For more information on our Coal Optimization solutions, please see the presentations below:

Startup Optimization of Coal Plants

Low Damage Startups of Coal Fired Units

When market forces require coal-fired generation units to cycle rather than base-load, it is commercially desirable to minimize the plant damage incurred during the start-up transient. In cases where a unit start-up is poorly planned or executed, the costs, both in terms of lost profitable generation opportunities and plant lifetime reduction, can be an order of magnitude greater than the fuel savings obtained by shutting the unit down during periods where generation would be unprofitable. In practice however, it can be difficult to achieve low-damage starts consistently due to different shutdown durations, different plant conditions and different staff shifts.

Real Time Power has developed a novel approach to automation that has been deployed to overcome these limitations and provide consistent unit start-ups that match and improve on current best practice.