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ReVamping the poweR industRyHighlighting the latest developments in industrial automation and IT solutions for the Indian power sector, this feature discusses the views of industry players to help the industry modernise and enable efficient operations in the coming years...

As the global demand for power continues to outstrip supply, expanding the power generation capacity becomes quintessential. This calls for an efficient power generation system to be established and sustained. However, the challenges that confront the Indian power industry, such as, widening demand-supply gap in power generation, low per capita power consumption and poor risk management necessitate greater utilisation of automation and information technologies for its efficient operation & management. As such, it becomes imperative that breakthrough automation and information technologies are leveraged to the maximum towards this objective.

Addressing the major challenges in the Indian power industry and highlighting the latest developments in this arena are industry giants such as G Ganapathiraman, Country Manager, ARC Advisory Group India; Parag Marathe, Engineering Manager, Power Generation Products, GE Power & Water; Sunil Kumar Vupalla, Research Scientist, Infosys and Pradeep Nair, Business Development Manager – Energy, National Instruments.

Indian power sector: Now & then

Over the past decade, power plant control systems have

Megha RoyFeatures Writermegha.roy@publish-industry.net

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According to Vupalla, such systems will be proactive in predicting the issues much earlier before the problem occurs.

“Early warning system for wide area system stability, real time monitoring for situational awareness are few examples in that direction. With this, operators are playing the role of supervisors rather than controller of the system. We can control the system from anywhere but poses the challenges of security, which needs to be taken care of. Besides, concept of virtual power plants can provide more flexibility and efficiency and it can do load aware power generation with short notice. Micros-grid with small distributed power generation plants and consumers becoming prosumers (producers & consumers) is another trend observed these days,” he said.

Addressing the key challenges

According to Ganapathiraman, the demand supply gap in the Indian power generation necessitates capacity augmentation to be done at a quicker pace compared to developed economies.

“From the present capacity of around 243 GW, India plans to add 76 GW by 2017 and additional 93 GW by 2022,” he said.

However, when compared to developed countries, it has been observed that the cost per unit of power is more in India. As such, it creates enough scope to improve on low cost of operation & maintenance. “For safety and risk management, the major black-out in 2012 indicates lack of coordination in operating the power grid. Various organisations such as TSDSI (Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India) and ISGF (India Smart Grid Forum) are working towards preparing the standards for India as well as participating in international standard bodies. Compared to developed countries, we need smart products at lower cost to support massive rollouts,” asserted Vupalla.

In fact, it is not only the low cost. Much needs to be addressed on maintaining the structure and productivity of the Indian power sector too. Therefore, renovation and modernisation of power plants is critical for efficient running

evolved from DCS-centered platforms (distributed control system) with proprietary software, to open systems using industry standard hardware and software, and then to totally integrated plant automation systems with almost unlimited connectivity and the ability to interrogate field instruments from many different manufacturers. Sharing his thoughts on the changes experienced in the power industry, Ganapathiraman opined that unified architecture is the next big thing. “It is an important step, especially when it comes to the supercritical power plants. In a thermal power plant, DCS with fully integrated turbine and boiler control system provides a common engineering & operator environment. Under such a platform, along with flexibility in operations, accurate process information can be leveraged and delivered at the right time to the right person within an individual plant, and possibly across various geographically dispersed units, further enabling operational excellence and higher reliability.”

On the other hand, Nair focuses on the next phase of change that is quickly catching up, the emergence of software centric hardware platforms, with better computation, control & communication power. “These 3Cs together make the platform turn into a state-of-the-art cyber physical system (CPS). Currently, though the communication protocols between various IEDs are standardised, the IED(intelligent electronic devices) or other computing devices in the power plant is still a black box. A software centric automation platform like National Instrument CompactRIO system is changing the way these IEDs are build, making it more open and flexible. Using such technologies, the same platform with appropriate I/O can be modified into various kinds of power devices like PMUs, DCU, bay controllers, condition monitoring systems, etc.”

Considering the technology driven market in India, it has become imperative to have a technological presence in every sector. As such, when it comes to the power industry, it has been observed that Internet of Things and smart grid concepts will make the industry experience various developments.

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of older power plants and ensuring high availability. In this context, Ganpathiraman further added, “Projects like clean coal technology (CCT) are being implemented to improve the efficiency and environmental standards of conventional power plants.”

How to modernise power plants?

It goes without saying that India is witnessing a modernisation spree. Same applies to the power sector. As such, the power plants can be modernised through automated devices and control systems. “It needs to deploy new M2M devices for real time monitoring of vibration, speed, turbine protection and synchronisation. When these power plants are installed with automated devices and control systems, the plant operators should be trained to respond quickly for the system raised alerts to increase safety and reliability of the plant. Necessary security implementations need to be taken care in the new infrastructure of the plant too. Cyber security is another training element as the modernisation allows access to control the plant remotely,” opined Vupalla.

