Plant Monitoring Workstation with Online Determination of Incremental Heat Rate

C. Kona, R. W de Mello, S E . Williams,2 and R.H Leyse3

An online method of determining a units economic characteristics was developed under EPRls Power Plant Performance Instrumentation System Project (RP1681/2153). The method, called t h e Incremental Heat Rate Monitor, will soon b e available as part of EPRls Plant Monitoring Workstation. Accurate and timely information about a units economic behavior over t h e load range (that is, t h e input/output and incremental heat rate curves) is necessary for t h e economic dispatch of system generating units. Commonly, a units economic characteristics are determined either from design data o r by occasional test. Since a units operation and condition can change from day t o day, such information can become quickly outdated. The Incremental Heat Rate Monitor cons t r u c t s t h e input/output and incremental heat rate curves periodically, at 15-minute intervals for example. Therefore, t h e information that is used for economic dispatch need never b e out of date. Further, t h e Incremental Heat Rate Monitor accurately reflects t h e true condition of t h e unit including t h e influence of valve loops and t h e switching of large auxiliaries. While most dispatch algorithms cannot take full advantage of this information, EPRI, a s part of t h e same project, is developing a dispatch algorithm that promises t o exploit fully real-time performance data from generating units. This article provides a brief description of EPRIs RP1681/2153 project, a description of t h e EPRI Plant Monitoring Workstation (PMW), and a description of t h e role of t h e Incremental Heat Rate Monitor within PMW. tion of plant performance, and enhancing the economic dispatch of generating units. The Potomac Electric Power Company (PEPCO) is the host utility for the project, and Morgantown Generating Station Unit 2 is the test unit. The project is divided into three major areas covering the boiler, the turbine-cycle, and system dispatch. Power Technologies, Inc. (PTI) is subcontractor t o PEPCO with responsibility for portions of the project relating t o turbine-cycle analysis and instrumentation and software development. The Plant Monitoring Workstation is one of the vehicles chosen t o disseminate the projects results t o the electric utility industry.

Plant Monitoring Workstation

The EPRI Plant Monitoring Workstation is a VAXO based collection of programs to monitor, track, trend, troubleshoot, and report plant performance. In addition t o providing the real-time performance indices that are useful to unit operations, special attention has been given t o the needs of the engineering and management staff by providing interactive access t o the performance calculations, their execution, their configuration, and their results. To b e a truly useful t o o l , t h e information contained within a p e r f o r m a n c e monitoring s y s t e m m u s t b e accessible in a variety of ways a s t h e n e e d s of operating staff, e n g i n e e r s , managers, and software-support p e r s o n n e l a r e all different. T h e PMW m o n i t o r s p e r f o r m a n c e a n d also p r o v i d e s functions t o find, e x t r a c t , a n d u s e d a t a . It a d d r e s ses t h e i s s u e s of long-term software m a i n t e n a n c e a n d d o c u m e n t a t i o n , a n d it provides tools useful for troubleshooting. T h e role of performance information for plant operation, t h e so-called o p e r a t o r controllables, is well documented. PMW fills this role by determining attainable operating conditions and t h e cost of deviating from t h o s e conditions. T h e u s e of performance information can go well beyond t h e real-time c a l c u l a t i o n of c o s t p e n a l t i e s , however. Performance information, if reliable and easily available,
OCtOhPr. I990

EPRI Power Plant Performance Instrumentation System Project

EPRIs RP1681/2153 project has the broad goals of monitoring plant performance, pinpointing causes o f unit deterioration, identifying solutions t o deteriora-

Potomac Electric Power Company .Electric Power Research Institute

Power Technologies, Inc.

0895-0156/90/1000-0021$1.00 0 1990 IEEE

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Figure 1 . Time plot produced by PMW

