RECENT PROJECTS
Sample projects conducted for various clients are described
Fleet-wide Monitoring of Generation Assets
The company is working with the U.S. Department of Energy to provide expert advice and technical support on fleet-wide asset intelligence to improve reliability and performance of operating power plants in Asia. The goal of the effort is to develop requirements to quantify and benchmark improvements in equipment and thermal performance and to assess climate impact. The Asian utility has nearly 40 GW ("trillion watts") of capacity consisting of coal-, gas-, and hydroelectric plants over several thousand square miles ranging in climatic conditions from very tropical to much colder areas. Signatech Systems sent out a survey questionnaire that was responded to by the plant personnel prior to scheduling visits to the two plants on November 10-14, 2008. At Plant 1, Signatech Systems was briefed by staff on their recently installed plant historian (PI historian; Manufacturer: OSIsoft, USA) and its use.
Click here for an Executive Summary of Report.
Electric Grid Reliability and Nuclear Power Plants
The safe and economic operation of a nuclear power plant (NPP) requires the plant to be connected to an electrical grid system that has adequate capacity for exporting the power from the NPP, and for providing a reliable
electrical supply to the NPP for safe startup, operation and normal or emergency shutdown of the plant. Connectionof any large new power plant to the electrical grid system in a country may require significant modification andstrengthening of the grid system, but for NPPs there may be added requirements to the structure of the grid systemand the way it is controlled and maintained to ensure adequate reliability. The organization responsible for the NPPand the organization responsible for the grid system will need to establish and agree the necessary characteristics of
the grid and of the NPP, well before the NPP is built, so that they are compatible with each other. They will alsoneed to agree the necessary modifications to the grid system, and how they are to be financed.
For a Member State that does not yet use nuclear power, the introduction and development of nuclear poweris a major undertaking. It requires the country to build physical infrastructure and develop human resources so it canconstruct and operate a nuclear power plant (NPP) in a safe, secure and technically sound manner. One of these infrastructure issues is the development of the electrical grid.Whilst most Member States already have an electrical grid system, it may require significant development to
be suitable for the connection of an NPP. For a country that does not yet have an NPP, the necessary modificationsto the grid system may be extensive. The modifications will include the new physical connections from the existinggrid system to the NPP site, but may also include other changes to the grid system and the way it is operated andmaintained to ensure that it can provide a reliable electrical supply to the NPP, to ensure safe and secure operation of the NPP. Click Here for the Report.
