Coal news and updates

Through Internet of Things analytics and optimization, GE says coal-fired steam power plants can reduce fuel consumption by 67,000 tons of coal per year, while maintaining the same megawatt output.

 

At its Minds + Machines event in Paris today, General Electric's GE Power unveiled a new suite of technologies designed to leverage the Internet of Things (IoT) to improve the performance and efficiency of coal-fired steam power plants.

GE's new Digital Power Plant for Steam monitors and analyzes data from more than 10,000 sensor inputs across a power plant to help plant operators make smarter decisions about how to optimally run their power plants. The company says the software increases efficiency up to 1.5 percentage points, allowing for five percent less unplanned downtime and three percent lower CO2 emissions. Every point of efficiency lowers CO2 emissions by two percentage points and can reduce fuel consumption by 67,000 tons of coal per year, while maintaining the same megawatt output.

"About 40 percent of electricity today is supplied by coal-fired generation," says Steve Bolze, GE Power president and CEO.

Bolze adds that coal is forecast to remain the world's second largest energy source through 2030, and will remain especially important in developing economies. But the systems in coal-fired plants are highly complex, average efficiency rates are low and the plant technology itself is typically very mature — in Europe, 50 percent of active coal-fired plants are more than 25 years old.

Source: CIO