Engineering Information Management for the Power

Engineering Information Management for the Power Generation Industry A Bentley Solution Paper for Power Generation Professionals Kevin Hutto Power Generation Solution Engineer Bentley Solutions www.bentley.com Introduction The Energy Information Administration predicts strong growth for worldwide energy demand – a 57 percent increase over 26 years. At the same time, governments around the world are establishing limits on the emission of carbon dioxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter, and mercury. Accommodating all these conflicting requirements means quickly bringing cleaner forms of power generation onto the grid and simultaneously upgrading existing fossil fueled power plants such that they can be operated without prohibitive expense while minimizing their environmental impact. Challenges Throughout the Lifecycle But the challenges begin well before plant owner-operators break ground on new construction. Just navigating the licensing and approval process requires the production and effective management of thousands of documents. Owners of all power generation facilities must perform environmental impact studies, satisfy the information demands of government bodies, and appear before public and private hearings. Moreover, plant owner-operators that are eligible for financial incentives because they upgrade to cleaner technology must submit information to prove their eligibility. Nuclear power generation projects must provide even more extensive documentation to obtain licenses. Ultimately, all power generation utilities must demonstrate, on a continuing basis, that their facilities are operating within the limits of their permits, which include performance, environmental, and safety standards. In addition, these organizations must have this supporting data readily available so they can issue reports and explanations in the event of a facility shutdown due to an accident or environmental or safety concerns. From the moment a power generation project is conceived, studies and analyses regarding site selection, environmental impact, emission limits, and public and worker safety must be available to the team planning and designing the project. Without this information, costly errors can occur. Legacy data might be relevant, but if its format makes it unusable, planners will lose its benefits. As a result, they may be forced to reinvent the wheel and, in the process, repeat mistakes. Moving into the design phase, engineering accuracy and effectiveness are critical. For example, pipes, valves, and other equipment used to transfer steam or liquids must be subjected to demanding flow and stress analysis. These tests are necessary to avoid unacceptable monetary, human, and environmental costs. In addition, any changes or upgrades must conform to the original design requirements; otherwise, they will not be accepted by regulators, which could delay commissioning or the restart of a unit, or even shut down the facility. As utilities plan cleaner and safer facilities, the entire project team – designers, engineers, construction contractors, suppliers, owners, and operators – will need access to all project information throughout the design process, even if some of the members are located in different buildings, cities, or countries. Project participants must validate and Engineering Information Management for the Power Generation Industry 2 review their work in the context of the project as a whole. The practice of exchanging paper drawings and waiting for project reviewers to document handwritten comments has become too time-consuming. Nevertheless, design optimizations must take place and interferences and errors must be detected in the early stages to prevent cost overruns. In addition, project teams need to keep stakeholders informed throughout the process to avoid costly misunderstandings. Thus, the ability to visualize 3D renditions of the facility, to review all the information associated with them, including materials, orders to suppliers, and to have analytical data at the participants’ virtual fingertips, makes the entire communication process much more efficient. Online design review capabilities can also prevent many lost hours and costs associated with printed 2D documents, which make the impact and implications of designs difficult to foresee. All of these capabilities require access to a 3D digital information model and the ability to effectively manage relevant data in a distributed engineering environment. Once the project teams have completed their tasks – which might include delivering a set of drawings or overseeing the construction – they will need to assemble and organize the contractual deliverables to hand over to the owner for ongoing plant maintenance and operation. To reduce time and costs, all documentation and information models created during the design, engineering, and construction phases of the project must be maintained properly and be compatible with the owner’s current systems. To meet all of these critical challenges, Bentley introduces the Bentley Power Generation solution. It fulfills the needs for data management, design excellence, collaboration, and preservation of design and as-built information throughout the lifecycle of the power plant. Introduction to the Bentley Power Generation Solution The Bentley power generation solution is for conceptual design, detail design, operation, and maintenance of power plants. For electric utilities, it includes a seamless set of tools and information management for the entire industry, from power generation through transmission and distribution to the customer. To assure interoperability, its data-exchange connectors are based on ISO 15926 data models. The Bentley power generation solution also covers all construction phases and fully supports distributed engineering. Whatever their discipline or location, all project participants have complete access to the project data they need. Once construction has been completed and the plant is ready for operation, the engineering team can transfer the design information to the owner-operator for use in plant operations and updates, as well as to assure the facility continues to comply with regulations. The Bentley power generation solution includes the following: • Mapping, site imaging, and site layout tools for visualizing and managing land assets, • Front-end engineering and design (FEED) software to assist with preliminary layouts, alternative design scenarios, flow diagrams, procurement of long-lead items, and preliminary cost estimates, Engineering Information Management for the Power Generation Industry 3 • A full range of site-preparation and civil engineering applications for developing land and designing supporting infrastructure, • Detailed design, engineering, and analysis tools for architectural and structural design, plant piping, and the engineering of mechanical, electrical, communications, and other subsystems, as well as software for creating schematics, such as piping and instrumentation diagrams, • Construction management software linking data from design deliverables, schematics, project management, materials, and resource management systems in a virtual and visual model, facilitating improved communications with fabrication and construction crews, better scheduling, and just-in-time delivery of materials, “All front-end engineering and design (FEED), • Engineering data warehouse and change-management capabilities for ongoing including preliminary operations and maintenance, and to ensure constant compliance with all standards analyses, studies, and regulatory requirements. sketches, and schematics, is included in the model The Bentley Power Generation Solution for the Plant Lifecycle and available when the The Bentley power generation solution is an engineering information system that detailed engineering creates a digital representation of the physical plant. phase begins. “ The digital representation of the physical plant is useful for the entire facility lifecycle. The representation might be initiated with legacy data, such as environmental studies, technology research, documents, maps, photographs, schematics, and piping and instrument data, and perhaps drawings of an existing unit that’s being replaced or replicated as part of an updated design. The Bentley power generation solution brings together all relevant data. All front-end engineering and design (FEED), including preliminary analyses, studies, sketches, and schematics, is included in the model and available when the detailed engineering phase begins. When this extensive phase is complete, the 3D plant information model can be used to extract drawings and other data and relay it to engineers, designers, and construction teams. When the project has been completed, the Bentley solution controls and streamlines information for handover to operations and maintenance. The data can be made useful, updated, and maintained throughout the lifecycle of the facility. The majority of Bentley design, engineering, and geospatial products are based on MicroStation, Bentley’s flagship technology for the design of all types of infrastructure, including plants. MicroStation software is used by architects and engineers who share a common mission to deliver better projects. With an integrated suite of easy to use and versatile capabilities, MicroStation helps teams improve the way they design, model, visualize, document, and map projects of all shapes and sizes. With the ability to support industry standards

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