In recent years, the power generation industry has maintained that meeting environmental regulations is often a trade-off between compliance and fiscal health. Addressing the pressures of deregulation while satisfying the energy demands of the Internet generation further distanced many power producers from desired environmental achievements. Today, with deregulation slowed due to a variety of industry issues, producers are looking for even more ways to generate electricity as cost-effectively as possible while meeting their environmental obligations.
Modern technology offers encouraging solutions for budget-conscious producers who find themselves struggling to provide more power with older, environmentally challenged facilities. Optimization software in particular has come of age. In the past, it has been used primarily at the plant level for nitrogen oxide (NOx) control, managing the balance between emissions levels and fuel efficiency, to provide sustainable, cost-effective improvements as part of an overall pollution abatement program.
During Power-Gen International in December, the Power & Water Solutions division of Emerson Process Management, formerly Westinghouse Process Control, introduced a new module in its SmartProcessÔ Optimization Software suite that expands the producer's ability to optimize generation for financial and environmental factors. The Fleet Emissions Optimizer is designed specifically to address the industry's desire to manage air emissions and environmental costs at the fleet level, for tighter economic control of the entire electricity enterprise.
The Fleet Emissions Optimizer uses computer models and artificial intelligence to improve environmental compliance and profitability. The module gathers and uses a wide range of data reflecting the cost of generation per megawatt to define optimal operating scenarios for a group of units at one or multiple plants, allowing producers to meet both environmental and fiscal responsibilities, while satisfying the dynamic demand for electricity.
"This new SmartProcess module takes optimization to the next level, allowing power generating companies to proactively predict air quality compliance over an entire fleet, instead of plant by plant," said Jeff Grott, Manager of SmartProcess Advanced Control Solutions, Power & Water Solutions division of Emerson Process Management. "The Fleet Emissions Optimizer manages volumes of information fleet-wide in order to apply the complete operational knowledge to compliance efforts."
The federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), with the help of state environmental agencies, regulates air emissions through the Clean Air Act. Burning fossil fuels for electricity releases a variety of air pollutants into the atmosphere – different pollutants are often regulated in different ways, making it challenging and expensive for producers to manage the information necessary to make the most effective operational choices for environmental compliance and cost-effectiveness.
The Fleet Emissions Optimizer module maps a prime efficiency curve for each operating unit and monitors the fleet over time to update information. It then uses an emissions reduction efficiency curve to adjust daily operations and to plan for future generation scenarios. The module continually weighs overall load against target compliance and costs, distributing demand across units to meet both environmental and financial goals. At the same time, it develops a plan for future asset use by profiling each unit in the fleet based on past operating data, and storing necessary adjustments for use when appropriate.
"We've had early success using this technique to help customers comply with sulfur dioxide (SO2) regulations while generating trading credits and optimizing limestone usage in scrubber systems," Grott said. "The Fleet Emissions Optimizer is also a powerful tool for managing nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions in regional fleets, and can provide valuable NOx trading credits in addition to needed emissions reductions."
In the case of SO2, EPA places caps on amounts that can be emitted in a geographical region – all power producers operate under permits that define the percentage of SO2 they can emit in that specific area. If a producer emits more than the cap allows, it faces a substantial fine. However, if a producer emits less than the cap, it generates a "trading credit" for each ton of SO2 not released – credits can become a revenue source when sold to other SO2 emitters, or can be used by the producer to avoid penalties. To stay under the cap, producers attempt to balance emissions across the fleet, making strategic choices about which plants require abatement equipment like SCRs and scrubbers and at which plants such investments would not be cost-effective.
Software like the Fleet Emissions Optimizer allow power producers to easily manage emissions and related expenditures, predict compliance and generate trading credits for an entire fleet of power plants. The module continually weighs overall load demand against target compliance and costs, distributing demand across an entire fleet to meet both environmental and financial goals. The Fleet Emissions Optimizer allows each level within the company – from executive to control room operator – to "see" the financial impact of emissions control methodology across all generation units.
SmartProcess modules are a hybrid combination of linear models, neural networks and fuzzy logic designed to optimize specific power plant functions and processes, including boiler efficiency, soot blowing, steam temperature and fleet-wide air emissions. SmartProcess is capable of working with any distributed control system to provide consistent, reliable results during all plant operating scenarios, including startup, shutdown, load swings and baseload operation.
For more information contact Emerson Process Mgmt. Power & Water Solutions Div., Susan Comiskey 1 (412) 963-4485, Email: Susan.Comiskey@EmersonProcess.com
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