MHPS is developing AI-based boiler control systems to support power companies globally. By analysing the large volumes of complex digital data acquired during boiler operation, these systems can provide a range of functions, such as cost optimisation (operating costs, maintenance management costs, etc.) and early detection of anomalies.
Before the current verification testing program, MHPS had provided power generation equipment to the Linkou thermal power plant, overseeing delivery of three sets of coal-fired supercritical-pressure boilers and steam turbines with outputs of 800 MW each. The first set has already started commercial operation, and the second is scheduled to go into service in spring 2017.
In conventional combustion tuning testing, a variety of processes are optimised by adjusting parameters – such as fluegas emission characteristics, combustion balance, steam temperature characteristics and boiler efficiency – set by an experienced engineer. During the recently completed verification testing in Taiwan, an AI system that had learned changes in process values was called on to propose the optimal parameters. The results confirmed that the AI system proposed parameters essentially no different from those set by an experienced engineer, and the various process values were well-balanced.
MHPS will continue to enhance the AI-based combustion tuning system at the Linkou thermal power plant. It will also apply the results obtained through the verification testing program in Taiwan to MHPS digital solutions portfolio, for future proposals to other potential users.
