How trending data gives a hydropower plant a complete view of its assets so operators can make immediate tweaks that boost efficiencies
Operators at the Lucky Peak Power Plant recorded their rounds on paper. They had to guess when equipment had highs and lows, making it hard for them to predict failures.
AssetSense allows Lucky Peak’s operators to view historical trends from any computer or tablet— giving them on-demand insights into equipment performance.
“AssetSense gives us trends that improve our maintenance and operations.”
The Lucky Peak Power Plant is a 101MW hydropower facility located at the Lucky Peak Dam near Boise, Idaho.
Power plants must produce megawatt-hours efficiently and cost-effectively to meet their region’s energy demands.
No one knows this better than Kendall Wilson, Maintenance Coordinator at the Lucky Peak Power Plant.
“We’re located on the Boise River, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tells us how much water we can release each day,” said Wilson. ”This amount varies throughout the year, based upon irrigation demand, flood control, and other factors. Our goal is to produce as much power as we can from the river, as efficiently as possible.”
Wilson knew that Lucky Peak could better meet its mandate by making its operators and assets more efficient.
“Our operators used to walk through the plant with clipboards and write down more than 300 data points each day,“ said Wilson. “Then, they would file this information in boxes.“
If operators needed historical data and trends, they would pull the files and search for previous readings. Four or five people would review the paper files and try to decipher them. But even with the team effort, they often couldn’t find information and had to guess when assets had highs and lows.
The inaccurate data made troubleshooting and difficult. Operators also had a hard time predicting when equipment might fail or need maintenance—increasing Lucky Peak’s risk of forced outages and costly repairs.
Lucky Peak wanted to move from manual to digital rounds, giving operators access to real-time data and historical trends. Armed with accurate information, they could improve their troubleshooting efforts and make their plant more efficient.
Wilson did a Google search for digital operator rounds and found AssetSense. After a call with an AssetSense sales rep, he jumped in and didn’t look back.
Here are five reasons why Wilson chose AssetSense for digital operator rounds:
Lucky Peak’s operators no longer needed to guess when equipment had highs or lows. AssetSense gives them accurate data.
“Instead of digging through cabinets, we can use a computer or tablet to see readings from the last week or the last year,“ said Wilson. “AssetSense has greatly improved our trending.“
AssetSense comes with mobile apps that operators can install on their smartphones and tablets. The Lucky Peak operators appreciate how the apps work with new operating systems and automatically adjust to fit your screen size.
“Once a day, Lucky Peak’s operators use their iPads or Galaxy tablets to enter readings,“ said Wilson. “At the touch of a button, they can see alarm points and trends. It’s amazing to have this information at our fingertips.“
With AssetSense, Lucky Peak can customize the data points in a trend. For example, the plant can trend not just a temperature but also a specific megawatt output or water flow.
“AssetSense allows us to build a picture of what’s going on using multiple data points,“ said Wilson. “We couldn’t do this before.“
Wilson believes that AssetSense’s biggest benefit is that it includes multiple applications in one solution.
“If you need everything, AssetSense has it all,“ said Wilson. “It includes work orders, asset performance monitoring, inventory tags, operator reporting templates, and more.“
He also likes how AssetSense works with Microsoft Excel. Lucky Peak’s operators can send information between both applications, which makes reporting easier.
AssetSense integrates with Lucky Peak’s security tools, ensuring that people only access the information they are allowed to see.
“Depending on who is looking at AssetSense, we can hide applications,“ said Wilson. “Operators log in and see only what they need to see. They don’t have a bunch of extra tabs with things that aren’t useful to them.“
Wilson emailed AssetSense an Excel spreadsheet containing the plant’s rounds.
No one knows this better than Kendall Wilson, Maintenance Coordinator at the Lucky Peak Power Plant.
“AssetSense asked us a lot of great questions on how we want to run our equipment,“ said Wilson. “This process alone gave us immediate value, as it showed us how we are operating so that we could make improvements.“
After this process was complete, AssetSense put the rounds into its software. Now, 13 employees and eight hydro specialists use AssetSense to monitor Lucky Peak’s equipment.
“We monitor everything with AssetSense—from our hydro turbine generators to our security doors to the weather. We are tracking information that we couldn’t record before and now have trending and historical data at our fingertips,“ said Wilson.
AssetSense has made Lucky Peak’s rounds more accurate, as operators have access to more information. The real-time and historical data has helped Lucky Peak achieve the following results:
Improved troubleshooting
AssetSense has made it easier for Lucky Peak’s operations and maintenance teams to troubleshoot problems. Instead of deciphering paper readings and guessing highs and lows, they can use their computers or mobile devices to analyze data and build trends.
“With AssetSense, one person might troubleshoot down the temperature area while someone else troubleshoots down the megawatt area. They can collaborate better, as everyone has the same data at their fingertips,“ said Wilson.
More efficient operations
AssetSense automatically alerts Lucky Peak’s operators and maintenance crew when a parameter is out of range. That way, they can fix a problem before it turns into downtime.
“When someone records a piece of information, we can instantly see if it’s out of our parameters,“ said Wilson. “We’ve built safeties so that our equipment operates more efficiently.“
For example, when oil temperatures rise, Lucky Peak can increase cooling water flows so that its coolers don’t overheat and alarm. This level of control wouldn’t be possible without trends.
AssetSense also helped when an RTD started to trend down. Operators used data from AssetSense to decipher the RTD failing, which led to a repair work order for the next outage.
AssetSense is also always improving to make life easier for Lucky Peak’s operators
“Whenever we suggest an improvement, we hear that AssetSense is already working on it. They are always one step ahead on improving their system,“ said Wilson. “But none of the changes have caused people to freak out and not know how to use it. Our operators report that everything is good, which makes AssetSense a success.“
Discover why power plants across North America trust AssetSense to improve equipment reliability and minimize forced outages