It is also seen that there has been a continuous need to invest in training and updating skills in India. Emphasising on a strong database for an efficient power plant structure, Ganapathiraman believes that the database needs to include all critical and non-critical/major/minor assets in terms of their procurement & operational phase. “While the main equipment like boiler/turbine have 25-30 years of lifecycle; control systems and HMI have short lifecycle of 3-8 years and need continuous upgrades in terms of OS and hardware obsolescence. So, it is essential that the O&M staffs at project sites are trained adequately prior to systems failures that may lead to major

trips. Further, virtual technology and simulation of control systems can be used in operator training programs to keep the operator aware of dynamic plant scenarios,” he added.

When it comes to infrastructure, Nair opined that the availability of communication networks like FO or GSM will allow the latest IED to be installed in remote locations and be networked to servers, making data accessible at a central location. “Training plays a major role in the modernisation program. There has to be a good hand-holding between academia & industry to train engineers on the latest technologies. We need to have a pool of trained engineers who can analyse the large amount of data that these networked IEDs generate in order to make the whole system work more effectively. National Instruments works with various academic institutes to set up state-of-the-art centre of excellence where power engineers can be trained,” he added.

Facilitating efficient operations

The importance of automation in the power industries has increased dramatically in recent years with the view to the current energy situation and environmental issues. According to Ganapathiraman, power companies are now progressively leaning towards an “information driven” business model. Using concepts like Big Data goes a long way in achieving this.

“As far as Industry 4.0 is concerned; Big Data and cloud computing are its major facilitators. The progress towards a digital enterprise is encouraging. With plant wide network using intelligent automation and open communication protocols, data integration is becoming increasingly easy and enterprises are becoming more agile.”

Speaking on Big Data, Nair said, “If we talk about Big Data,

“Automation solution providers & users can have a mutually beneficial long term partnership” Parag Marathe, Engineering Manager Power Generation Products, GE Power & Water

“Projects like clean coal technology (CCT) are being implemented to improve the efficiency and environmental standards of conventional power plants” G Ganapathiraman, Country Manager ARC Advisory Group India

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the largest or the biggest data is not generated by digital or social media but by equipment’s like turbines and energy meters.

If the data generated by all turbines in the power plants that we have in the country is clubbed with the data generated by PMUs on the transmission grid along with the ones generated by AMR systems on the distribution grid then these analog data generated are much bigger than the ones generated by digital media for an equal timespan.”

In this regard, GE has come up with Predix – the software platform for the Industrial Internet that enables predictive insights from Big Data, business analytics and state-of-the-art user experience. “To put it into perspective, if we are able to offer just 1% of fuel savings for all gas power plants, it would mean saving $ 66 billion over a period of 15 years. The potential is huge,” said Marathe.

Integrating suppliers and users

Automation solution providers can have specific devices to power plant sectors for synchronisation, vibration monitoring, speed control, load control and turbine protection. Underlining this thought, Vupalla opined that there is a role for system integrators in customising automation solution to the need of the users. “Vendor selection has moved beyond the conventional terms of product/service offerings, as customers want a partner who can address more than their technology requirements. Moreover, a differentiated value proposition by the vendor built on a consultative approach helps in bridging the end user-client partnership expectations,” added Ganapathiraman.

Marathe further highlighted that automation solution

providers & users can have a mutually beneficial long term partnership, based on how these solutions are enabling better controls, better utilisation of assets and improving efficiency by connecting deep domain knowledge to automation technology advancements. “Pilot projects, for trying out the latest technologies, are the best way to gain the confidence of the user. By doing this, we can ensure a continuous engagement between users and automation suppliers,” said Nair.

Can intelligent self-controlling power generation become a reality?

Speaking on self-controlling power, Marathe believes that power plants having single pushbutton start-up operations and advancement of control & instrumentation systems already exists. “However, this has still not reached the level of optimum controls and that’s where our company with advanced technology solutions can help power producers.”

On the other hand, Ganpathiraman said, “Self-controlling power generation is unlikely to become a reality, because in a thermal power plant there are more than 20,000 major components and millions of other components to be connected on real time.”

Moreover, in the fluctuating scenario of power supply, generators can adjust the active, reactive power to compensate power fluctuation. Highlighting this thought, Vupalla concluded that M2M devices and actuators coupled with analytics can make the intelligent self-controlling possible for the power generators. ☐

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“Necessary security implementations need to be taken care in the new infrastructure of the plant” Sunil Kumar Vupalla, Research Scientist, Infosys

“Pilot projects, for trying out the latest technologies, are the best way to gain the confidence of the user” Pradeep Nair, Business Development Manager – Energy, National Instruments

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