
Higher resolution screens and windowing
Higherresolutionscreensandwindowing
allowedmorevariablestobeincludedon
displays.ControlwasalsoincludedfromDCS.
Bythemid1990s,supportingknowledgeand
By
the mid 1990s supporting knowledge and
operatorguidancemessageswereincludedin
mostcontrolsystems.Theirwasimprovement
inengineeringandsimulationtools.Typically,
anoperatorcouldnowpointataprocess
p
p
p
objecttoretrieveassociatedinformation.

Summary
Graphics :

Display Size
Display Resolution
Selection Devices
Simulation
operator guidance
messages
Drill down capability
Update Time

Present Day DCS

PresentDayDCS
Single Window to the process
Open communication architecture, 3rd party subsystems
can easily interface and integrate
S
Sophisticated
hi i
d P
Power Pl
Plant E
Engineering
i
i and
d O
Online
li
Documentation Tool for Asset Information Management
Seamless interface with ERP
Ability to send information on laptops, PDAs and Mobile
devices
Remote Diagnostics
Remote guidance and operation
Graphical
G hi l N
Navigation
i ti

PresentTrendsinC&I
NewtechnologiesinC&Isystemshavebeeninductedfor
Improvementinplantperformanceandreductioninspace
andcostetc.
Theseincludeadoptingofmicroprocessorbasedcontrol
These include adopting of microprocessor based control
valvepositioners,wirelessLAN,microprocessorbased24VDC
system,digitalCCTVsystem,
LargeVideoScreensasmainoperatingtool,
Fieldbusbasedsystems
Flamescanners
Flame scanners
Highlevelofdiagnosticsforearlydetectionofproblemsand
tofacilitateproactivemaintenance.

ThefollowingaspectsofC&Isystemsare
i
improvingcontinually:
i
i
ll
Standardization
Speedofresponse
Hardware
Softwarecompatibility
Userinterface
Memory
Compactness
Power requirement
Powerrequirement
Systemintegrity(reliability,availability,security)
Controlandlogicalgorithms
Control and logic algorithms
BetterInterfaces&Connectivitytoothersystems

FutureofControlRooms
OldControlRoomwithmanywindows

NewControlroomwithlargescreens

Old Control Room

OldControlRoomLatestControlRoom
Latest Control Room

IntegrationofITwithC&I

Need to process e-information Intelligently in C&I systems is increasing

day by day

W ld id major
Worldwide
j energy companies
i have
h
adopted
d t d ERP and
d Other
Oth IT
solutions and have benefited tremendously.

Indian Energy companies are also upgrading their IT infrastructure and

are going for solutions like

Integrating MIS with DCS

Station wide LAN ,

Optimization
O
ti i ti & Diagnostics
Di
ti software
ft
.
ERP
E-Procurement software

ITinEnergyCompanies

Companies with geographical spread units are tightly integrating

their units using the power of LAN / WAN and other IT technologies.
technologies

This helps them to properly Monitor On-line various Real-time plant

parameters

from

different

generating

stations

and

improve

operational performance.

Indian Companies like NTPC, GEB, RRVUNL etc. have gone for
latest systems like PADO & state of the art ERP systems to adopt
best p
practices in Power Generation.

Several Discoms have also taken large initiatives in field of

g
networking.

E.g.
g AVVNL, JVVNL , RRVUNL has taken large
g IT

initiatives for improving IT infrastructure.

C&I RoleinmakingIndianpowerplants
worldClass

C&IcanplayanImportantroleinmakingIndianPowerplants
C&I
can play an Important role in making Indian Power plants
worldClass How
AdoptBestpracticesfollowedbyPowerPlantsworldwide
IdentifythestateoftheartDCSandC&Itechnologiesadoptedin
y
g
p
internationalpowerplants
IdentifyandadoptthebestpracticesinIndianpowerplantswhichcan
suitablybefinetunedandusedinvariouspowerplants.
Try to reach Best operating parameters of coal based thermal power
TrytoreachBestoperatingparametersofcoalbasedthermalpower
plantsforeachsizeofunit
Adoptionofthebestoperatingandmaintenancepracticesfromvarious
highperformingthermalpowergeneratingunitswillhelpthepower
generatingunitstomovetowardsthebenchmarking
i
i
d h b h
ki
MonitorGreenhousegasemissions

PerformanceAnalysis,Diagnosticand
Optimization (PADO)
Optimization(PADO)
PADOcomparestheactualstatusofplantoperationwiththe
beststatusbysimulatingtheentireprocessandidentifying
potentialcostsavingstoberealized.
i l
i
b
li d
Also
Alsoincludesalifetimemonitoringpackagethatcomputes
includes a life time monitoring package that computes
continuouslytheresiduallifeoftheplant.
BeingImplementedbyILatChhabraTPSofRRVUNL.

Benefits of IT solutions to Power Plants

BenefitsofITsolutionstoPowerPlants

Benefitthroughadoptionofbestbusinesspractices
Benefit
through adoption of best business practices
IncreaseintheusefullifeofthepowergenerationPlants
Increasedefficiencyinoperation&maintenancesystem
Reductionininventorycarryingcosts(inventoryrequirementforecasting,
y
y g
(
y q
g
analysis&replenishment)
Improvementinmanpowerproductivity(competencymanagement,
planning,removingnonvalueaddedactivitiesetc.)andhelpinreducing
workload on top management.
workloadontopmanagement.
Controllingtimeandcostoverrunsofprojects(throughexceptionbased
projectmanagement) Powerfulexecutiveinformationsystemtofacilitate
proactivedecisionmakingprocess
I
Increasedabilitytorespondtothechangingneedsanddemandsof
d bilit t
d t th h i
d
dd
d f
customers
Generationofmostcompetitivepower

CostsafterImplementationofITsolutionsin
P
PowerPlants
Pl
InventoryCosts
Inventory Costs
ProcurementCosts
ShortageCosts
Sh t
C t
ManpowerCosts
CommunicationCosts
DecisionCosts
Maintenancecosts

ILsPathtoSoftwareSolutions

ChallengesofToday

Due to Globalization, Privatization and Liberalization, todays

industries face continuous need to lower operational costs
Ensuring sustained availability of plant at higher performance level
Need of increased information sharing
Real-time Optimization
Merging
g g of earlier isolated optimization
p
tasks
Low-level vs. high-level objectives into overall organization
objectives
Earlier manually solved problems and now optimized and
solved
l d using
i global
l b l expertise
ti & C
Complex
l optimization
ti i ti systems.
t
C&I and related ERP systems require extensive support and
expertise. Hence we should look after companies with good
references,
f
reputation,
t ti
lilive installations,
i t ll ti
staying
t i power, after
ft sales
l
support.
Integrated C&I , software and hardware providers can provide real
t k solutions
turnkey
l ti
in
i b
bestt possible
ibl manner.

Conclusions
The market-oriented competitive environment has made it
necessary forced many power plants to become more conscious
of the role of
proper C&I systems,
maintenance and optimization management tools
Good C&I system coupled with IT products like ERP ,
Optimization Packages, Fuel management software, equipment
maintenance practices and tools can improve the reliability of
the power system;
Use of IT along with latest C&I systems can help to zero in on
the optimum methods & management practices in order to
improve the overall effectiveness of the operations and
maintenance of the plant.
IT can help to reduce the work burden by automating tedious
and monotonous tasks.