Case Studies

NeuCo continuously works with customers to produce case studies & presentations that articulate what our products have done to make their lives a little easier.

New: Sootblowing Optimization to Improve Boiler Performance

This white paper, co-authored by NeuCo employees, describes a sootblowing system that uses predictive models to bridge the gap between sootblower operation and boiler performance goals. In addition to using predictive modeling, the system utilizes heuristics (rules) associated with different zones in the boiler to refine the search for the optimal sequence of sootblower operations and achieve boiler performance targets.» request more information   

Dynegy’s Baldwin: From Issue to Action

This presentation, delivered at the 2007 Coal Gen conference, discusses how Dynegy’s Baldwin Energy Complex is using optimization to improve plant availability.  It mainly focuses on the Baldwin installations of NeuCo’s MaintenanceOpt system, a “clearinghouse” for detecting, diagnosing, prioritizing and driving actions to resolve reliability, capacity and efficiency-related anomalies. » request more information                                      

Sootblowing Optimization at OMU

Delivered at Coal Gen 2007, this presentation discusses the SootOpt project at Owensboro Municipal Utilities’ Elmer Smith Station and how it is helping to drive steam temperatures closer to the desired setpoint, better coordinate air usage for sootblowng activities, and minimize attemperation spray flows, exit gas temperatures and opacity excursions.  » request more information 

NOx Control Strategies at CPS Energy, San Antonio

CPS Energy of San Antonio is the 2nd largest municipally owned utility in the country. Los Angeles is the largest. The CPS electric system covers 1,566 square miles, serving more than 590,000 customers in Bexar County and adjacent counties. Currently CPS has over 4,200 MW of net generating capacity. Approximately 35% of the electricity is generated from 3 coal-fired power plants – JT Deely 1 and 2 and JK Spruce. Fuel for these units comes from the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming. » request more information

Arizona Public Service's Four Corners Plant: Modeling Prioritized Objectives Using ProcessLink® Real-Time Combustion Optimization System

The Four Corners plant is jointly owned by Arizona Public Service (APS), Public Service New Mexico, Tucson Electric, Salt River Project, and Southern California Edison. Four Corners is one of the largest electric power plants in North America. The plant is comprised of 5 pulverized coal units with 2040 MW total capacity. Units 1-3, all built in the early 1960s, did not have adjustable burner-specific air registers, over-fired air, or other control functionality that most newer units benefit from, creating high fuel costs. Since APS voluntarily gave up its fuel adjustment clause years ago in anticipation of a competitive industry, the need to minimize fuel costs has become a priority at Four Corners. » request more information

Boiler Optimization Using Neural Networks: Implementation and Results at the Roanoke Valley Energy Facility (ROVA)

The Roanoke Valley Energy Facility (ROVA), owned by Westmoreland Power, is a coal-fired non-utility generating station in Weldon, North Carolina. » request more information

NRG's Big Cajun II Real-Time Combustion Optimization System

NRG selected Big Cajun II Units 1 and 2 for installation of NeuCo’s CombustionOpt technology. These units, which began commercial operation in 1981, are 575 MW Riley Turbo boilers. Both units burn Powder River Basin low-sulfur coal. Each unit is equipped with 32 opposed burners fed by four Riley ball-tube mill pulverizers. Both units are controlled with a Foxboro I/A DCS. These units operate in a mixture of baseload and intermediate modes, with a historical capacity factor of approximately 60%. » request more information

Colorado Springs Utilities Expands Combustion Optimization System to Incorporate Advanced Instrumentation

Colorado Springs Utilities faced two separate and distinct problems at each of its largest coal-fired generating stations. At the Nixon Power Plant, approval for a new gas-fired combined cycle plant required a 20 percent reduction in NOx from the existing 250 MW coal-fired unit. At the Martin Drake Power Plant, NOx compliance had been achieved at the largest unit with low-NOx burners, but only at the expense of substantial degradation of heat rate and loss-on-ignition (LOI). Moreover, the high LOI was preventing sales of recycled fly ash, a major potential revenue stream for Colorado Springs. To address these challenges, Colorado Springs Utilities decided to invest in a combustion optimization system. » request more information

