ABSTRACT
A conventional coal-fired power plant computer system is shown in Figure 11.1. The computer system is divided into five levels. Level 1 is the equipment level in which the machines need to be optimized. Level 2 is the controller level in which the intelligent devices are set to control the machines of level 1. Level 3 is the process control level in which each process with a specific function is controlled. Level 4 is the condition monitoring and optimization level in which all the real-time processes located in level 3 are integrated, supervised, and optimized. The proposed identification, control, and optimization methods in the research can be applied in level 4. Level 5 is the management information level including asset management, finance management, and operation management. The computer system shown in Figure 11.1 is a local computer system. The condition monitoring and optimization system cannot be shared by another power plant. In addition, the different power plants cannot share information such as identification or optimization results among the different computer systems. Furthermore, the hardware, such as server machines and other devices of the computer system, cannot be used to support more than one power plant local computer system.
