A power producer shared the story of their successful project to upgrade their generation capacity and modernize their control system and improve communications and control with the wastewater treatment plant supplying water for steam generation. The upgrades included wet compression and duct burners to decrease NOx and CO2 emissions. The upgrade replaced a older DCS with an Ovation system on their steam turbine control system and PLC at the water treatment plant.
Combustion turbine exhaust Is used to Heat a Boiler (HRSG)* and generate steam that is used to rotate the steam turbine blades. The water used in the generating process comes from the local municipal water company, onsite wells, and reclaimed water sources. The grey water is pumped in and used as cooling tower water. The cooling tower basin is where the water is treated. The cooling tower blowdown is discharged back to the source.
The grey water source creates several challenges:
- Pumping grey water effluent from municipal wastewater treatment plant
- Wastewater plant is located about 1.5 miles away
- Pumps and controls are located at the wastewater facility
- Effluent can only be pumped under strict permit restrictions
- Restrictions based upon level and relative flow of river watershed
- Pump control and diverter valve control based upon those restricted process values
- 24/7 365 monitoring, recording, and storage of process values required
To address these challenges, the solution was the Installation of the Ovation OCC100 controller, which:
- Provided seamless system integration with Ovation
- Eliminated the need for additional costly programming software
- Did not require a third-party interface
- Eliminated the need for any further programming of the communications link
- Enabled commissioning Emerson field engineer support
- Enabled Emerson SureService support
Communications and overall performance between the wastewater treatment and power plants have been robust and reliable for over three years.
Visit the Ovation OCC100 page on Emerson.com for more information on the capabilities and specifications to simplify and modernize your operations.
