EDP saves in Avoided Costs & Production Losses using GE Digital APM

EDP is the world’s fourth largest wind energy production company. More than 12,000 employees support over 12 million customers across 29 markets in three continents. By 2025, EDP plans to invest Euro 24 billion to support its ongoing commitment to deliver on increasingly ambitious clean energy targets, including 100% of production coming from renewable sources by the end of this decade, and increasing solar and wind capacity by 200 percent.

Recognizing digital transformation as a critical step to meet its energy transition goals and pave the way to renewable, EDP sought out a partner that could provide expertise on their current conventional generation assets, while also assisting in the on-boarding of renewable assets. More so, EDP still needed to adhere to regulations and balance pricing in a volatile market.

In 2018 EDP set out on a five-year journey to improve asset utilization across its fleet of 38 conventional hydro and thermal power generation plants, increase availability by avoiding unplanned outages, and reduce maintenance and operational expenses. GE Digital’s cloud-based APM software, deployed on AWS, was implemented across 58 units representing nearly 8 gigawatts (GW) of installed capacity.

APM Reliability is designed to provide visibility and analysis of asset performance utilizing predictive analytic techniques to help operators reduce unplanned downtime by predicting equipment issues before they occur. Advanced modeling capabilities and data analysis, helps users investigate, collaborate, uncover, and remediate emerging issues while driving long-term performance improvements.

“We embarked on an ambitious schedule. It was a challenge, but we were committed to the success of the project,” he said. “Along with more than EDP 50 team members, we felt the commitment and support from GE Digital’s implementation team. In the end it was a true team effort between EDP and GE Digital.”

Today, EDP has 216 users of APM across 2 geographies – Portugal and Spain. The EDP Monitoring & Diagnostic Center tracks approximately 13K tags and uses digital twins to run 1,300 predictive models across 450 assets. Using predictive analytics, the team has reviewed nearly 570 cases, 25 of which were considered catches with real business impact.

The company has improved asset utilization of its conventional generation fleet, reducing the time and costs associated with unplanned maintenance time. Digital twin real-time alerts helped EDP in avoided costs by providing early warning of potential problems.

In one case, the team identified cooling water loss on a pumped-storage hydro power plant after several simulation models indicated excessive cooling flow when the unit was not running. Engineers took proactive action to optimize efficiency.

Predictive alerts were also a factor in helping the maintenance team anticipate a possible failure on a radial shock bearing. During a short, but planned, outage, the team diagnosed the problem as loose pads on the vibration shocks. Early detection and proactive repair helped mitigate a more severe problem in the future.

“Monitoring the performance of key assets helps us optimize O&M costs while improving asset utilization and efficiency of our fleet,” said Rocha. “Equally important are the savings generated by maintaining plant availability for the energy market.”

EDP is using APM as the cornerstone of its maintenance and reliability program. In a cycle of continuous improvement, the EDP M&D Center team is fine tuning the accuracy of the APM predictive models while it works to expand asset coverage with new deployments and leverage additional data to enhance its analytical models.

In addition, EDP is investigating the opportunity to supplement its APM footprint with the APM Health application to deliver a real-time view of asset health and condition status.

”EDP is recognized as an innovator and laser focused on the energy transition and the role of renewable energy sources,” said Linda Rae, General Manager, Power Generation and Oil & Gas, GE Digital.  “We're pleased to support EDP with the digital solutions designed to help them streamline processes and achieve operational excellence.”