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Thai Biomass Plant Improves Energy Efficiency

Identifying the Necessary Solutions for an Efficient and Reliable Process

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Challenge

  • Build a DCS power plant system, the first of its kind in Thailand, with an efficient and reliable system to reduce waste and losses.

Solutions

  • The ‘Process System Estimator’ (PSE) design tool
  • The DCS & Web Reporting System
  • The Integrated Architecture that includes FactoryTalk® Historian to collect critical time-series data for various calculations, estimations, and statistical processes producing information
  • FactoryTalk VantagePoint offers a centralized data source that automatically provides alarm reporting and alarm dashboards based on the standard & guidelines

Results

  • Improved reliability, reduced wiring and installation costs
  • Redundant system ensures consistent, reliable production and precise data reporting
  • Ease of operation for employees
  • Expanded diagnostics and real-time Web base reporting
  • New control system installed on time and within budget

A Thailand-based biomass plant buillding company with broad expertise in systems integration, engineering, and technical support solutions approached Rockwell Automation for advice and support in their efforts at improving efficiency in their power plants. The company has built 15 biomass plants in Thailand over the last ten years, including a green power plant which is the first plant in Thailand to feature a Distributed Control System

(DCS).

At the green power plant, engineers transform waste such as woodchips into energy using technology. In order to do this in the most efficient manner, they wanted to achieve a high level of control, and a continuous and reliable system with no errors. They also wanted to focus on connecting devices within the plant and to set up an automatic daily reporting system with insightful and useful data for their management level employees.

Supporting the company on-site

The company approached Rockwell Automation for advice and support on a suite of end-to-end solutions that would help them to achieve their goals.

The solutions chosen included the ‘Process System Estimator’ (PSE) design tool, to help to confirm that the bill of materials (BOM) of the distributed control system (DCS) met a high availability characterisation. DCS and the Web Reporting System was installed with on-site support of the Rockwell Automation technical team who travelled to the plant site to help to confirm that all configuration was set up correctly.

The plant utilises an Integrated Architecture that includes PlantPAx®

, a Process Automation System, Automatic Device Configuration of PowerFlex® and the Widget Library of the VantagePoint that created a user-friendly and meaningful web dashboard to display real-time relevant information about the plant.

Some other solutions that were installed include:

  • FactoryTalk® Historian
    to collect critical time-series data for various calculations, estimations, and statistical processes producing information
  • PanelView™ Plus 7 Panel-mounted operator interface
  • PowerFlex® 753
    & PowerFlex® 525
    Variable Speed Drive
  • Stratix® 5700 Industrial Managed Ethernet Switch
    . Managed Network Switch using Cisco® leading technology in network
  • EtherNet/IP™ networks to provide seamless plant-wide communications with Device Level Ring (DLR) for I/O
  • Third-party communication interfaces

Efficient systems that produce desirable results

The entire system architecture was implemented in under eight months and the project was delivered on time and within the company’s budget.

With these solutions in place, operator control is easier and requires less time to use the DCS library. As a result of eliminating redundant systems to enable a consistent and dependable production structure, the company also enjoyed improved reliability at the plant. Plant employees could easily learn to operate this production system.

As desired, precise daily operation and trend reports were created and sent to management via email and employees had access to real-time web reporting. On top of providing an extended range of data and diagnostics, the Rockwell Automation real-time Web Reporting System also gave the company access to real-time, historic, and predictive data that meant issues with the production line could be identified before they occurred. This allowed necessary steps to be taken to prevent a slowdown in operations, saving them manpower time and production costs, with the data also being used for business forecasting.

It was a pleasant and smooth journey working with Rockwell Automation to get our green power plant up and running. We were able to achieve great results that exceeded our expectations within the time frame and budget we had provided.

Published September 10, 2019

Topics: Power Generation
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