Building Better Plants – What’s your approach?

Station Service is expensive. Optimization and tuning of systems at a power plant can provide tremendous savings.  What can you do to better optimize your plant, potentially saving fuel and money?

You may or may not be aware that there’s a program with the U.S. Department of Energy called “Better Buildings” that essentially focuses on efficiency, particularly energy efficiency. Within this program there are sub-programs. One is called “Better Plants” that is focused on improving energy efficiency and competitiveness in the industrial sector. The specific goal is to reduce energy intensity by 25% over a 10-year period across all U.S. operations.

If it’s possible, it’s common sense. But, think about it. According to eia.gov, the average operating heat rate for selected energy sources for 2016 were:

In the best case, the plants have an average thermal efficiency of about 43.3% (natural gas), and most have a thermal efficiency of more like 32% (using the average heat rate of the other fuel sources).

That leaves a lot of room for optimization, at least theoretically. However, if it were easy, everyone would have already done it, right?

But, what can be done about it? Well, the “Better Plants” program mentioned above has some resources for you to consider. Check out the “Field Validation and Diagnostic Equipment Program”, as one possible avenue to pursue. With this program, a plant can borrow instruments that they might not otherwise be able to get to evaluate portions of the plant that may not be operating optimally. You can find this information HERE.

But, when you do pursue this, one additional thing to consider is how to capture the metrics you’ll observe. For that, we’ve got your solution. Check out LogBook Evident. It’s a mobile inspection solution that integrates beautifully, seamlessly and securely with LogBook. Capturing your information couldn’t be simpler. You’ll be able to gain insight into multiple readings with a single click, and it will put you on the road to running an even “Better Plant”.

While you’re at it, come see LogBook at the World Energy Engineering Congress (Weec), October 17-19 at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, NC. See you there!