pwr_february-2024 - 19

REMOTE MONITORING
3. Workers in the electric power sector can
look at how equipment is performing without
leaving their desk. Remote monitoring enables
the collection and analysis of data, and
a visualization of performance trends, across
a generation fleet, shown on computer monitors
and even handheld devices. Courtesy:
Emerson
playing a key role, ensuring that assets
between the point of generation and the
consumer operate efficiently.
The diversity of today's electricity
sector, with more digitized and fragmented
distribution systems, and different
types of supply resources including
energy storage, means that utilities
need ways to collect, store, analyze,
and act on data, providing the ability
to make real-time decisions about the
condition of their generation and grid
assets and performance.
Ronald Hermans, offering manager
for Smart Energy at Honeywell, told
POWER, " Utilities and power generators
should aim to achieve significant
cost savings through remote monitoring,
such as reducing the need for physical
checks [truck rolls] and potentially
requiring fewer or differently skilled operators.
Safety enhancements are another
key objective, with early warning
systems and problem detection capabilities.
Efficiency is also a primary goal,
enabling faster and more optimal use of
energy sources through real-time data
and analytics. "
The advantages of systems such as
RTUs, which can make it easier to detect
anomalies and act on them more effectively,
are that they can help quantify the
cost of preventing outages and equipment
downtime. Other technology, such
as branch circuit monitors, can show
real-time electrical capacity and power
usage on various systems.
Kephart told POWER, " The benefits
of a remote monitoring strategy are
enormous. By following leading indicators,
remote monitoring teams not
only catch big problems early, but also
help sites plan for more efficient, costeffective
outages. Teams can efficiently
implement a planned outage at the opFebruary
2024 | POWER
timal time to meet schedule constraints
and are readily prepared with the right
experts for the equipment that needs
attention. While all these things can
be accomplished with on-site maintenance
and reliability personnel, that
strategy is not only less cost-effective,
but also difficult to accomplish with today's
worker shortages. "
Kephart noted the importance of remote
monitoring outside of the traditional
thermal power plant. " Remote
monitoring becomes even more critical
for today's renewable energy generators, "
he said. " Remote monitoring and
control is the de facto standard for solar,
which requires very limited operator
intervention and has a tendency to be
spread over wide areas. Keeping personnel
at each site is rarely cost-effective.
Instead, teams monitor these operations
from a central site, then dispatch
personnel as needed. Similar monitoring
strategies are also common in wind generation
and battery storage sites. "
Said McConnell: " Modern renewable
generation assets that are brought online
are equipped with some degree of
monitoring. The question is how much is
being monitored and then subsequently
what is being done with that data in order
to achieve the owner's overall goals.
It's important to set up for success in
remote monitoring by outlining the goals
and requirements for remote monitoring,
getting the right technology in place to
support those strategies and objectives,
and also creating operational procedures
to support them. "
Finding Solutions
Several companies are involved in designing
and developing remote monitoring
structures for the power generation sector.
The technology continues to evolve,
with monitors able to communicate with
telemetry data gateways connected to
cloud computing infrastructure. That infrastructure
includes software that helps
operators better understand the performance
of assets, to not only diagnose
problems but also predict when they
could occur.
" Utilities need a wide range of solutions
to effectively meet the remote
monitoring and control needs of their
fleets comprised of many different types
of power generating and energy storage
assets, " said Kephart. " To help customers
meet these challenges, Emerson has
leveraged its decades of experience in
power generation to develop a full suite
of advanced pattern recognition and mawww.powermag.com
chine
learning [ML] technologies for remote
monitoring and control [Figure 4].
Because technologies across sites are
so different, these solutions support not
only Emerson systems, but also control
technologies from third parties. "
Hermans told POWER, " Honeywell
offers advanced solutions for remote
monitoring of power generation assets,
including secure remote measurement,
metering, and monitoring through Advanced
Metering
Infrastructure
and
SCADA
[supervisory control and data acquisition]
solutions. These are applicable
in utility and process-related businesses.
Additionally, Honeywell provides sophisticated
building management solutions
that encompass remote monitoring of
power generation systems. "
" Eaton provides comprehensive, endto-end
digital solutions from edge to enterprise
that offer precise measurement
for informed decision-making, enabling
utilities to accelerate the transition to a
more modern, sustainable and resilient
electric grid, " said Philippe Beauchamp,
director of utility solutions at Eaton. " On
the hardware side, we've integrated
intelligence, sensors, and communication
capabilities into essential electrical
equipment such as reclosers, capacitor
banks, and transformers to simplify the
complexity of managing a two-way electric
delivery system. "
Beauchamp said of Eaton, " At the
grid edge, we're helping T&D [transmission
and distribution] utilities modernize
critical infrastructure on a foundation of
digital intelligence to manage the complexities
of an increasingly electrified
and decentralized grid. For example,
our Grid Edge platform uses intelligent
nodes to improve situational awareness
and extend processing capabilities for
applications ranging from high-voltage
substation automation down to grid
edge DER [distributed energy resource]
management-reducing the burden on
centralized systems and bringing visibility
to areas of the grid that were previously
not monitored. "
Kephart noted that his group's Ovation
automation
platform analytic
software and intelligence framework
" provides the foundation for remote
monitoring of energy asset health. Using
the Ovation intelligence framework
and analytic applications, maintenance
and performance teams keep a close
eye on the health of assets, tracking
and trending their operation across
time to know when to intervene before
an issue becomes a costly problem.
19
http://www.powermag.com
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