TransAlta's sundance plant pioneers the company's plunge into automation

By deploying a plantwide wireless network and sensors, plus a condition-based monitoring system, and extending the reach of its work management system, the huge but aging Sundance power plant in Alberta has already saved more than $10 million. The facelift has lowered the cost and raised the product...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Power 2005-09, Vol.149 (7), p.32-36
Main Author: WICKER, Ken
Format: Magazinearticle
Language:English
Subjects:
01 COAL, LIGNITE, AND PEAT
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
ALBERTA
Applied sciences
AUTOMATION
AWARDS
Awards & honors
BOILERS
CANADA
Case studies
COAL
Coal-fired power plants
Computers
Cost control
Electric power plants
Electric utilities
Energy
Energy. Thermal use of fuels
Enterprise resource planning
Exact sciences and technology
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
Generators
Initiatives
Installations for energy generation and conversion: thermal and electrical energy
Inventory control
MANAGEMENT
MONITORING
MONITORS
Process planning
Productivity
Radio frequency identification
Sensors
Software
SULFUR CONTENT
Teams
Technology
Wireless communications
Wireless networks
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Summary:By deploying a plantwide wireless network and sensors, plus a condition-based monitoring system, and extending the reach of its work management system, the huge but aging Sundance power plant in Alberta has already saved more than $10 million. The facelift has lowered the cost and raised the productivity of operations, maintenance, and even warehouse inventory control. For having the vision and endurance to plan and execute a project that involved risking a bundle on emerging technologies, TransAlta's Sundance power plant is the well-deserved winner of POWER magazine's 2005 Marmaduke Award for excellence in O&M.
ISSN:0032-5929
1936-7791