Energy & Power Generation Consulting,
Engineering & Management Services
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 PROJECT: DCS Upgrade ProjectAn independent power producer (IPP) owned a significant portion of the west coast generation assests including a 210 MW unit consisting of a natural gas fired Riley Stoker boiler and a Westinghouse tandem compound turbine/generator. This client needed to install a Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) system to meet recent air emission standards but their existing Bailey pneumatic boiler combustion control system with a partial Westinghouse WDPF DCS temperature control system was obsolete and inadequate for this type of a control system upgrade.The IPP's choice was to perform a full unit control system upgrade. The IPP's in-house control system expertise was talented and enabled them to bid a full control system upgrade specification with the successful supplier being ABB Inc. with their Symphony control system. A project of this magnitude would have overloaded the IPP's single control system expert to manage so the IPP contracted for management services as a formal Project Manager. A specific criterion requested by the IPP was that the Project Manager have an extensive background in process and control systems. RESULTS• Managed a reorganization of the engineering and construction scope of work for the DCS hardware and instrumentation interface to the plant systems. A reorganization was required due to identifying critical areas of insufficient planning. • Created innovative documentation (e.g., "Scope Tracker", "Action Items List", etc.) along with the standard MSProject schedule and a cost analysis spreadsheet to communicate to the "stake holders" the bi-weekly status of this project. • Managed the unresolved determination of the DCS input/output scope by creating a phased approach to the work areas. Successfully managed both primary & secondary material delivery with secondary delivery during the outage. • Coordinated, managed, and directly participated in the major Distributed Control System (DCS) upgrade Factory Acceptance Test (FAT) for a complete boiler, turbine/generator, BMS, and balance of plant software controls. • Managed the conversion of the existing low pressure mechanical hydraulic controls (MHC) system to a digitally controlled electro-hydraulic control (EHC) control system for the large Westinghouse steam turbine governor control valve system. • Built and managed the complete unit outage schedule once construction began. This scheduled included all aspects of the outage and all contractors onsite. The work came about because of the produced quality of the DCS construction schedule. |