Power Plant Goes Wireless Three Ways

By Jim Montague, executive editor

Many folks put one toe in the water first. Others jump in with both feet.

So, while most process control users gradually test wireless for limited monitoring in non-critical corners of their plants, a few brave engineers blanket their facilities with multiple wireless protocols, and find more and more places and applications to use wireless and gain its advantages.

“We joke that we’ve basically turned our site into a giant Wi-Fi hotspot,” says Dave Runkel, production manager at Texas-based Lost Pines Power Park, which includes a 42-year-old natural gas plant and is part of the Lower Colorado River Authority. Located about 30 miles from Austin, the park began operating as a combined-cycle, cogeneration power plant in 2001. In a combined cycle, electricity is produced from several different thermodynamic cycles, with a heating system ultimately used as a condenser of the plant’s bottoming cycle. For example, the exhaust from a gas turbine might be used to power a steam turbine, the condensate from which provides heat. Lost Pines Power Park now is a 545-MW facility that’s reportedly 30-40% more efficient than traditional gas-fired plants (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Lost Pines and Sim Gideon

Lost Pines Power Park began operating as one of the nation’s first combined-cycle, cogeneration power plants in 2001, and now is a 545-MW facility that’s reportedly 30-40% more efficient than traditional gas-fired plants. Photograph courtesy of LRCA

Lost Pines recently began its journey to wireless when it merged with the three-unit, 620-MW Sim Gideon power plant next door, downsized many redundant staffing functions shared by the two plants, and began seeking a way to resolve Sim Gideon’s Gai-Tronics public-address system with Lost Pines’ radio-based communications.

“Many of Sim Gideon’s systems were reaching the end of their useful lives and needed to be replaced anyway,” says Runkel.

Management began with an RFP for a hard-wired PA system, but that caused instant sticker shock, so we began to ask ourselves if wireless might resolve some of the communications differences between the two facilities. So, the PA was our first system to go wireless. Now, each day, we’re finding new ways to incorporate wireless into our infrastructure.”

Runkel says it was during Lost Pines’ annual strategic alliance meeting that representatives from Invensys proposed implementing a wireless umbrella at the plant. Lost Pines and Invensys jointly conducted a wireless assessment to determine coverage and equipment placement and then implemented a smorgasbord of wireless solutions to tie the two plant sites together. These solutions included:

• Building a 360° WiMax backhaul that created a wireless umbrella over the plant (Figure 2);
• Installing 52 Wi-Fi access points throughout the plant for local area network access; 
• Establishing a common-infrastructure enabled voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) to support a wireless Vocera push-to-talk application;  
• Installing wireless speakers throughout the facility (Figure 3); and 
• Integrating the overall system with the staff’s PBX and personal cell phones for enhanced connectivity.

Figure 2: Under the Umbrella

A 360˚ WiMax backhaul installed at a high point in the middle of the power park creates wireless umbrella over the two-plant site. Photograph courtesy of LRCA

“The key to a successful wireless project is knowing what application or business problem wireless can solve,” says Greg Burns, Invensys’ wireless performance services leader. “Do you need a mobile work force, field data logging, condition monitoring, asset tracking, physical security, personnel safety, or improved communications? Wireless brings a lot to the table, so you have to assess what’s appropriate for each application.” 

Lost Pines’ new wireless infrastructure uses Invensys-partner Apprion’s Ionosphere network platform and Ionizer devices. “The Ion platform manages the controller and distributed component appliances, as well as three high-speed and three low-speed radios at Lost Pines,” says Steve Lambright, president and CEO at Apprion. “The platform scans and acquires all the wireless devices at the site and brings them under its management This allows the application to be integrated and visualized and gives Lost Pines a geographical MySpace for its entire plant, with all of its devices in one view. Users can click on a listed device and display its management console or click up- and downstream through the system.” As a result, claims Lambright, wireless can provide immediate, measurable ROI, an extensible framework and infrastructure, lower entry costs, more vendor choices, predictable ownership costs, and improved physical security and safety.