GE Power recently unveiled its Digital Power Plant for Steam, a suite of technologies designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by improving the performance and efficiency of coal-fired steam power plants.
By monitoring and analyzing data from more than 10,000 sensor inputs across the plant, the software can help plant operators make smarter decisions about how to optimally run their power plants, achieving better performance, greater efficiency and improved reliability while lowering environmental impact.
The solution helps eliminate 0.58 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions, which is equivalent to removing 120 million cars from the road, switching 20 billion incandescent bulbs to LED and adding 550 million square miles of forest. The software is also reported to be able to reduce fuel consumption by 67,000 tons of coal per year.
With the advanced controls and cyber security software, the Digital Power Plant for Steam interprets data drawn from sensors across the power plant, highlights key factors that may affect performance (such as fuel quality, plant aging and ambient conditions) and takes appropriate action through a closed-loop control system.
"By combining the physical strengths of our legacy Alstom steam technologies with GE's industry-leading digital capabilities, we can help our customers enhance the operating performance of their power plants to increase efficiency, lower emissions and reduce cost," said Andreas Lusch, president and CEO of GE's Steam Power Systems.
For more information, visit www.gepower.com.