Seawater Cooling System
A leading multinational electric utility company, with a revenue of around €60 billion, approached PREDICT to provide a monitoring solution for their combined cycle gas turbine units to increase their energy production rates.
1 month Prognostics
Predicted seawater fouling a month in advance
Root Cause Identified
Accumulation of particles on the heat exchange surface
20% increase in production
Avoiding unforeseen breakdowns led to increase in production
challenge
The energy utility company was looking for a solution that could
- Improve the operational availability of a fleet of assets
The engineering behind a fleet of 5 units, 5 main pumps, 10 condensers, 10 mussel filters and, 10 coarse gratings were meticulously studied and different models were formulated to monitor their behaviour. This enabled in providing regular feedback to boost the operational capability of the assets.
- Anticipate fouling of the assets
By using efficient predictive analytic algorithms, the assets were monitored to detect fouling so that maintenance could be performed with minimum intervention to the production activity.
- Optimise resources to reduce the preventive workload
By predicting the assets that would break in the future and, identifying the root causes that may lead to the asset breakdown, there was a substantial decrease in the preventive workload.
solution
Analysing the engineering behind the asset and associating it with the historical data from different sensors, PREDICT was able to model the behaviour of different assets in the client’s installation.
One of the major problems the client was facing was the seawater fouling. Fouling reduces heat transfer efficiency and, has a significant impact on the thermal and mechanical performance of the heat exchangers. It is paramount that maintenance is performed on the assets to prevent unanticipated downtimes.
PREDICT was able to anticipate the fouling of the seawater cooling system and help the client in scheduling maintenance activities at the most optimal time. Fouling was detected a month before it could have aggravated and resulted in ceasing electricity generation. PREDICT’s solution helped the client to increase its energy production rate by 20%.