Figure 2. Scatter plot produced by PMW

is useful in planning for maintenance or identifying problems that might otherwise go unobserved. T h u s , a monitoring system can impact capacity, availability, a n d m a i n t e n a n c e a s well a s day-tod a y o p e r a t i o n s . PMW's calculations of e q u i p m e n t p e r f o r m a n c e c o m b i n e d with a built-in historian function provides for t h e long-term s t o r a g e a n d retrieval of d a t a in addition t o online, periodic calculations. Figures 1 a n d 2 s h o w t w o of t h e ways information may b e viewed with PMW. Both figures s h o w g r o s s turbine-cycle h e a t r a t e a n d load for a 24h o u r p e r i o d . In F i g u r e 1 , b o t h q u a n t i t i e s a r e p l o t t e d against time. In Figure 2 , turbine-cycle h e a t r a t e is plotted against load, making a n y functional relationship between t h e two readily app a r e n t . PMW allows a n y q u a n t i t y (measured o r calculated) t o b e plotted against t i m e o r plotted against a n y o t h e r quantity. Tabulated d a t a a n d customized r e p o r t s a r e a l s o s u p p o r t e d . A performance monitoring program should be viewed a s a living piece o software. In time, performance f monitoring software, like all software, will change to accommodate changing conditions, whether they be changes in function (additional calculations), changes in the cycle being monitored, changes in instrumentation, or a combination. PMW incorporates techniques of software modularity, reusability, and selfdocumentation that have evolved during the past decade. At t h e heart of PMW is a modular collection of calculations used t o determine performance indices in t h e power plant. PMW contains all of t h e calculations that can be viewed a s standard or traditional. In addition, at t h e Morgantown Station, PMW incorporates monitoring techniques including the real-time determination o f unit incremental heat rate. Among t h e pioneering efforts are:
22 IEEE Computer Applications in Pouier

Calculation incremental heat rate that determines a unit's actual incremental heat rate versus load c h a r a c t e r i s t i c (A p r e v i o u s p a r t of t h e RP1681/2153 project pointed out that "errors in incremental heat rate result in errors in dispatch and increases in production cost." With an online incremental heat rate calculation, it is possible t o update t h e information used in t h e dispatch of the unit on a periodic basis.) Methods of determining turbine condition that attempt t o assign loss o turbine performance to f leakage, solid particle erosion, foreign material damage, and/or deposits Methods o direct heat rate determination based f on measurements o total loss in flue gas f Methods of monitoring condenser performance that attempt t o assign loss o performance to air f inleakage, tube fouling, and/or tube plugging. Common t o all of t h e performance calculations a r e functions that determine t h e thermodynamic and t r a n s p o r t properties of steam and water. The steam property functions used in PMW solve t h e 1967 International Formulations for Industrial Use. PMW uses neither approximations of t h e s e formulations nor c u r v e fits based on t h e s e formulations. The extra effort required t o solve t h e 1967 formulations and t h e resulting accuracy a r e both warranted a n d , with m o d e r n c o m p u t e r s , c o m p u t a t i o n a l l y feasible. Advantages of the modular nature of PMW's calculations are many, among which are computational efficiency and rigor. Because t h e building blocks from which performance calculations are implemented are fairly standard (even though there are wide differences in implementation) t h e effort to base them on first principals of physics and make them computationally

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Figure 3. Rankine cycle model of PEPCO Morgantown unit 2

Figure 4. Calculation of unit heat rate function

efficient is justified. Other advantages of the PMWs modular structure are: w Flexibility (The modular structure of PMWs software permits great flexibility in the implementation of performance calculations. There is flexibility in using and combining the calculations in PMWs standard library; additionally, new calculations are easily added to PMWs standard library.) w Maintainability ( P e r f o r m a n c e c a l c u l a t i o n s should b e considered a living piece of software that grows and changes as t h e unit changes o r a s new instrumentation is installed. The s a m e a t t r i b u t e s t h a t g i v e PMWs p e r f o r m a n c e software its flexibility permit new calculations t o b e implemented or existing calculations t o take advantage of new instruments as they are installed.) w Software documentation (Keeping documentation current is particularly difficult for software that grows t o meet new needs and opportunities. PMWs performance software generates its own documentation of configuration and implementation details. Documentation, therefore, need never be out of date). w Consistency (PMWs performance software offers consistency of function and use t o both operators and engineers. The s a m e s e t of calculations, with input from t h e s a m e s e t of instrumentation, is used by both groups, so t h e s a m e calculated performance indices are presented t o both). PMWs performance software also offers a consistent approach to engineers and managers who are responsible for the performance of several units or plants. Interaction with PMWs analytical functions (question and answer with menus and help func-

tions) is uniform, regardless o differences in cycle or f instrumentation.

incremental Heat Rate Monitor

The online Incremental Heat Rate Monitor has a high potential for overall system cost savings. Incremental heat rate is the derivative of aunits input/output curve. That is, the incremental change in the units input (additional fuel cost) for an incremental change in the units output (additional electrical power). The incremental heat rate is the basis of most dispatch systems in use today. The Incremental Heat Rate Monitor determines a units input/output curve from online measurements. This is achieved by using a reduced-order Rankine cycle model of the turbinecycle as illustrated in Figure 3. The Rankine cycle model is initialized t o the current operating state and, in conjunction with models of turbine, condenser, boiler, and other auxiliaries, used t o predict fuel requirements at other loads. Figure 4 illustrates the Incremental Heat Rate Monitor with the Rankine cycle model as one of the monitors components. The Incremental Heat Rate Monitor has been running on unit 2 at Morgantown since November 1988. Figures 5 and 6 show typical results for a 1-hour period. Figure 5 shows thevariations in load and main steam conditions during t h e period, while Figure 6 shows t h e resulting unit heat rate a s a function of load. The blue line in Figure 6 represents t h e results obtained with 1-hour average data. The six green lines represent t h e six 10-minute intervals within t h e hour. The input/output curve and incremental heat rate curve are derived from t h e unit heat rate curve. As shown, t h e monitor is capable of generating t h e units economic characteristics for any sampling period.
Oclober 1990

