Remote, in-service defect monitoring in power generation assets to recover sustainable productivity from Covid-19

由于旅行限制、社交距离和关键、训练有素的检查人员的冗余，Covid-19对资产完整性检查造成了重大限制，使许多关键设施，如发电（包括核能和可再生能源）基础设施面临更大的故障和计划外停机风险。新冠肺炎还导致商业和工业运营减少，电力需求大幅下降22%，迫使许多随机可再生能源（如风能）停止，以及新建设被取消或推迟，导致高效闭式循环燃气轮机（CCGT）工厂增加6%，以提供灵活性和电网弹性，以应对不断变化的供需需求。这增加了对老化发电资产的依赖，需要更频繁地检查以防止强制停电。根据2000年《压力系统安全条例》（PSSR）和核法规办公室（ONR），需要进行法定资产完整性检查和服务适用性检查，以证明在停机和服务间隔期间安全有效地运行，并满足气候立法，如《大型燃烧厂指令》。金属和焊缝的裂纹、缺陷和缺陷导致了77%的计划外停机，这对电网的可用性产生了重大影响，并且每天损失数百万英镑的生产力和直接成本转嫁给了消费者。由于泄漏和蒸汽损失导致的热效率损失导致英国排放量每小时增加1-2千吨二氧化碳。这些类型的基础设施通常使用超声波检测（UT）等非破坏性方法进行检查，超声波检测（UT）具有高精度，穿透力和灵敏度，使用无害，经济的硬件直接检测，大小和表征管道，反应堆容器和热交换器等关键部件中的缺陷和缺陷。当设备冷却或隔离时，NDT检查和后续维护的实施是在计划停机前后进行的。这通常涉及到现场人员数量的增加，以覆盖尽可能多的基础设施，以限制代价高昂的停机时间。Ionix将在该项目中开发一种新型超声波传感器的预生产原型，能够连续监测高达600℃的合金钢部件的缺陷和缺陷，无需停机进行测量，并允许工厂继续运行。这些新型高温缺陷传感器将连接到商用wireless - shart超声波节点，以便发电资产完整性最终用户能够远程立即访问。该项目将产生一个原型来演示关键交付成果，与服务提供商和最终用户运营商合作来验证技术，并使Ionix能够进行制造和生产。如果成功，最终的产品将为英国32个CCGT（占英国发电量的42%）和14个核电站带来更大的资产情报，从而推迟维护，并证明现有电厂更清洁、更有效地运行。

With Covid-19 causing significant limitations on asset integrity inspections due to travel restrictions, social distancing and redundancies of key, trained inspection staff, it has left many critical facilities, such as power generation (including nuclear and renewables) infrastructure at increased risk of failure and unscheduled outage. Covid has also caused a significant 22% drop in electricity demand from reduced commercial and industrial operations, forcing many stochastic renewables sources such as wind to be stopped, as well as new builds being cancelled or delayed, causing a 6% increase in efficient closed-cycle-gas-turbine (CCGT) plants to offer flexibility and grid resilience due to the changeable supply and demand requirements. This increases reliance on ageing power generation assets which require more frequent inspection to prevent forced outages.Statutory asset integrity inspection and fitness for service is required to justify safe and efficient operation between shutdowns and service intervals under the Pressure Systems Safety Regulations (PSSR) 2000, Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) and to meet climate legislation such as the Large Combustion Plant Directive.Cracks, flaws and defects in metals and welds contribute to 77% of unscheduled outages, which have significant impacts on availability to the grid as well as huge costs running in to £M's per day of lost productivity and direct costs which are passed on to the consumer. The loss in thermal efficiency due to leaks and steam loss contributes to an equivalent increase of 1-2 kTonnes of carbon dioxide per hour in UK emissions.Inspection is typically managed on these types of infrastructure using non-destructive methods such as ultrasonic testing (UT) which offers high accuracy, penetrating power and sensitivity with non-hazardous, economical hardware to directly detect, size and characterise flaws and defects within critical components such as pipes, reactor vessels and heat exchangers.The implementation of NDT inspections & subsequent maintenance is routinely undertaken around planned shutdowns when assets are cool and/or isolated. This often involves an order of magnitude increase in personnel presence on site to cover as much infrastructure as possible to limit the costly outage duration.Ionix will develop a pre-production prototype of a new ultrasonic sensor in this project, capable of the continuous monitoring of defects and flaws in alloy steel components, up to 600 C, removing the need for shutdowns to take measurements and allowing continued plant operation. These new high-temperature defect sensors will be connected to commercial WirelessHART ultrasonic nodes to be immediately accessible to power generation asset integrity end-users remotely.The project will result in a prototype to demonstrate the key deliverables, engage with service providers and end-user operators to prove the technology and enable Ionix to proceed to manufacture and productionisation. If successful, an eventual product will result in greater asset intelligence on the 32 CCGT (42% of UK electricity generation) and 14 Nuclear power plants in the UK, to defer maintenance and justify cleaner more efficient operation of existing plant.