We are currently looking for a power plant managment software tool to have daily comparison for the current plant performance with the baseline plant (new and clean plant performance at the guaranteed conditions). It also needs to be able to read the ambient temperature, pressure, humidity and steam to process, and performs an analysis which predicts how the plant would be operating at baseline conditions.

Thanks for your help.

For a total plant performance monitoring system I would recommend GP Eta PRo or Emerson's new Global Performance advisor. If you have a GE turbine or possibly a combined cycle unit, I would suggest reaching out to GE for their Power Smarts. Their data is not characterized as with GP or Emerson and is very accurately calculated based on tools used by their Performance Services group. I believe GP and Emerson uses correction curves from performance models as the baseline and adjust according to conditions which has a larger margin or error. There are other outfits for strictly machinery heath management or combustion turbine performance monitorintg that you can look at.. but i believe GP, Emerson, and General Electric's PowerSmarts are the top three for total plant performance monitoring.
thanks

thanks, I will look into each company's performance monitoring system

What control system(s) are in place?

I agree with Buntin's question to determine which controls systems are currently in place. If your have Ovation currently as the DCS, i would make sense to stick with the Emerson Performance Monitoring system. For ease of compatibility, support, and knowledge by the station personnel. I feel that most performance monitoring systems are comparable but ultimately its accuracy is dictated by the quality of the data feed into the calculations.

thanks

Hi,

The data is not characterized as with GP or Emerson and is very accurately calculated based on tools used by their Performance Services group. I believe GP and Emerson uses correction curves from performance models as the baseline and adjust according to conditions which has a larger margin or error.

Technical Consulting Services

I know a number of plants that are happy with their EtaPro systems.

The biggest 'problem' with most performance monitoring systems, is that they don't actually DO anything by themselves (unless you have big $$'s and can invest in one of systems that communicates directly back to your control system). You need a site champion to look after the care & feeding of the system, and also review the results so you can put them to use and get some value out of the system.

I've worked with sites in getting packaged systems operational (i.e. EtaPro), and also put together simple spreadsheet (and some not-so-simple) systems that use data from PI or SQL data historians to look at the curve-based corrected performance as well as other performance indicators like compressor efficiency and condenser cleanliness. (I'm an independent consultant in this area.)

There's a wide range of systems available out there.

I've outlined some of things to consider in some of my newsletters - available free online at T2E3 - Newsletters Archive

Good luck with finding a system that fits your needs!