SKF Machine Condition Transmitter (MCT) Wireless Implementation

Background

Dynegy provides electricity, natural gas and natural gas liquids to customers throughout the United States, and owns power plants that cumulatively provide of up to 12 000 MW. The Baldwin Energy Complex, discussed in this document, is a coal-fired plant that generates about 1 761 MW.

In April 2003, EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute) partnered with Dynegy on a joint venture pilot project to demonstrate a wireless vibration monitoring solution for a coal pulverizer.  The coal pulverizer
was one of six pulverizers located on the basement floor of Unit 3. The reason for selecting a versatile wireless solution was primarily of economic nature. The costs associated with installing conventional LAN cable or fiber optics were higher.

The objective was to identify a reliable wireless system able to provide overall vibration magnitudes to Dynegy’s OSI PI Historian at one-minute intervals. Eventually, this data would be routed to the control room operator to display the values and provide alarming for the operator.

Dynegy took a proactive approach to monitoring vibration levels on mission critical assets, focusing on early detection and notification of abnormal machine conditions, with the ultimate goal of enhancing equipment reliability and personnel safety.  This application note goes into detail about the system setup that was implemented and can help identify potential solutions for similar applications.