Connecting industrial systems to gain operational insights

The client supports peak energy demands in the Houston Zone of ERCOT with its 121 MW simple-cycle gas-fired electric generating facility. It deploys turbines that can achieve 100% power reduction in less than 30 minutes.

The client wanted to increase operational efficiency and productivity of its power generation processes.  This could be achieved through centralized monitoring of all systems. The challenge was to connect various systems operating on different protocols and ensure data from all sources was visible on common dashboards.

Microland configured the protocol converter – PTC’s KepServerEx - that enables the collection of data and makes it available to all applications. The scope of the solution included:

• Recommending, designing, installing and configuring KepServerEX
• Development of the OPC tunnel from AllenBradley PLC to the Historian

The systems that were connected included:

• AllenBradley PLCs
• ETAPro Historian
• PTC’s KepServerEX

Microland’s expertise in PTC’s KepServerEx enabled the centralized collection of data for monitoring, analytics, Business Intelligence and Operational Excellence. The result of providing a single point of entry to all data resulted in:

• Improved visibility and centralized management of all industrial assets
• Increased operational efficiency by reducing MTTD (mean time to detect)
• Improved control over the total power output
• Increased productivity of power generation