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UHR

GTHR
b

UNIT LOAD (% OF RATED)

Figure 5. Sample operating parameters for 1 hour of operation (load and main steam conditions)

Figure 6. Unit heat rate and gross turbine heat rate using 10-niinute and 1-hour sampling periods formance. Mr. Kona received a R.S. 111 Mechanical Engineering from the Milwaukee School of Engineering in Milwaukee, WI and an M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, NY. Mr. Kona is registered as a Professional Engineer with the state of Wisconsin. Kobert d e Mello h a s worked for Power Technologies, Inc. since 1975. His primary interests are in t h e application of computers in power plants. specifically in t h e areas of monitoring and simulation. Mr. d e M e 1 1o h a s i in p 1e m en t e d se ve r a 1 pe r f o r m an c e monitoring systems and is the principal designer of t h e EPRI Plant Monitoring Workstation. Mr. d e Mello is a g r a d u a t e of J o h n s Hopkins University antl Washington University. Steve Williams graduated from George Washington University in 1977 with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. H e is a registered Professional Engineer with t h e s t a t e of Maryland and a member of ASME. H e has been ernployed by t h e I'otomac Electric Power Company for 10 years. For t h e past 9 years, h e has been in charge of t h e Central Diagnostic Team, which is responsible for performance testing and diagnostics of PEPCO's steam turbines and auxiliary equipment. H e also spent several years working at PEPCO's Chalk Point and Benning Generating Stations a s a Plant Performance Engineer. Mr. Williams has been actively involved in t h e EPRI project to evaluate Power Plant Perf o r in an c e Instrument a t ion Sy st erns at PEPC 0 ' s Morgaritown Generating Station. K.H. Leyse is the Project Manager at EPKI in charge of several power plant performance monitoring and irnproveinent projects. H e has initiated and specified large plant test programs at both fossil and nuclear units. H e holds three U S . patents related t o this work. He has a R.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin.

Use of t h e Incremental Heat Rate Monitor closes the loop in dispatch systems by providing feedback regarding the true economic characteristics of the unit.

Conclusion
The results of EPRl's RP 1681/2153 project are being made available to the electric utility industry as part of a s o f t w a r e p r o d u c t called t h e Plant Monitoring W o r k s t a t i o n . A significant a c h i e v e m e n t of t h e p r o j e c t is t h e o n l i n e cleterminatioii of a unit's economic characteristics: t h e inputioutput c u r v e and incremental heat rate c u r v e . Both can be useful in optimizing performance, not only at one plant. but system wide.

Acknowledgments
VAX is a registered trademark of Digital Equipment Corporation.

For Further Reading

K.J. Kafka. I..H. Fink. N.J. Balu. H.G. ('rim, '.An ~\tlvancc.tlL)ispatch Simulator with Advanced Dispatch r \ l g o r i t h ~ '~ // . ~ pliC-cifion.s in Powclr.'' Volume 2. Nunibcr 1. 0ctot)er I W I , "Powcr Plant Prrformance Monitoring arid Iini)t-ovement. Volurnc 2, Incremental Heat RateSensitivity.~i;Ilvsis." CS/EL-I4 15. Electric Power EPFd Research Institute. 3412 Hillview Avr.. I'alo l t o . CI\ $Ll:Nj, "Power Plant Perforinancc Monitoring antl Imprcivcrnciit. Volume :I: Pomw Plant Performance Instrunic.~ at ion Svst enis, EPRI ( it Eltctric Power Research Institute. 3112 Hillview Ave.. Palo ,\lto. "Power Plant Performance Moriitciririg arid Imprcivcmt~nt, o l u i r i e V 1: Boiler C)ptiiiii~~tioii," EPRI C 1.4413. Electric P o w t ~ rRrsearch Iristitute. 3412 Hillview Avt,.. Palo Alt(i, C A W : N $ . Sfecirrr Tcihlrs. ASME. 34.5 East 4 7 t h Street. NCM Ycirk. X I ' 1001 7 .

Biographies
Carmelo Kona is a senior engineer with the Power Production Engineering group of Power Technologies. Inc. in Schenectady, NY. He is responsible for the therino/fluid and heat transfer aspects of power plant per-

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