CC-00-142 OPTIMIZING INDUSTRIAL UTILITY PLANTS WITHIN EPA MANDATED LIMITS

Description:

This paper describes an on-line utilities optimization system that has been installed at several major manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and Europe, including such companies as Dow, BP/Amoco Chemicals and Pfizers. One of the plants on the U.S. Gulf Coast installed it primarily to optimize their utility plants within EPA-mandated emission limits. For this facility, the system covers four separate co-generation plants on the 5000 acre site, each with multiple gas turbines, steam turbines and boilers supplying power and 4 levels of steam to over 70 process units. The site has a total generating capacity of more than 1300MW and is subject to emissions limits that are common to many industrial facilities, covering individual equipment as well as a total site cap. This paper will address how the utility optimization problem differs from process optimization, requiring different architectures and strategies for the solution.