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Alternative Energy Blog: Lessons from Fast Track Gas Turbine Generators Control System Retrofit Project

Jim Cahill

Earlier this week, we shared how integrated control systems connected with turbine generators and other associated process areas, can improve overall efficiency and reliability for electrical power producers. Continuing on this theme, a Combined Cycle Journal article, Checklist for success: NV Energy commissions seven turbine DCSs in seven weeks , highlighted a fast track gas turbine retrofit project covering two sites…
- 21 Mar 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Driving Turbine Generator Efficiency Improvements

Jim Cahill

A combination of more plentiful natural gas from shale formations, more global liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities to transport it globally, and global political pressure to reduce carbon emissions has been shifting the mix of fuel sources for electrical power generation. Here in the U.S., natural gas has surpassed coal as the leading source of fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration . Natural…
- 19 Mar 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Driving Turbine Generator Efficiency Improvements

Jim Cahill

A combination of more plentiful natural gas from shale formations, more global liquefied natural gas (LNG) facilities to transport it globally, and global political pressure to reduce carbon emissions has been shifting the mix of fuel sources for electrical power generation. Here in the U.S., natural gas has surpassed coal as the leading source of fuel, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration . Natural…
- 19 Mar 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Electrical Power Disruptions, Innovations and Changing Business Models

Jim Cahill

The sources of electrical power for the grid continues to shift toward decentralization as renewable energy sources are connected. At CERAWeek 2018, Emerson’s Bob Yeager joined a panel hosted by IHS Markit’s Philippe Frangules , Electric power: Disruption, innovation & new business models. The panel was joined by leaders from Duke Energy, 38 North Solutions and Innogy SE. The panel’s focus was: As distributed sources…
- 8 Mar 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Strategies for Power Generators in a Low-Carbon World

Jim Cahill

With the global push to reduce carbon emissions, electrical power producers are challenged find non-hydrocarbon fuel sources and maintain reliable grid operations. At CERAWeek 2018, Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions business president, Bob Yeager , joined a panel moderated by IHS Markit’s Catherine Robinson . The panel also included leaders from E.ON, Norsk Hydro and Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions (CRES). Here…
- 8 Mar 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Cybersecurity Guidance at ConnectedPlant Conference

Jim Cahill

This week, the ConnectedPlant conference is being held in Charlotte, North Carolina. The conference is focused for professionals in the chemicals and power industries who are leading digital transformations in their organizations. The focus includes: …actionable information and strategies to maximize the use of data, analytics, and related technology to drive efficiency improvements, preventative and predictive maintenance…
- 26 Feb 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: Increasing Combined Cycle Gas Turbine Efficiency and Reliability

Jim Cahill

The electrical power generation mix continues to shift to increasing natural gas usage due to growing supplies from shale gas production. In a Power article, How to Increase Power Plant Asset Reliability Using Modern Digital Technology , Emerson’s Juan Panama describes how combined cycle gas turbine (CCGT) plants are using digital technologies to increase levels of reliability and efficiency. He opens describing a…
- 9 Feb 2018
Alternative Energy Blog: #POWERGEN 2017 Preview: Helping Power Generators Address the Skills Gap

Jim Cahill

Author: Douglas Morris A January 2017 report from the U.S. Energy Department states: Workforce retirements are a pressing challenge. Industry hiring managers often report that lack of candidate training, experience, or technical skills are major reasons why replacement personnel can be challenging to find—especially in electric power generation. The wave of retirements has been talked about for years and…
- 21 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: #POWERGEN 2017 Preview: Flexible Operations

Jim Cahill

Author: Douglas Morris The new plants that are coming online today are already designed for fast start and flexible operations. With the changing generation mix, being able to move a unit is essential as fleets dispatch more renewables. But what about older plants that were designed to operate as baseload generation? Sometimes units must be mechanically retrofitted to be able to better participate in the market…
- 16 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: #POWERGEN 2017 Preview: Microgrids and Controls

Jim Cahill

Author: Douglas Morris Microgrids are collections of generating sources that are coupled to operate as one either connected to or disconnected from (islanded) the main power grid (sometimes called the macrogrid). Being able to independently provide one’s power is becoming popular with standalone entities like colleges or universities, military bases, and remote locations. Hawaii is embracing microgrids and has recently…
- 9 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Automating Combined-Cycle Power Generation Startups

Jim Cahill

In combined cycle power plants : …the heat of the gas turbine’s exhaust is used to generate steam by passing it through a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) with a live steam temperature between 420 and 580 °C. The condenser of the Rankine cycle is usually cooled by water from a lake, river, sea or cooling towers . Over the past decades, combined cycle power plants were built to handle base electrical loads…
- 8 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Industrial Internet of Things and Electric Utilities Fleet Management

Jim Cahill

Electric utilities must carefully manage their fleet of power generation facilities to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions, meet regulatory requirements and operate safely. Enabling Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technologies provide an opportunity to more effectively manage these fleets than has been possible before. Jonas Berge accepts Best Paper Award – Digitalization track at 2017 PowerGen Asia conference…
- 6 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: #POWERGEN 2017 Preview: HRSGs, Steam Attemperation and Tube Leaks

