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Scottish Power Station Operator HMI and Plant History
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Scottish Power's coal-fired power station at Cockenzie, East Lothian operates four 300MW steam turbines, burning 1.2million tonnes of coal annually. Hexatec have worked with Scottish Power for the past twelve years to provide SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) management software . A large number of Hexatec systems monitor the progress of coal transportation, power generation and ash management.
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The Station has installed a network of systems to monitor the performance of various plant items. Two systems monitor each boiler and two more monitor turbine performance. Therefore, each unit operator has four, 20" touch screens with optional tracker balls mounted in the control desk. These displays provide the operators with most of the information required to effectively operate the plant. In addition to the normal physical parameters of pressures, temperatures, speeds, etc., the measured parameters include emissions compliance monitoring. Each of these systems is attached, via a network, to a central Novell fileserver. Data from the systems is temporarily stored onto the fileserver before the data is finally archived to a tape.
A centre desk PC allows the centre desk operator to view an overview of the major plant parameters from all four units. This summary system obtains its data values directly from the inputs to each unit PC using OPC, to construct a concise station-wide summary. An OPC data link is also used to pass data to other systems used to estimate plant efficiency. A fiber optic data link is used to extend the network to the adjacent office block, allowing managers and operation supervisors the same displays as the centre desk. A PC in the laboratory allows the chemists to view on-line data from the water treatment plant and general operational information without going out into the plant. Additional networked PC's in the engineering offices allow electrical and mechanical engineers to evaluate plant anomalies by viewing current data and reviewing archived information from the PC's on their desks. In this way, the system can be used as a tool for preventative maintenance and trouble shooting when necessary. Further extensions to the system are planned to take in other aspects of the plant to provide operators and managers with more information to improve plant efficiency, improve emission control, and reduce maintenance costs. |
