—
Mark Gallant, Director, Industry MarketPower Industry,
Aspen Tech
Aspen Tech is a leading supplier of software that optimizes process manufacturing for energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering and construction, oil & gas and
other industries that manufacture and produce products from
a chemical process. In an exclusive interaction with Electrical
Monitor,
Mark Gallant talks about how Aspen Tech can help
India improve efficiency of its power plants and significantly
reduce carbon footprint. Gallant feels that India's heavy
reliance on coal-fired power units must be weighed against
cleaner options. An interview by
Venugopal Pillai.
Please tell us in some detail on how AspenTech can help in bringing about efficiency
in the operations of power plants. Also tell us about the positive impact of this
efficiency on reduction in GHG emissions.
Increased energy efficiency is a strong movement, that I see almost universally as
I travel around the globe. Right from initial plant designs, energy optimization is
now part of global best-practices in engineering. Every solution within AspenTech's
suite supports that goal. Today's newest plants operate at an efficiency level way
above what was previously attainable. With existing assets, today's technology
offers optimization solutions, which ot available when many process and power
plants were originally designed. Adding optimization solutions to existing units not
only drives immediate efficiency benefits, but is typically installed with minimal to
no interruptions, without the need to wait for a shutdown. Every percentage
improvement in efficiency reduces fuel consumption.
Every reduction in fuel consumed results in a direct drop in GHG and other
emissions. Some of our customers that operate very large captive power plants for
their industrial complexes, have reported improvements of 3-7 per cent and more in
energy cost reductions. Merchant units, while they typically don't have the same
degrees of freedom, can still achieve very significant benefits. Those companies
that seize these opportunities certainly increase their competitiveness, but also
insure sustainability.
India is set to annually add 15,000 mw of new power generation capacity that would
predominantly come from coal-fired power plants that are normally considered
"non-green". In this context, how do you see AspenTech's role in helping coal-based
power plants to mitigate their carbon footprint?
AspenTech plays a key role in three key areas to mitigate the carbon footprint of coal-fired power plants-Optimum Design; Operations and
Control; and Fleet Management and Optimization.
Optimum Design: Nearly every top Engineering, Procurement
and Construction (EPC) company uses AspenTech's Engineering
suite to design the most advanced power plants, from coal
gasification to carbon capture and sequestration (CCS)
systems. Many owner / operators are acquiring these tools to
further provide their engineering teams with the same
advanced technologies.
Operations and Control: AspenTech's real-time data
historian, InfoPlus.21 is one of the leading data historians for
monitoring power plants, as well as other process plants
around the globe from refineries and chemical plants, to steel
mills and power plants. It collects millions of pieces of
information in real-time, that engineers and operators can use
for a host of purposes from condition and output monitoring,
centralized control and dispatch, advance equipment trouble
shooting, to predictive maintenance and event diagnosis.
Centralized fleet monitoring centres offer fleet operators a way
to quickly capture and disseminate best practices, quickly
resolve disturbances and events, all reducing emissions.
Additionally, significant benefits can be obtained with Advanced
Process Control (APC).
APC is a technology that is simply a 'must have' in many
industries today. For example, no one would build a chemical
plant or refinery without it today. While this technology is
proven and certainly considered mature, in the power industry it
is an emerging trend. We first observed that industrial power
(captive power) plants first adopted this technology well over 10
years ago, but merchant power plants did not have the
complexities they do today, so did not previously adopt it. With
today's advanced coal-fired power plants and all their emissions
systems, they are looking a lot more like a chemical plant. APC
has further advantages of providing a plant 'auto-pilot' often
dramatically reducing operator set point changes, as it handles
disturbance automatically, long before any trip condition can
manifest. For all these reasons, at the recent PowerGen India
conference in Delhi, we observed extremely high interest in APC
optimization solutions for both new plants, and of course
existing units.
Fleet Management and Optimization: Today's power
generation fleets are simply getting much more complex. Not
just in the variety of generating types, but also in their
management and optimization. Wind and solar, which are
renewable energy sources, while highly desirable, are often
non-dispatched and intermittent in nature. The resulting grid
intermittency is just one additional complexity to deal with. As
the fleet in India expands, with different constraints like startup
and cycling, fuel costs and now emissions regulations and
permit constraints - fleet optimization is at a level of complexity
never seen before. With the exponentially increase in the
number of variables to consider, traditional optimization
techniques deliver sub-optimal results, limited simulation and
'what-if' modeling. Starting up a unit too early will result in
wasted fuel and generate more emissions, too late and you not
only lose revenue, but could drive a negative reserve and
penalties. AspenTech's Power industry customers use our
advanced optimization solutions to optimize fleets of over 230
units, generating 45,000Mw of power. In summary, the greater
the complexity, the more likely you are running below optimal
performance. Those that can seize the opportunities will be the
ones to drive the greatest returns and reduce their emissions in
the process.
