EDP Digital Transformation & Range Extension
Customer Challenges
In 2017, volatility of energy prices, reduced predictability combined with higher regulatory pressure pushed EDP to revisit the operations and maintenance strategy for their conventional generation including thermal and hydro assets in the Iberian Peninsula. Their goal was to maintain technical performance while optimizing flexibility and reducing operational costs of their power plants.
After having carried out a value assessment supported by GE their expected outcomes were the following:
24% Expected
reduction in production loss due to internal causes
10% Expected
decrease in preventive maintenance costs
2% Expected
increase in revenues from balancing services (grid or portfolio)
Partnership Approach
To achieve this target, EDP defined a product strategy with two key characteristics: -
Deploy a digital solution dedicated to Hydro operators
Rely on a partner who can provide hydro expertise, a ready-to-use solution and, equally important, a partner who has experience in enterprise digital transformation
To support this product strategy, EDP selected GE as partner to deploy a unique set of digital solutions to cover both their hydro and thermal fleet in the Iberia.
GE Renewable Energy’s Hydro Solutions
For Reliability & Maintenance optimization, EDP is using the following GE products:
APM Reliability Management (RM) deployed on 23 HPP representing 56 units for a total of - 5.5 GW. All 23 HPP will be covered by APR Analytics, and the 12 most critical plants will be covered in addition by the edge analytics.
Remote M&D services (IMS - Industrial Managed Services) delivered by a team of monitoring engineers and subject matter experts. This team analyzes alerts, gives O&M advisories as well as deep expertise for the most difficult cases.
All the data are streamed to GE’s Predix APM cloud platform
For Asset Operations Flexibility, EDP is using GE’s Operating Range Extension solution (RE), combining service expertise and digital capability. It aims to extend the operating range to partial loads of a turbine through machine assessment, spot testing and continuous monitoring of machine behavior in the entire extended zones. Alerts are triggered when recommended conditions are violated (time exceeded, vibration level too high).