Extended benefit coverage
LCRA is already reaping the benefits of its new wireless infrastructure at LPPP. Employees of both SGPP and LP1 can now communicate freely using the VoIP, wireless, push-to-talk system. The infrastructure's design enables LCRA to easily extend wireless coverage by adding new applications in various plant locations (Figure 5).
5. Overlapping circles. Wireless umbrellas support voice, data, and control communications within Lost Pines Power Park's two plants and adjacent support facilities. Sim Gideon Power Plant is within the bottom circle, with Lost Pines 1 Power Project just above it. Areas in green have 802.11 coverage, blue has VoIP/PA coverage, and light orange has WiMAX coverage. Courtesy: LCRA
Next on LCRA's agenda is extending the wireless infrastructure to many other areas of the two plants to leverage its communications and control capabilities. The objective is to continue increasing worker mobility and to find other ways to cut O&M costs by raising productivity. Among the wireless applications now being considered or developed are:
- Noncritical closed-loop level controls and alarming functions on auxiliary plant equipment.
- Alarming of various temperatures, levels, and other key operating parameters. Applications under development include feedwater heater level control and alarming, and furnace video monitoring to check burner performance and tilt and the condition of the fireball.
- Condition monitoring of equipment health. Providing vibration data in real time to operators helps them detect incipient equipment problems early.
- Detecting ammonia leaks and communicating them in real time, before they cause serious problems.
- Remote tank level monitoring. Tank sensors will wirelessly relay level status information to access points and to the plant's main control system. Once tank level monitoring is in place, it will be easy to add condition-monitoring metrics (such as pressure, temperature, and voltage) to flesh out a complete preventive maintenance system.
- Using tablet PCs to give operators remote, wireless access to the Foxboro and Westinghouse control systems used by the Sim Gideon and Lost Pines power plants, respectively.
Now that it is reaping the benefits of wireless technologies at LPPP, LCRA is integrating them into the conceptual design of a remote, unmanned peaking plant to be built about 24 miles away. (For more on power plant controls technology, see the sidebar.) The concept is to expand connectivity through LCRA's existing fiber network and WiMAX technology to provide the same capabilities—and then some—currently showcased at Lost Pines. The new plant, tentatively called the Winchester Power Park, will be remotely operated from the Sim Gideon plant.
Acknowledgement: Portions of this article are based on a paper by David Runkle of LCRA and Stephen Lambright of Apprion titled “Wireless Infrastructure Implementation in a Power Generation Site: Lower Colorado River Authority (LCRA), Lost Pines Power Park.” It was presented at the 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Controls and Instrumentation Conference.
—David Runkle (drunkle@lcra.org) is production manager of LCRA's Lost Pines Power Park.
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