A new way to get the most out of your plant, people and production process
Power Generation Care is a complete service offering that raises the performance of the plant’s automation and electrical assets, its operations and maintenance staff, and the production process during the life cycle of the facility.
It is designed to meet service requirements of ABB customers worldwide, whether they are a publicly or investor-owned utility or independent power producer, or whether they operate a single plant or a fleet of plants in one or more countries or regions.
Despite their differences and the varying opportunities in the markets they operate in, power generation companies the world over share three things in common with regard to their service requirements:
- Their plants require maintenance on a day-to-day basis to maximize plant availability and reliability and minimize the possibility of disruptions to production;
- They want to extract more value from their existing assets by extending the lifetime of the plant by an additional 5, 10, 15 or 30 years and be certain that the plant will continue to perform optimally throughout that extended lifespan; and
- They want to optimize the performance of the plant as a whole. This may include improving the production of steam or reducing the consumption of energy or enhancing the knowledge and skills of the workforce throughout their years at the plant.
Power Generation Care is ABB’s response to these universal customer requirements.
Continuous collaboration
Partnership, life-cycle management and stepwise evolution of the plant’s distributed control system are the defining principles of Power Generation Care.
Partnership and continuous collaboration between ABB and the customer is key. For its part, ABB contributes deep expertise in automation and electrical technologies and the power generation process:
- We are ranked by ARC Advisory Group as the global market leader in distributed control systems, both for the sector as a whole and for critical infrastructure industries like power generation, oil and gas, mining and pulp and paper;
- We are acknowledged by the market as the leader in the power technologies that make up the electrical balance of plant – transformers, generator circuit breakers, motors and drives, and so on; and
- We have vast expertise in power generation processes, based on more than 125 years in the industry.
Plant strategies
This expertise is on hand to meet each customer’s specific requirements and business targets, in particular: their asset strategy for the plant in question, which is usually based on the number of years the plant has left to run; the operating strategy of the plant, whether it runs at base load, peaking load or load-following; and the operations and maintenance culture of the plant or company.
For instance, a plant that has 25 more years of scheduled running time requires a different maintenance strategy than one scheduled for closure within the next few years. The former will require a long-term DCS service program with planned upgrades that evolve the system stepwise over time; whereas the latter may get by with refurbished parts rather than new ones.
Similarly, a plant that is running at maximum output around the clock requires a different service approach than one that is ramping up and down several times a day to provide power at peak demand.
And the operations and maintenance culture of a company may differ from one plant to another depending on the skill level of the operators and service engineers. Typically, 80% of the DCS is not used to its full potential. Learning programs can equip staff with the knowledge to use the system to its full potential. This is becoming ever more crucial as we enter the era of big data and the Internet of Things, Services and People, at the heart of which is the plant’s DCS.
Service that meets requirements
Power Generation Care consists of a comprehensive range of solution packages that meet these individual plant strategies and the overriding requirements for day-to-day maintenance, life-time extension and performance optimization.
These solution packages are the key to our life-cycle approach to plant service and our philosophy of evolving the DCS in small incremental steps throughout its lifetime to ensure that it remains up-to-date and free from the risk of degradation and obsolescence.
The packages provide the flexibility to meet the requirements of a customer who operates a single plant and one who owns a fleet of plants of varying ages and in different applications. In both cases we can help identify which service investments are most critical to mitigate risk and reduce service costs. This could mean managing the supply of spare parts in a smarter way, raising the level of cyber security, evolving an outdated HMI to a state-of-the-art interface, or improving the skills and knowledge of personnel.
Global service network
Power Generation Care is available to customers worldwide and is supported by our eight regional power generation service hubs. Contact your local ABB service hub manager for more information.