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Evaluating Equipment Performance Using SCADA/PMS Data for Thermal Utility Plants - Case Studies
Abstract
The equipment in cogeneration plants and thermal energy plants such as gas tubing generators, boilers, steam turbine generators, chillers and cooling towers are often critical to satisfying building needs. Their actual energy performance is very important when implementing the continuous Commissioning (CC) process. The actual performance can be used to develop optimal operation strategies, to conduct thermo-economy analysis, to perform fault diagnostics, and so forth. Because the standard performance test such as chiller test per ARI standard and cooling tower test per CTI standard often require the equipment to be operated under specific test conditions; however, in reality the dynamics of the system load normally do not allow the equipment to be operated under such conditions. It is costly and even impossible to take such critical equipment offline for test purposes. In order to facilitate the plant processes and on-going operations, utility plants usually employ Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Plant Monitoring Systems (SCADA/PMS) or Energy Management and Control Systems (EMCS) to monitor sensors, display data, control equipment, activate alarms and log information. However, the utilization and interpretation of the logged data are often at the minimum level especially in old systems without automatic operation and control optimization capabilities. Through three case studies, this paper presents methods for evaluating equipment performance using SCADA/PMS or EMSC data.
Citation
Deng, X.; Chen, Q.; Xu, C. (2007). Evaluating Equipment Performance Using SCADA/PMS Data for Thermal Utility Plants - Case Studies. Texas A&M University (http://www.tamu.edu); Energy Systems Laboratory (http://esl.tamu.edu). Available electronically from https : / /hdl .handle .net /1969 .1 /6224.