USE OF BUS-LEVEL ELECTRICAL SIGNALS FOR IMPROVING POWER PLANT OPERATIONS

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Parikh, P. (2020). USE OF BUS-LEVEL ELECTRICAL SIGNALS FOR IMPROVING POWER PLANT OPERATIONS. Unc Charlotte Electronic Theses And Dissertations.
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Abstract

Power plant owners and operators are leveraging advancements in sensor technology and data science to deploy monitoring systems that can potentially improve reliability, increase flexibility, and reduce maintenance costs. In many cases, however, plants either do not have the budget for such technologies, or the return on investment is deemed to be too low. This thesis takes an alternative view and considers a potentially low-cost approach that can be implemented simply by monitoring the aggregate current flowing into a bank of downstream motors. The approach described in this thesis relies on current and voltage sensors installed at either the main bus or a motor control center in a power plant. This non-intrusive technique can be used to provide some level of information about motors and their driven equipment. Previous work has demonstrated the ability to use such measurements to track the operation of various loads; this thesis looks to move beyond the tracking application to develop specific use cases in power plants. This thesis considers two specific applications of bus-level current for sensing applications in power plants. First, this dissertation shows two use cases on the use of bus-level data for induction motor health monitoring. Second, the thesis shows how bus-level measurements can be used to estimate induction-motor electrical and mechanical parameters. These parameter estimates can be provided to planners and system operators to support various regulatory requirements, including startup after the loss of off-site power at nuclear units and startup of black start units after a blackout.

Details
Author

Parikh, Prayag

Title

USE OF BUS-LEVEL ELECTRICAL SIGNALS FOR IMPROVING POWER PLANT OPERATIONS

Physical Description

1 online resource (146 pages) : PDF

Date

2020

Degree Granting Institution

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

Abstract

Power plant owners and operators are leveraging advancements in sensor technology and data science to deploy monitoring systems that can potentially improve reliability, increase flexibility, and reduce maintenance costs. In many cases, however, plants either do not have the budget for such technologies, or the return on investment is deemed to be too low. This thesis takes an alternative view and considers a potentially low-cost approach that can be implemented simply by monitoring the aggregate current flowing into a bank of downstream motors. The approach described in this thesis relies on current and voltage sensors installed at either the main bus or a motor control center in a power plant. This non-intrusive technique can be used to provide some level of information about motors and their driven equipment. Previous work has demonstrated the ability to use such measurements to track the operation of various loads; this thesis looks to move beyond the tracking application to develop specific use cases in power plants. This thesis considers two specific applications of bus-level current for sensing applications in power plants. First, this dissertation shows two use cases on the use of bus-level data for induction motor health monitoring. Second, the thesis shows how bus-level measurements can be used to estimate induction-motor electrical and mechanical parameters. These parameter estimates can be provided to planners and system operators to support various regulatory requirements, including startup after the loss of off-site power at nuclear units and startup of black start units after a blackout.

Genre

doctoral dissertations

Subjects--Topics

Electrical engineering

Degree

Ph.D.

Subject Area

Electrical Engineering

Advisor(s)

Cox, Robert

Committee Members

Zhao, Tiefu
Parkhideh, Babak
Johar, Monica

Degree Note

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2020.

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Rights Holder Information

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Identifier

Parikh_uncc_0694D_12334

Permalink

http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.13093/etd:2191