Condenser Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis

A surface condenser is a critical heat exchanger in a power plant. The performance of the condenser has a significant role in deciding the plant heat rate and efficiency. Multiple factors influence the performance of the condenser, namely, steam flow, cooling water flow, vacuum system condition, heat transfer surface etc. Degradation in performance of condenser leads to increase in heat rate, and it is difficult to find out the reasons for such performance deviation quickly. TCE’s Digital Point Solution makes this complex task easy for an operator.

Power Cycle Chemistry Monitoring and Diagnosis

The chemistry of steam/water in a power plant influences the scaling, fouling and life cycle of various components in the feed cycle. Timely sampling, monitoring, and analysis of water/steam at selected locations are necessary to control the plant’s steam/water parameters.

With effective continuous monitoring and control of steam/water chemistry, scale deposition would be minimised. It can result in improvement of heat transfer efficiency and reduction in expensive repairs or replacement of boiler & turbine components. TCE’s Digital Point Solution can help the operator control feed water chemistry for the complete range of operations.

Pump Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis

Pumps are widely used in industrial, commercial & residential applications to transfer different fluids. Performance, reliability & availability of critical pumps play a vital role in ensuring the productivity of the plants. Pumps should be operated at their Best Efficiency Point (BEP) for the best performance. But on many occasions, pumps would operate away from their BEP due to high variability in process demand and other system constraints impacting the pump’s performance and leading to higher operational costs in terms of auxiliary power.

Boiler Modelling and Performance Optimisation

The power sector is going through a transformation phase with a focus on green power generation. A boiler is one of the critical components in a power plant. A well-designed boiler and its efficient operation are essential for better performance & reliability of a power plant.

Coal-fired power plants are designed mainly for baseload operation, are forced to operate under partial load to take care of the variable generation from renewables. Coal-fired power plants face various challenges, such as variation in coal quality and the requirement to operate flexibly at low load without compromising safety, performance, and reliability.

TCE has developed a digital point solution to predict the boiler performance with different coal quality, provide insights into the boiler operating conditions, and plan any maintenance actions.

Solar PV Plant Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis

Solar energy is the most abundant energy resource on the earth. As per the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and the International Energy Agency, the current installed capacity of solar PV plants in India is about 35 GW, while globally, the capacity is more than 700 GW. The reliability and performance of solar PV plants shall be ensured over their lifetime. Solar PV plant operation and maintenance and its monitoring approach are evolving continuously over time.

Conventionally, the actual generation is being compared with the estimated generation. If the difference is less, it indicates a smooth operation of the plant. This conventional approach is less accurate and impacts plant Operation, Maintenance and economics.

Circuit Breaker Performance Monitoring

Circuit breakers are critical components of power systems. The main functions of circuit breakers are switching on & switching off an electrical circuit, interrupting Short-circuit current and securing open and closed positions. Apart from the main functions, circuit breakers must behave as a good conductor during a closed position and as a good insulator during an open position.

Also, a breaker should withstand the overvoltage generated during switching and should be highly reliable during operation. Plants collect design data, operation data, maintenance data and environmental data related to a circuit breaker. Most of this data remains typically unused. In case of any abnormality or failure, the data related to the event is retrieved and analysed to find the root cause manually. This conventional approach may lead to unanticipated outages, unavailability of the system and higher maintenance costs.

Cooling Tower Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis

Cooling towers are widely used in process industries, power plants & HVAC to reject process heat into the atmosphere. In a cooling tower, most heat transfer takes place through evaporative cooling and balance by sensible cooling,

During the evaporative cooling process, water evaporates, lowering the temperature of the circulating water. Also, when the warm circulating water meets cold incoming air, sensible heat transfer occurs, causing the incoming air to heat up and the circulating water to cool down further.

An industrial cooling tower consists of static and rotating parts which can degrade over a period and may lead to thermal and mechanical performance issues. TCE has a developed digital point solution that helps the operator optimise their cooling tower performance.

Remote Energy Monitoring and Analytics

Optimisation of energy consumption is the need of every industry. Fossil fuels form a significant share in the energy mix, and hence reduction of energy consumption is essential to achieve net zero-emission. Continuous monitoring of significant power consumers in a plant will help run the equipment efficiently and reduce energy consumption. Energy analytics plays a key role in minimising energy consumption by detecting the deviations and alerting the operator to take the corrective action in near real-time.

TCE has developed a digital point solution that can help the operator optimise their energy consumption.

Transformer Performance Monitoring and Diagnosis

A transformer is one of the critical equipment in an electrical network system. The average life of a transformer is approximately 25 years. However, the failure rate of the transformer is on the higher side. Any fault in the transformer may reduce power system efficiency and lead to complete failure of the electric network. The significant causes of transformer failure are the deterioration of winding insulation resistance, unbalanced loading, single phasing, overloading, less maintenance, low transformer oil level, etc. As transformers are critical equipment in power transmission & distribution, monitoring the transformer’s health in real-time to avoid frequent failure is essential. The monitoring of the energy consumption will help to detect power theft and overloading.

Coal Inventory Management

A coal handling system is an integral part of the mining as well as in power generation. It handles various fuels such as coal, lignite, pet coke. These fuels are received in a plant through various modes of transport such as rail wagons, ships, long-distance conveyors, or road trucks. The coal received at the plant is transported to the stockpile, and further, it will be reclaimed and conveyed to the consumers on demand.