Steam@Max

YOUR ROAD TO OPTIMIZED UTILITY OPERATIONS

Steam consumption and steam production continuously vary based on changing demands and heat balances in the plant(s). Quite often, steam vents are allowed to open on a regular basis, in order "to be on the safe side", ensuring there's always enough steam available. This represents a significant loss. Steam@Max offers production facilities a steam grid optimization and control solution to continuously balance steam supply and demand, predicting steam demand for all consumers, and adjusting steam production, minute by minute, every hour of the day.

THE BENEFITS ARE OBVIOUS:

• Continuous balance of steam supply vs demand
• Significant reduction in steam venting (often up to 80% reduction)
• Much more stable header pressures
• A single, consistent operational philosophy for the steam grid - supported by the entire operations department
• Significantly improved coordination and communication between utilities operators and steam consumer operators

IPCOS' Steam@Max solution optimizes the operation of the entire steam grid at your site. The solution is based on IPCOS'  state-of-the-art control and optimization software suite INCA.

Phased Approach

The Steam@Max solution is implemented using a phased methodology. The first phase, the functional design, aims at defining the single operational philosophy for the steam grid. Although this is often considered a simple task at first, reality shows that there are as many operating philosophies as there are operators in the control room. In the second phase, the Steam@Max solution is implemented. The application is modular, which allows for a step-by-step implementation, maximizing acceptance and minimizing risk.

WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

An important factor in determining whether or not your steam grid is ready to be equipped with Steam@Max is that the necessary instrumentation required for APC is present and functioning reliably and accurately. This does not mean that "all possible equipment needs to be available and all possible equipment needs to function correctly". APC critical instrumentation is just a rather small subset of the equipment available on site. In most cases a plant is "more ready than people think". Note that operators are currently running the plant. So one way or another there seems to be sufficient information available to allow them to run the plant. The Steam@Max solution communicates with all plant DCS's through an OPC connection. In order to assess the feasibility of applying Steam@Max to your plant, IPCOS offers a plant assessment which will report on the technical and techno-economical feasibility of implementing the Steam@Max solution, and which will contain the recommended next steps for the implementation of Steam@Max at your site.

Steam@Max AT WORK

• REDUCTION OF VENTING: By continuous optimization of the steam production vs steam demand, based on predicted consumption for each unit, the Steam@Max solution will minimize the venting of steam, leading to signifi cant cost savings and/or a potential for increased steam export.
  

• IMPROVED COORDINATION: By making a single window on the steam balance available to all operators in all control rooms, everyone has a direct view on the steam balance and the impact of changes to the operation of each unit.
  

• INCREASED STABILITY: Steam@Max brings significantly increased stability in the steam headers. This results in more stable operation throughout the site, minimizing the effects of a big change in one unit on the operation of other units.
  

• ANTICIPATING ON EVENTS: Operators can signal to the Steam@ Max application that a significant event is upcoming, such as the start-up of a compressor, requiring a signifi cant increase in steam production. The Steam@Max solution will increase the steam production