AUTHOR: Hermine Nalbandian
DATE: January 2004
PAGES: 52
ABSTRACT:
Instrumentation and control (I&C) is an integral part of any power station. A modern, advanced I&C system plays a major
role in the profitable and safe operation of a plant by achieving maximum availability, reliability, flexibility,
maintainability and efficiency. These systems can also assist in maintaining emissions compliance. New coal-fired
power plants are built with modern, advanced systems. A large number of existing facilities have also been retrofitted
with advanced digital systems in many countries, throughout the world. However, some plants continue to operate with
pneumatic/analogue systems and should be upgraded if the facility is to continue operating safely and profitably.
The average lifetime of modern I&C systems ranges between 10 and 15 years. Payback of an upgrade has been evaluated
from 2 years up to the lifetime of the upgrade. In this report we investigate the effects of upgrading I&C in coal-fired
plant and attempt to evaluate the financial and/or environmental benefits where possible.