Italian power plant makes ASM gains, with remote help from Teesside
25 Mar 2010
Teverola, Italy – Centro Energia Teverola Spa (CET) has reported significant performance improvements following its installation of new asset management software at its 150-MW combined cycle cogeneration power plant in Teverola.
CET deployed Emerson’s AMS Suite: Equipment Performance Monitor to plan and monitor its maintenance practices, including evaluating the return on maintenance costs. This has enabled the company to optimise its maintenance strategy for inlet filters on the gas turbines, contributing to a 1%-plus improvement in overall efficiency.
The Italian power company had previously experienced unexpected performance degradation of the filters on gas turbines required emergency installation of replacement filters. Hence the move to AMS Performance Monitor, which combines thermodynamic model-based software with support from Emerson’s own experts to detect degraded machinery performance and aid predictive maintenance planning.
At CET, the new software now monitors the gradual deterioration in filter performance and calculates the cost of the resulting reduction in turbine performance. By comparing this with the cost of the maintenance required, it can determine the most appropriate point to replace the blocked filter and establish the manpower required for individual maintenance projects.
Maintenance at the plant is now scheduled for periods when energy production is less profitable and penalties for being offline can be avoided. This improved planning has also enabled CET to reduce average repair times from seven hours to two hours.
“We can assess the effectiveness and economic return of our maintenance activities, which allows us to determine, in a strategic and effective way, what maintenance work is required to improve equipment performance,” explained Vincenzo Piscitelli, general manager, CET.
As a remote service, AMS Performance Monitor sends process data from CET to an Emerson monitoring centre in Teesside, UK, where engineers produce periodic reports of the facility’s operational performance. These reports can be accessed via any standard web browser and are based on thermodynamic models developed for each machine.
