Integrated Simulation for Power Generation Digital Transformation

Emerson's Bob Yeager


We hear the phrase “Digital Transformation” bandied about across the manufacturing industries. For each segment it can mean something different.

At this past December’s Power-Gen conference, president of Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions business’ Bob Yeager gave the keynote address. In his presentation, Digital Transformation of Power: From Concept to Reality, Bob described 3 key reasons why electrical power producers undertake digital transformation initiatives.

Here is Bob’s 20-minute presentation. His part begins at 25:40 into the video.


Forward the video to 25:40 for Bob’s presentation.

These 3 reasons include next level reliability by eliminating human error, effective transfer of knowledge to help attract & retain top talent, and innovating without fear.

These all have elements that a Digital Twin can address: simulate the plant to test out ways to improve reliability, train the operations and maintenance staff, give new plant staff and environment to learn instead of learning on the live process, and have a place to test out optimization strategies.

Bob describes the elements of a successful Digital Twin where control and simulation are integrated. The simulation must use the same software as the running plant software. It must access the same real-time data as the control system. It must automatically stay in sync with the control strategies and settings running in the live control system.

With these attributes, changes can be made in the digital simulated plant to see how they would respond in the actual process. Time can be sped up to see how the dynamics of the process are affected by the changes without having to wait. Learning can take place without fearing what might happen on the actual process and inadvertently tripping the unit.

Another key aspect is the access to experts beyond the plant. In organizations undergoing digital transformation efforts, Cloud technologies enable collaboration on this simulation model of the plant. Geography is no longer is a barrier for getting expert minds together to solve problems and improve performance.

Watch the video and read Bob’s thoughts in his LinkedIn post, The Digital Transformation of Power: From Concept to Reality.

You can also connect and interact with other power industry experts in the Power group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.

The post Integrated Simulation for Power Generation Digital Transformation appeared first on the Emerson Automation Experts blog.