Remote monitoring helps EDF optimise the operation and maintenance of their power plants. Among other things, condition monitoring of steam turbines during commissioning has identified a serious problem, which prevented full load operation of several thermal power plants.

“Improving operational performance and costs is a top priority in EDF’s strategy in today’s deregulated, highly competitive power market,” says Jean-Christophe Licheron, EDF DTG. “Machinery condition monitoring is one of the elements which help us optimise plant maintenance.”
 
Knowledge is power – and the way to condition based maintenance
At EDF’s engineering unit DTG in Grenoble, France, an expert team monitors the group’s thermal and hydro power plants in France. With dedicated tools such as online condition monitoring systems from Rovsing Dynamics they assist the plant operators in anticipating future machinery degradation and executing condition based maintenance. The systems provide detailed insight into the actual machinery health.

According to Mr. Licheron, “the system typically confirms that the monitored machines are OK, so that operation can continue uninterrupted. Thus reassured, EDF’s local maintenance staffs have in many cases been able to postpone maintenance activities for a year or more. This saves costly downtime with production loss plus maintenance costs. 

Efficient use of centralised know-how
On the basis of measurement data, transmitted automatically and daily to DTG, regular trend analyses and alarms emitted by the system, the team supports the group’s power plant operators in their planning of future maintenance activities. In case a specific phenomenon occurs, the system makes it possible to monitor the development until the next planned maintenance stop, or to anticipate if an extra maintenance stop is required before the next planned stop.

“Thanks to the remote monitoring system, its reliable, filtered data and automated fault identification our experts in Grenoble are able to monitor a large number of plants efficiently with very few people”, Mr. Licheron emphasizes.

EDF’s eMonitoring experts also cooperate closely with Rovsing Dynamics in the continuous development of monitoring tools for detecting and predicting faults on rotating machinery.