Emerson's Digitalization
1. New Digital Transformation Business
Emerson announced about a new organization it had established that focused on digital transformation technologies and programs on 23 September 2019. The new digital transformation business combines critical resources for assisting manufacturers create and execute pragmatic digital transformation strategies that improve performance.
Emerson invested more than $650 million into the business combining current expertise in data analytics and management, smart sensor technologies, project execution, and consulting, all of which make up Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem. The new organization will assist clients to have a clear digital transformation vision and confidently execute strategies that will enable them realize their goals.
Emerson’s new digital transformation business combines current and new company resources, such as operational certainty consulting, operational analytics, industry solutions, pervasive sensing, and project management.
When it comes to operational certainty consulting, the new business will offer enterprise and facility-level road map strategies and implementation to enhance production, safety, energy utilization, and reliability.
In operational analytics, the new organization will provide clients with “the industry’s most comprehensive portfolio of predictive diagnostics and advanced analytics, providing insights on health and performance of operational assets.”
The digital transformation business will also offer industry solutions where deep, industry-specific expertise will be available to meet industry benchmarks.
Through pervasive sensing, the organization will offer the largest portfolio in the industry in terms of smart, user-friendly, connected devices.
Also, the project management aspect of the business will offer the best practices, resources, and tools to confidently implement a digital transformation project.
2. inmation Software Investment
On 6 August 2020, Emerson announced that it invested in inmation Software, which would “enhance Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem with advanced data management capability to help span the IT/OT needs of customers.” The equity investment deepens the company’s data integration and management capabilities, assisting clients in hybrid, discrete, and process industries improve their digital transformation programs to meet their Top Quartile performance goals.
The investment will improve data visibility and give the company actionable, unified information that will speed up decision-making and improve operations.
Together with inmation Software’s platform, Emerson’s operation technology expertise and Plantweb digital ecosystem will improve real-time information management in IT systems, process control systems, and operations.
inmation will integrate global operational data into the Plantweb digital ecosystem to form an operational technology data lake that is used for business analytics and intelligence.
The investment will complement the company’s efforts of developing an innovative software platform that has features, such as workflow management, augmented reality, data aggregation, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. With the expertise of Emerson and inmation Software, customers will achieve measurable returns on their digital transformation initiatives.
Emerson's Consulting and Partnerships
1. Emerson and MHPS Partnership
Emerson and Mitsubishi Hitachi Power Systems Americans (MHPS) announced on 3 August 2020 that they were collaborating to develop digital technologies, programs, and services to help utility clients achieve operational excellence in North America. The companies will partner on digital solutions to improve reliability and performance, enable AI-driven and predictive maintenance strategies, “and automate operational decision making.”
The collaboration will leverage on MHPS and Emerson’s expertise in optimizing the reliability and performance of power plants working with MHPS steam or gas turbines. Also, the two companies will explore other advanced technologies, such as AI-driven predictive maintenance, automated workflows, pattern recognition, digital twin, remote monitoring, analytics, process and equipment diagnostics and model, advanced sensing, and advanced control.
“Emerson’s Ovation automation technologies, software and solutions portfolio for power generation is highly regarded in the industry, controlling thousands of plants across the global.” It has an embedded digital twin that allows power plants to find and implement new operating efficiencies, train workers, decrease unscheduled maintenance, and improve safety.
On the other hand, MHPS is a top global provider when it comes to energy storage and power generation solutions. The company’s industry-known solution, MHPS-TOMONI, offers actionable knowledge and real-time adaptive control to improve reliability and optimize plant performance.
One of the main goals of the partnership is to “build and deploy the next generation of total plant simulation for the Intermountain Power Plant Renewal project.” The collaboration will leverage MHPS’s steam turbines and high-fidelity gas turbine models and Emerson’s digital twin technology.
The simulation solution will receive data and function simultaneously with other enterprise platforms and the plant’s integrated control systems to support commission and training.
2. Emerson and San Jacinto College Partnership
Emerson entered into a partnership with San Jacinto College to develop, equip, and offer training tools for the institution’s new Center for Petrochemical, Energy, and Technology (CPET). The center is aimed at empowering all students with the training and skills required to support careers in the ever-changing petrochemical and refining industries. The facility will be a 151,000 square-foot complex and will be located along the Texas Gulf Coast.
The Texas Gulf Coast Community College Petrochemical Initiative has revealed that approximately 40% of the current workers in the petrochemical and refining industries will be replaced within the next 10 years due to retirements. Therefore, the CPET contributes to the college’s capabilities of developing and training students who would like careers in the petrochemical manufacturing fields.
The CPET is equipped and supported by Impact Partner Puffer-Sweiven and Emerson. It has an 8,000-square-foot exterior glycol process unit for helping incumbent workers and students gain troubleshooting skills. Other features include labs and control room with multiple DeltaV distributed control systems and Mimic simulation software, among others.
Emerson’s Performance Learning Platform (PLP) is also included in the CPET. PLPs are mini-plants that have collaboration capabilities and offer hands-on training to upskill students on the latest automation technologies.
Process Automation
1. Emerson, Ghent University, and University College Ghent
On 10 February 2020, Emerson announced that it was partnering with the University College Ghent (HOGENT) and Ghent University (UGent) in Belgium to modernize and automate a pilot brewery and provide support services and equipment.
