Emerson in control at China power plant

28 July 2010

Yinchuan City, China – Emerson Process Management has won a $2.7m (£1.7m) contract to install its Ovation expert control system at Huadian Lingwu Power Plant units 3 and 4 – the first 1,000MW ultra-supercritical units in China to employ air-cooling condenser technology.

Air-cooling condenser technology is typically used in subcritical power plants located in areas where water is scarce. However, the techology is now finding use in supercritical and ultra-supercritical units that are increasingly specified to meet environmental regulations.

The Huadian Lingwu Power Generation co-owned plant in Yinchuan City, northwest China, currently comprises two 600MW coal-fired units – units 1 and 2 – that have uemployed Ovation technology since they went into commercial operation in 2007. Units 3 and 4 are due to begin commercial operation in August 2010 and December 2010, respectively, to meet a growing need for electricity, particularly for industry in the region.

As part of the automation project, Emerson will supply a total of 67 redundant Ovation controllers, 20 workstations and more than 70 Fishercontrol valves to Huadian Lingwu units 3 and 4. The Ovation control systems will manage a total of around 28,000 I/O points.

At each unit, the control system will perform data acquisition and monitor and control the air-cooled condensers, boiler, sequence control system, electric control system, modulation control system, furnace-safety supervisory system, flue-gas desulfurisation system, feedwater pump turbine and balance-of-plant processes. The control systems will also interface to Hitachi steam-turbine controls.

’We already know firsthand about the advantages of Ovation technology, based on our experience at units 1 and 2,’ explained Wu Lianwen, lead engineer, Huadian Lingwu Power Plant. ’We based our decision to select Ovation for units 3 and 4 on our personal experience with the technology, as well as Emerson’s expertise automating 1,000MW ultra-supercritical units and its significant resources in China.’