

Scientech papers presented at the EPRI Heat Rate Conference and ASME Power 2009 Conference are now available.
Evaluating an HP/IP Turbine Replacement
Optimizing for the Lowest Cost Electrical Production
Midwest Generation selects PdP for fleet wind turbine and fossil plant monitoring. U.S. Utility selects Scientech's PdP advanced pattern recognition software for Fleet monitoring. (See complete story)
The Scientech symposium continues a long tradition of meaningful technical sessions and workshops to assist users of Scientech products as well as to inform of new industry initiatives and to share information with your peers and getting new information on the latest development and plans from Scientech.
Effective and efficient operation of fossil and nuclear power generating facilities remains a challenging endeavor. Improving plant performance, reducing operational risk, eliminating unplanned outages, enhancing heat rates, managing carbon footprint and continuing to ensure safety and reliability of operations are not an option but a demand.
Management and operation of power plants and electrical distribution networks requires assimilation of large quantities of current (real time) and historical data. The data and calculations performed with it imparts information on thermal performance, safety, operational status, alarms, trends and equipment performance to name only a few. Current and historical data trends and graphical presentation are required for operators to manage at the plant level. Archived and near real time data are necessary for further calculations that are required by engineering staff to optimize the operations and safety. Fleet wide data permits corporate oversight and planning.
Many utilities are facing obsolescence issues. Typically when we address obsolescence our thoughts naturally gravitate to issues revolving around hardware technology, supplier and OEM support, and spare parts. However, there are other aspects to obsolescence. We live in an industry where aging workforce issues are very real. The knowledge base and expertise required to maintain many legacy systems is disappearing. Workers are retiring and the new generation of computer and electronic system technologists simply have no basis for understanding the older technologies. Thus the effective monitoring of plant performance and beneficial application of that information for improving plant and fleet performance continues to be a top priority for all utilities.