The project expands Emerson’s initiative to partner with higher education institutions and shows its commitment to the two schools to develop a globally competitive craft brewing industry in Belgium. The stakeholders and students in the country will have access to fermentation sciences expertise and advanced automation technologies.
Emerson is focused on contributing towards training the digital workforce by advancing diversity, innovation, and education in the brewing industry.
Upon its completion, the center will “feature elements of Emerson’s Plantweb digital ecosystem portfolio of industrial Internet of Things (IIOT) technologies used in brewing automation.” The elements include a DeltaV distributed control system, Rosemount wireless measurement technology, analytics software, remote diagnostics, and Fisher control valves.
HOGENT and UGent are among the over 350 institutions globally including technical community colleges and universities that Emerson has collaborated with to deal with the skills gap in digital automation technologies.
2. Emerson and Total E&P Danmark
Emerson was contracted by Total E&P Danmark A/S to offer wellhead pressure monitoring technology to improve safety during a multi-year redevelopment project and prolong the life of Denmark’s largest gas field.
The gas field, also known as the Tyra field, located in the North Sea has been in use for over 30 years and is currently experiencing seabed subsidence. The seabed went down by over five meters since production began, which reduced the airgap between the bottom of the platforms and the sea level.
To ensure that the gas field remains in production, Total E&P Danmark is changing the current wellhead platforms with elevated topsides. Emerson is tasked with monitoring wellhead casing pressures to ensure safety.
Emerson will supply over 200 Rosemount wireless pressure transmitters, which will be placed on the four riser platforms. Data from the devices will be transmitted to two standalone Emerson DeltaV PK Controllers that will be placed in the offshore accommodation platforms.
Emerson’s wireless technology has been used in offshore applications globally, helping enhance safety and operations. Offering a solution that has real-time measurement will help Total respond and monitor to pressure changes effectively.
Customer Success Stories
1. Longview Power Plant
Longview Power is based in Maidsville West Virginia. It is a “700 megawatt coal-fired thermal power plant equipped with a Foster-Wheeler advanced supercritical Benson-design boiler, Foster-Wheeler air quality control system and Siemens steam turbine.”
Since its establishment in 2011, the power plant had experienced several operational challenges that affected its capability of supplying power reliably to the grid. After its first two years of operations, Emerson was tasked with enhancing operational efficiency, reducing forced outages, improving capacity factor, and increasing availability and reliability.
Emerson completed a fast-track controls replacement project that was comprehensive, which helped Longview meet grid capacity commitments and increase plant reliability. Since Emerson was the main automation contractor, the company streamlined control strategies and provided integrated automation architecture that resulted in a more reliable and efficient plant operation.
As a result of the solutions offered by Emerson, online availability increased from 73-78% to over 98%. In addition, the capacity factor improved from 68% to more than 98%.
Furthermore, there were reduced gas emissions as the plant currently produces 15% lower CO2 compared to the average coal-fired power plant in the United States.
Also, the plant gained 55,000 MW hours and managed to save $3 million annually through the avoidance of forced outages.
2. Exelon Generation
Exelon Generation is a Westport 5 Generation Station based in Baltimore, Maryland. It is a “116-MW simple-cycle peaking unit equipped with a Pratt & Whitney-Worthington Hi-Cap turbine consisting of eight Pratt & Whitney high-capacity aircraft GG4-7 gas generators coupled with four Worthington Model ER-224 double-flow expander turbines.”
Besides peak load service, the regional transmission organization depends on Westport 5 to offer emergency blackstart functionality in Baltimore. Blackstart units can self-start and work with the grid without an external AC power source, which makes them important in system restoration.
Exelon Generation launched a multi-million dollar project for updating the plant’s aging control system among others. A key challenge that was experienced with the unit’s unique configuration was that if any pair of turbines was removed offline, the remaining turbines continued operating and generating power, therefore, maintaining load on the generator.
Emerson’s Ovation technology was selected for the $30 million project to replace the balance-of-plant controls and outdated turbine. Emerson finished the project in six months and ensured that there was a 50% improvement when it came to starting reliability.
Even more, there was 80-90% improvement when it came to reaching full load. Also, tighter exhaust temperature controls were implemented, which helped to extend equipment life and ensure safer unit operation.
3. Mitsui Phenol
Mitsui Phenol is a phenol production company based in Singapore. The facility was manually monitoring 79 steam traps out of which 20 were critical. These assets had a high risk of failing or performing sub-par since they were monitored every six months, which presented a challenge.
Operators had to manually record ultrasonic readings from every steam trap and take the data to the control room for analysis. The manual method for collecting data was likely to have human errors and expose workers to risks while at the processing plant. Other assets were impossible to physically reach because of their high ambient temperature condition, which made it difficult for workers to collect data.
Emerson installed its Rosemount 708 Wireless Acoustic Transmitters, which collected temperature and ultrasonic measurements for all stream taps and sent them every minute to the Plantweb Insight software. There was no longer a need for manual data collection and human errors were eliminated.
Emerson used WirelessHART devices, which led to reduced project setup costs and more savings for expansion projects. In addition, Plantweb Insight analysis helped the management to make informed, timely decisions that enabled the plant to reduce yearly emissions.
Moreover, Plantweb Insight is scalable, which enabled the monitoring of multiple assets, therefore, getting rid of traditional system integration changes.