Jim Cahill

Author: Douglas Morris We all know that today’s plants must cycle more; that’s just the expected mode of operation. Keeping plants online with the ability to cycle, particularly cost-competitive combined cycle units, is a focus for most utilities and avoiding heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) tube failures is a good place to start. These failures can be attributed to corrosion, thermal issues, and creep fatigue…
- 2 Nov 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Successfully Addressing NERC CIP Cybersecurity Standards

Jim Cahill

The power industry is perhaps the furthest along in hardening their cybersecurity defenses due to the work of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) on the critical infrastructure protection (CIP) cybersecurity standards—now at version 6 . In a Power magazine article, Tackling NERC CIP and Cybersecurity at America’s Largest Gas-fired Cogeneration Plant , this electrical energy and steam energy producer…
- 13 Oct 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Monitoring Your Medium Voltage Switchgear

Jim Cahill

When I worked in the offshore oil & gas business many years ago, production platforms typically had low-voltage electrical systems running motors no larger than 480VAC. Over the years as the process sophistication grew and motors with variable speed drives replaced engine-driven compressors and other assets, the need for medium voltage systems (between 1KV and 35KV) grew. For most other industries with access to an electrical…
- 9 Aug 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Reducing Control System Hardware Footprint

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Ben Skal presented on reducing the Ovation distributed control system hardware footprint at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. Virtualization technology is at the heart of this hardware footprint reduction and having less workstation and server hardware to maintain. Ben’s presentation focused on: What is virtualization & how it works Appropriate uses of virtual machines (VMs) Benefits of VM…
- 27 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Take Charge of Partial Discharge to Protect Plant Assets

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Jonathan Murray discussed partial discharge solutions at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. Unplanned electrical asset failures can halt production and amount to millions of dollars of associated costs. The IEEE and NFPA organizations identify Partial Discharge (PD) , a breakdown of the assets insulation, as a leading cause of failure. Manufacturers are looking for ways of transitioning away from traditional…
- 26 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Model Predictive Control in Power Generation

Jim Cahill

Model predictive control in power generation was the subject of a 2017 Ovation Users Group presentation by Emerson’s Ranjit Rao . Rajit opened comparing classical control with model-based control. In classical control, a proportional-derivative-integral loop is used with feedback. There is a setpoint, the actual process variable and the error or difference between the process variable and setpoint. Based on the dynamics…
- 26 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Simulation for Training and Engineering Applications

Jim Cahill

At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference, Emerson’s Bob Kerestes and Sheldon Willis gave an update embedded simulation in the Ovation system. Sheldon opened the presentation describing types of uses for simulators for training and engineering. For training simulators, simulations can range from simple tie-back models to high-fidelity models which simulate the dynamics of the running process. For high-fidelity simulation…
- 26 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Generator Excitation 101

Jim Cahill

Generators turn mechanical energy into electrical energy by moving electrical conductors in a magnetic field. Excitation creates the electromagnetic field to make this mechanical to electrical conversion occur. Emerson’s Rich Dennis provided a basics presentation on excitation control at the 2017 Ovation User Group meeting. Excitation control includes synchronous machine regulation, exciter, synchronous machine for…
- 25 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Suite of Cybersecurity Technologies and Practices

Jim Cahill

Emerson’s Adam Boeckmann presented the Power and Water Cybersecurity Suite at the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference. He opened describing the team that formed over the last several years that now supports more than 200 sites in the U.S. alone. He shared the story of the recent Wannacry/WannaCrypt ransomware cyber-attack. In March of 2017, Microsoft released a patch. A month later, the National Security Agency (NSA…
- 25 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Applying Threat Intelligence for Industrial Control System Defense

Jim Cahill

There are many paths to pursue in improving cyber defenses for industrial control systems (ICS). At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference, Emerson’s Tom Kizer presented on applying threat intelligence for system defense. Tom opened by acknowledging that identifying effective threat intelligence is difficult. Threat intelligence is data collected, organized, analyzed and refined about potential or current attacks…
- 25 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Microgrid Monitoring and Control

Jim Cahill

At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference , Emerson’s Fred Huff presented on microgrid controls. Fred opened describing a microgrid as one that could stand alone or connect to the larger electrical grid. Components include distributed generation (DG), loads—critical and non-critical, energy storage systems (ESS), points of common coupling (PCC) and a microgrid controller. Fred focused on the control components of…
- 25 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Critical Infrastructure Cybersecurity Trends and Compliance

Jim Cahill

As critical infrastructure, cybersecurity remains a top concern for electrical power, water and wastewater industry companies. At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference , Emerson’s Jaime Foose led a panel of trends in cybersecurity threats and compliance. The panel included experts from National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center (NCCIC)/ Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS…
- 25 Jul 2017
Alternative Energy Blog: Reliable Electrical Power and Utilities at the University of Texas

Jim Cahill

As a University of Texas electrical engineering graduate, it is great to hear a success story on the successful electrical load control using Emerson technology on the main campus in Austin, Texas. The campus operates an independent electrical grid but connects back to the Texas electrical grid. The utilities department has a $2.8 million operating budget. The utilities group produces 140MW of electrical power and provides…
- 24 Jul 2017