Combustion Optimization at LG&E's Cane Run Generating Station: Motivation, Implementation and Discovery

LG&E Energy, a subsidiary of E.ON, is one of the U.S.’s lowest-cost energy providers, with a growing portfolio of more than 9000 MW of generating capacity. In early 2001, LG&E identified combustion optimization as a key part of its NOx compliance strategy and decided to install combustion optimization systems on several LG&E units using a common optimization technology.» request more information

Combustion Optimization at NRG's El Segundo Gas-Fired Units 3 & 4

NRG Energy’s El Segundo facility (based in El Segundo, California) faces competitive market pressures, increasing fuel prices, and reduced manpower while trying to get more out of their existing assets. Units 3 and 4 are rated at 335 net megawatts and burn natural gas as their primary fuel. These units operate in a full-range cycling mode under automatic dispatch with a capacity factor of 40%.
» request more information

CombustionOpt® Case Study: AES Corporation, Harding Street Unit 7

Industry pressures to improve efficiency and pending regulatory pressures to reduce emissions led AES IPALCO to evaluate boiler optimization with a view to installing this technology where economically justifiable. Having installed contemporary low NOx burners and overfire air on Harding Street Unit 7, AES decided that this would provide an ideal benchmark for combustion optimization. » request more information

CombustionOpt® Case Study: Mirant New England, Canal Generating Plant Unit 2

Mirant is one of the world's largest competitive providers of electricity and energy-related products and services, with operations worldwide. Mirant owns or controls more than 20,000 megawatts (MW) of electric generating capacity around the world, of which 17,000 megawatts (MW) are in North America and the Caribbean. Mirant is one of the top three owners of unregulated generation and among the top 15 electric producers in the United States. » request more information

Reliant Energy's Cheswick Power Plant: Combustion Optimization - Evolving Models and Objectives

Cheswick undertook an earlier optimization technology while owned and operated by the original owner. This project was brief-lived and unsuccessful. While current plant management and engineering personnel were not at Cheswick during this project, most current operators were. Operator accounts indicate that the major reasons for the discontinuation of that system were repeated and serious opacity excursions and failure to keep exit gas temperature above minimum limits. The former was attributed to the optimizer driving O2 too low in efforts to reduce NOx; while the latter was attributed to effects of that optimizer on firing temperature trying to reduce NOx or increase BE. » request more information

The Energy Utilities Project: Enterprise Learning [PDF]

A white paper written by NeuCo's Curt Lefebvre appearing in The Energy and Utilities Project publication by Montgomery Research and IBM. The paper discusses the revolutionary approach that inductive-based artificial intelligence technologies offer to asset optimization. » request more information

NRG El Segundo: Leveraging Combustion Optimization to Reduce Operating Costs at a Gas-Fired Unit with SCR

NRG Energy, Inc. is one of the largest Independent Power Producers (IPP’s) in North America and one of the few with generating assets in almost every major region of the United States. The fleet is not only geographically diverse, but has significant diversity in boiler design, operating profiles, and fuel sources. While this diversity provides substantial benefits for the portfolio, it creates many operational challenges, all of which must be addressed for a broad optimization initiative to be successful. NRG has always been recognized for its ability to operate generating assets efficiently and in accordance with prudent electrical practices. With the increased competition facing IPP’s during recent years, the need for cost-effective generation has never been greater. One of NRG’s priorities is to optimize its generation assets by upgrading emissions systems using the best available technology.  » request more information

City Public Service: NOx Control Strategies at City Public Service, San Antonio

City Public Service of San Antonio (CPS) is the 2nd largest municipally owned utility in the country. Los Angeles is the largest. The CPS electric system covers 1,566 square miles, serving more than 590,000 customers in Bexar County and adjacent counties. Currently CPS has over 4,200 MW of net generating capacity. Approximately 35% of the electricity is generated from 3 coal-fired power plants – JT Deely 1 and 2 and JK Spruce. Fuel for these units comes from the Powder River Basin (PRB) in Wyoming. » request more information