Calculating the Steam Balance to Monitor & Alert Network Deviations

Situation

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Recognizing and detecting deviations in steam balance ensures they do not rise past a certain desired threshold. Optimally, that limit is near zero. But to find the deviations, engineers must calculate the steam balance for the various networks (low-, medium-, and high-pressure steam), which is the difference of the quantity of steam coming in (provider) minus the steam taken off during the process (consumer). They also must determine from that balance if too much or too little steam was coming into the process.

Problem

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Engineers at a plant that generates steam as a production resource want to know to the root cause of anomalies in its steam network. For example, anomalies that lead to an increase in steam delivery consume excessive amounts of energy and therefore increase production costs. However, the company does not have calculations for correct steam balance and must develop them before beginning a root-cause analysis.

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Solution

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• Calculate the steam balance as a function in TrendMiner’s tag builder as the steam provided minus the steam consumed, where the optimal answer is 0
• Load newly created tag from the steam balance calculation to get the amount of steam consumed in a 24- hour interval based on the aggregation of the tag
• Determine, based on the amount of steam used in a 24- hour period, if too much was delivered (>0) or too much was taken off (<0)
• Monitor the process based on these calculations and alert for deviations

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Challenges

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Process experts must eliminate several potential root causes to find the right one. Anomalies could include measurement inaccuracy, event-related peaks or valleys, or a leak in the pipe network.

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Results

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• Using TrendMiner, process experts learn when the steam network is out of balance
• They can determine if the supplier provided incorrect measurements of steam consumed during the process or if something else caused the problem
• In the future, engineers can monitor for periods of irregular steam consumption to avoid high energy costs
• The company also could save taxes on the amount of steam it produces, as it could require fewer CO2 certificates

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