Captec Power Station Monitoring Control CS 01A

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Tried, Tested and Trusted

CaseStudycaptec

customerThe

The customer is the UKs largest

producer of electricity, generatingaround one quarter of the nationsrequirement.

The company own and operatenine nuclear and coal-fired powerstations, with a combined outputof almost 12,000 Mega Watts. Thepower stations supply domestic,industrial and commercial clientsthroughout the UK, and sell theirelectricity in a variety of ways,including through the direct supplyand wholesale power markets.

Following recent restructuring inresponse to the changing natureof power production and supply,the company has introducedan extensive programme ofinvestment in new plant, processesand technologies, and increasinguse of plant monitoring systems.

Power Station

Monitoring& Control

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Understandingthe environmentsand specific demandsof y

The design, research, development and operational capabilities, toprovide a cost-effective, in-house designed, customer applicationspecific Microbox computing platform solution.The provision of expert consultation and analysis of the customersrequirements, and the ability to interpret and encapsulate thoserequirements in the resultant solution.

The provision of ready made, in-house designed, Commercially-off-

the-Shelf (COTS) products, with multi-application functions.

Providing the customer with an instant response though Captecsstockholding of an extensive array of Data Acquisition products.

The provision of Supply Chain Management to minimize the effectof component obsolescence and address continuity of supplyissues. The provision of high reliability solutions through theselection of Mean Time Between Failure (MTBF) components.

The ability to make the RDA&C units communicate with themicrobox systems via the Ethernet, so that they can be locatedremotely.

Provision of overall project risk reduction, working with an industryleader with a proven reliability track record.

Requirements

andissues

l The customer had arequirement to update a20 year old redundantsystem with microboxindustrial PCs, for theacquisition of data fromtransducers andthermocouples in a newturbine vibration monitoringsystem, whilst maintainingutilization of legacy analyzersystems.

l The requirement was for theprovision of a Commercially-off-the-Shelf (COTS),microbox platform with the latest edition EPIA1GHz processor, and COTS Remote DataAcquisition and Control (RDA&C) modules.

l The monitoring systems are located in remote,inaccessible locations within the hostileenvironment of the power plant, and need tomeet zero maintenance constructionrequirements.

l Due to space constraints, the customer requireda compact Microbox form factor for its IPCsolution.

l In each of the customers systems, the vibrationfrom 24 turbine bearing transducers isbroken down into its fundamental and harmoniccomponents by a frequency analyzer system.The analyzer system is controlled by themicrobox interface which uses the RDA&Canalogue unit to fast scan the machine statusparameters, speed, load etc. The analyzedcomponents are transferred to the microboxPC and onto a network server.

l The RDA&C units are located remotely from themicrobox but have to communicate directly withthem. They therefore have to be configured touse a suitable communications method.

l The system solutions are required to becompatible with and offer full connectivity to thecustomers legacy systems, operated by thePlant Conditioning Monitoring Team.

Thevalue proposition

OUR VISION- A world where computers can operate reli

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r applications.

Thesolution

Theoutcome

y in any environment for the benet of mankind

Apollo Microbox PC, latest EPIA M

Range motherboard, Onboard heatsink

reducing heat and noise.

I/O SERIES - versatile and compact

design interface units for reliable

performance in harsh environments.

The customer was supplied with in-house designed Microbox PCs thatperfectly suited the requirements of the application, along withcommercially available Remote Data Acquisition and Control (RDA&C)modules.

The unique application, in this instance, for the Captec supplied solution,was that in each of the customers systems, the vibration from 24 turbinebearing transducers is broken down into its fundamental andharmonic components by a frequency analyzer system. The analyzersystem is controlled by the microbox interface which uses the RDA&Canalogue unit to fast scan the machine status parameters, speed,loadetc. The analyzed components are then transferred to the Captecmicrobox and onto a network server.

Cost reductions were achieved by leveraging Captecs access to thecommercial component markets.

This project has resulted in an on-going supply of an effective solution tothe customer.

The project has established a firm relationship for future development ofthe customers technology requirements.

The provision of an overall project risk reduction, through partneringwith an Industry leader with a Tried, Tested and Trusted reputation.

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