December 14, 2016 – With the introduction of the industry’s first integrated control and simulation platform, Emerson has positioned owners of coal, combined cycle and other power generation facilities around the globe to fundamentally change how they operate their power plants. Sales of Ovation embedded simulation have more than doubled in the past year, signaling demand for the virtual power plant of the future and its value in minimizing risk and improving power plant reliability.
According to a 2016 U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) report, global electricity demand will see a 69 percent increase by 2040, putting further pressure on reliable generation. While the trend toward renewables offers energy resource diversity, cycling traditional power plants due to the variability of renewable sources on the grid has proven to increase stress on production equipment, increasing maintenance costs and adding risk of unplanned outages.
In the virtual power plant of the future, the Ovation power plant simulator will run in parallel with the Ovation control system. Operators can test control logic changes in advance based on real-time plant data to ensure their changes won’t disrupt operations or cause a forced outage. Other Emerson technologies such as pattern recognition, Pervasive Sensing and analytical tools will enhance the experience to allow plant operators to virtually experience what may happen in their operation before it does.
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