Ontario Power Generation's Monitoring and Diagnostics Centre

Abstract

Ontario Power Generation's (OPG) newly developed Monitoring and Diagnostics Centre (M&DC) has achieved numerous successes by leveraging the limited number of existing sensing instruments in the station and the associated equipment and process data available. To get full value out of the M&DC, the team's next steps are to implement the Advanced Continuous Online Monitoring (COLM) Program across OPG's fleet, which aims at instrumenting key power plant assets that are important to safety and production. The objective is to use high performance diagnostic tools that can combine the power of on-line process and equipment performance data acquisition with advanced diagnostics methodologies. Significant benefits include optimizing maintenance and engineering work programs, forecasting equipment degradation and leveraging the use of artificial intelligence to auto-diagnose specific failure modes and predict the remaining useful life of key equipment. This business investment provides immediate tangible benefits and continues to foster the company's innovation culture.