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Leveraging the IoT to reduce coal power plant emissions

At its Minds + Machines event in Paris this week, General Electric’s GE Power revealed a new suite of technologies designed to leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the performance and efficiency of coal-fired steam power plants.

The company’s Digital Power Plant for Steam software monitors and analyses data from over 10,000 sensor inputs throughout a power plant to help operators make better decisions about running their plants. The company claims their software can increase efficiency by up to 1.5 per cent, leading to five per cent less unplanned downtime and three per cent lower CO2 emissions. Furthermore, each point of efficiency lowers CO2 emissions by two per cent and can reduce fuel consumption by 67,000 tons of coal per year while maintaining the same power output, according to General Electric.

The software features the following applications and capabilities: Asset Performance Management for the Digital Steam Plant, Operations Optimisation for the Digital Steam Plant (including Boiler Optimisation, Coal Analyser, Plant Optimisation and Smart Start), and Business Optimisation for the Digital Steam Plant.

1 Comment

  1. The coal-fired steam power plant probably has Dust Collectors. These too can be upgraded with IoT technology and significantly improve Dust Collector efficiency and reduce maintenance hours. Case studies show 30 to 50 percent reduction in CO2 emissions, 40 to 60 percent Energy saving, increased filter life by up to 30 percent and reduction in down time by 30 percent. This Dust Collector Control System IoT technology has been available since 2008. It is great news that industry is starting to adopt it and benefit from the improvements.

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