Power Generation
Combined Heat and Power
39.4% increase in exported Power, 21.9% increase in availability
CHP Availability Optimisation
Increased power generation and thermal output from revised operating philosophy and maintenance regime.
We identified that our client was losing potential revenue from power exportation, and incurring additional costs running boilers to produce hot water. The operating philosophy and maintenance regime being used was not flexible and did not take into account the actual operating conditions on site.
We analysed the criteria being used to determine when and how many CHP units would be operated and at what load. In addition, how much thermal energy was actually required within the AD (Anaerobic Digestion) process.
This enabled us to determine the most efficient operating philosophy in conjunction with a sympathetic maintenance program.
We ensured that a practical solution was found promptly to maximise the benefit to our client. Our solution did not involve any intrusive works which would have increased costs, or require any downtime outside of routine maintenance.
We kept in continuous communication with our client’s leadership and operations teams to ensure that the solution was implemented and commissioned with minimum disruption.
Our solution ensured that power exportation and heat recovery from the CHP could be optimised based on the availability of the Biogas produced by the adjacent AD plant.
Since completion of the works our client achieved a 39.4% increase in exported power, and an increase in overall availability of the plant from 76% in 2017 and 2018 to 97.9 in 2019.