System Technologies

Console Energy Services works for installation of computerized operations and plant management systems to support the technical management of power plants and industrial facilities; services for systems and communications related tasks.

Most state utilities have been supplied with Console's thermodynamic modeling software for analyzing and improving efficiency. The power plant Performance Analysis, Diagnosis and Optimisation (PADO) system is installed at a number of 500 MW units.

The SI plant management system is available in a modular structure depending on the complexity of the plant. SESI offers customized, computerized tools for optimizing processes.

• Online Diagnostic System
• Online Optimization Package
• SI System
• Simulators

Online Diagnostic System

SPC – Statistical Process Control

Power plants and their components experience continuous changes in their operating behavior. As a rule, these changes lead to unseen degradation of plant efficiency or to what appear to be sudden failures of components, which have economic implications. Statistical methods provide a way of avoiding such extra costs. By continuously analyzing available operating values, they provide credible clues toward threatening problems as early as possible.

SPC is an intelligent early warning system for automatically monitoring process quality and the condition of the technical systems and processes in your plant

The advantages of SPC at a glance

• Reliable and automatic early detection of process weak spots,
• Conversion of unplanned into planned downtimes,
• Forward-looking organization of maintenance measures,
• Ability to monitor very different kinds of technical process parameters automatically and provide continuous support to the employees operating the plant.

Fault Tree

Root cause analysis in case of failures in power plants is a difficult task. Quite often the knowledge to identify and isolate the root cause of a fault comes with experience and not documented. This system facilitates the knowledge sharing by facilitating creation of the fault diagnosis steps based experience of engineers. The system has an intuitive graphical module to create fault trees which could be run with real time data for fault detection.

Once the fault tree is created, the fault detection package allows the drilling down of the faults to root cause analysis to trace the possible cause of faults. The on-line data is used to identify possible faults and then the corresponding fault trees are traversed with the dynamic status of the fault trees to identify the set of events/status of equipment for the fault. The entire path of fault tree is identified for understanding the root cause. Remedial measures can be also programmed as operator guides

Online Optimization Package

Online Monitoring EPOS

The monitoring of components or parameters provides the information, how far the measured operating state deviates from the possible optimum under the current boundary conditions. In this way, the current weak points of the plant operation can be identified. The attention of the operating staff is drawn to these points, so that the process can be rectified in short-term.

The online application EPOS system monitors the current plant operation and facilitates the operator to compare it with the currently possible optimum on a continuous basis. The calculations are executed automatically in a 5’-cycle on the basis of the current mean values of this time class. The system computes online performance based on the current operating parameters and design parameters, using the thermodynamic model of the power plant.

Lifetime Monitoring in Power Plants

Power plants components are exposed to high temperature and temperature and suffer material degradation during their lifetime. The degradation originates either from creep of the material caused by pressure induced stress or from fatigue caused by fluctuations of temperature and pressure in the component wall. Because the actual plant operation deviates more or less from design conditions, the accumulated material degradation is not proportional to operating time; therefore a regular monitoring of plant operation is recommended.

The TÜV-certified software system continuously records operating temperatures and pressures around all critical components of a power plant and from that calculates the resulting contributions due to creep and fatigue. Thus the operator is kept well informed about the current status of the plant, especially about the remaining lifetime of the vital components. The system helps the power station to:

• reduce the cost for routine maintenance inspections as well as additional tests
• keep the operator well-informed about the current status of his plant
• calculate the creep and the fatigue

MT  Metal Temperature

Inadequately high boiler temperature tubes leads to damage to the tubes leading to tube leaks and un-scheduled shutdowns. The temperature sensors at these locations usually have short life therefore the operators do not have any means to manage the tube temperatures. The metal temperature module gives the temperature profile (temperature of individual tubes) of various heating surfaces of boiler. It also identifies the Hot spots (the tube with maximum temperature in any heating surface). This profile is developed based on:

• Metallurgical properties and physical dimensions of the tube
• Flow pattern and temperature of flue gasses
• Flow pattern and temperature of steam inside the tubes

SI System

SI- The system for integrated plant management

The SI-system is the product of 40 years of experience of Console in managing plants and controlling energy plants. The SI-system helps to perform operations and maintenance tasks rationally and transparently—from planning shifts to using utilities. In particular, it will help to detect weak spots early and optimize work flows. In addition, it ensures up-to-date information is available about organizational, technical, and economic aspects of equipment.

Functions that simplify work

• Based on master data and the work data determined in realtime, the SI system will support in many areas of workflow organization:
• minimizes the administrative expense for plant management
• integrates shift book with derivation of orders at the click of a mouse
• processes orders with automatic forwarding to the employee responsible
• has a safe disconnection procedure, with conflict monitoring and connection warning
• optimizes and logs production resource usage and inventories
• monitors costs, availabilities, and storage levels up to the minute
• ensures production and quality standards
• controls relevant information and authorization
• plans and controls work, records output, and documents
• supports all audit phases

With the aid of the SI Infobox, each user is assigned only those tasks and given only that information intended for him or her. Each user can view and immediately process the information addressed to him or her according to topic. This makes the SI Infobox a central contact point in SI control, from where all other activities are launched.

Simulators

Power Plant Simulator

Console Energy Services has collaboration with Trax to develop and market simula-tor using PraTrax toolkit of Trax. Developed simulators have been used for operator training and engineering analysis. Simulators offer the following benefits for operator training:

• Training and skill enhancement for new plants, retro-fit of new control system & assignment of new units
• Simulating mal-functions and emergency operations which are not possible in routine training

Simulators can be used for different types of training as well as for difference set of trainees.

Console uses toolkit developed by Trax to develop simulators. The toolkit approach ensures that high quality models are developed in short time thereby reducing the overall simulator development, delivery and tuning time.

The company has developed simulators for coal fired, gas fired and hydro power plants.