Emerson will automate clean-coal China power plant

Emerson Process Managementwill automate China’s new Datang Ningde “clean coal technology” power plant using its PlantWeb architecture, Ovation control system, and FOUNDATION fieldbus, Emerson announced recently. The $7.4 million contract is one indication of China’s emerging power generation controls market, which is estimated at $120 million and said to be growing at a double-digit rate annually. The project is intended to reduce automation costs and optimize the power plant’s performance and reliability.

Owned by Datang International Power Generation Co. Ltd., the plant is the first large-scale coal-fired operation to be built in China’s Fujian Province. The plant’s four 600-MW units are expected to help alleviate local reliance on hydropower, which accounts for nearly half the province’s installed power generation capacity. Severe drought recently has caused power shortages and underscored the need for more non-hydro power generation.

The plant is expected to be operational in 2006. Termed a supercritical plant, the facility will use new clean coal technology that enables operation at elevated steam temperature and pressure. The technology, said to make coal-based electricity more efficient while reducing fuel-related emissions, is expected to become more prevalent in the China as the country expands its generation capacity to meet power demands.

Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions division will coordinate and supervise the project. It will include the installation of 68 redundant controllers, 32 Ovation workstations, HART intelligent field devices, and AMS Suite asset management capabilities. The Ovation system will manage nearly 36,000 I/O points. The project is said to represent the first application of PlantWeb digital plant architecture with the Ovation control system and FOUNDATION fieldbus technology in a supercritical plant in China.

—Jeanine Katzel, senior editor, Control Engineering,jkatzel@reedbusiness.com

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