Do you think AspenTech can reach out to existing governmentowned
power stations and help them improve their efficiency?
AspenTech's partner Helium Consulting is now working with
several government-owned power stations on their
efficiencies. As you noted, many of these units are quite
mature and today's technology and solutions just did not
exist when those units were constructed. Adding today's
optimization technology to those plants, assuming they have
or acquire some basic digital instrumentation and control,
can be accomplished with most often no or little interruption
in service, providing immediate and very tangible benefits.
These older plants are also now operating outside of their
initial design envelopes, given today's grid demands and
complexities. Adding today's advanced optimization
solutions typically will add a new level of flexibility, reliability
and performance previously unattainable to these mature
units, often also extending the service life of the unit.
Apart from power, which are the other process-based
industries that AspenTech caters to? In India, which of these
would significantly drive AspenTech's business?
AspenTech has just celebrated 30 years as a leading supplier
of software that optimizes process manufacturing-for
energy, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering and
construction, power & utilities, metals, mining and minerals, food and beverage and other industries that manufacture
and produce products from a chemical process. With
integrated aspenONE solutions, process manufacturers can
implement best practices for optimizing their engineering,
manufacturing and supply chain operations. As a result,
AspenTech customers are better able to increase capacity,
improve margins, reduce costs and become more energy
efficient. Our growth in these industries is closely matched
to the industries growth and expansions.
Do you think owners of process-based industries are proactive
to adopt solutions to help make their manufacturing process
more efficient and less polluting?
Energy management and efficiency is not just a topic we hear in
India, but a global one throughout our customer base. Our
customers have reported not just sustainable and public
relations benefits from 'going green,' but clear financial and
business benefits. For example, reducing energy intensity for
an industrial process plant saves direct energy costs and
reduces GHG, but may allow the process plant to continue
operating when energy supply is extremely tight instead of
having to shut down during a period of peak power demand on
the grid. We see this in some areas of Japan today after their
disaster, and this has been the case in some regions of India for
some time. Supported by political mandates and/or subsidies,
the value proposition for 'green' power generation is also
changing. Dirtier plants are being replaced by newer, highly
efficient, clean plants. Other plants are receiving substantial
retrofits, based on these new economics.
In a general sense, will it be the private sector or the public
sector that would dominate AspenTech's business in India?
AspenTech has been in India for many years supporting both the
private and public sectors. Our solutions offer significant
benefits for either segment, acknowledging that the drivers and
motivations are different between them. For-profit companies
in general tend to be earlier adopters of new technology
solutions, like APC or energy management for instance. In the
public sector, public funded initiatives offer incentives and
funding to deploy innovative and emerging solutions that may
not otherwise be adapted without that support.
Apart from India, which other emerging economies do you cater
to? How do you see the demand for your services in India vis-àvis
the others?
AspenTech is a global company with offices in many countries
around the world. While we have had offices in many emerging
regions for many years, we continue to expand our teams in
these areas to match the increased demand. Those areas
include India, the Middle East, Latin and South America and in
Russia for instance. While some of the demands and interest in
technology solutions are similar, each region has its unique and
individual support requirements. This is based on it level of
maturity of the region's various industries, its natural resource
base, growth rates and culture for instance.
India recently unveiled its target of attaining 20,000 mw of
nuclear power capacity by 2020. In the wake of the unfortunate
natural disaster in Japan and its deterring impact on the
country's atomic power stations, how do you see the future for
nuke plants in general, and in India, in particular?
The ramifications of the tragedy in Japan and resulting nuclear
disaster there continue to unfold every week. The impact of
which is being felt around the globe and is certainly a top topic
of discussion at many of the power conferences I've attended in
the last couple of months. The fact remains that nuclear power
has been and will continue to be a part of our global power
generation fleet. Even if desired, replacing that generation
capacity will take time. That said it is clear that the tragedy in
Japan has certainly changed the risk/benefit/cost equation for
nuclear plants. This has resulted in new nuclear plant projects
around the globe being cancelled; we see it in the news
regularly. Many of those projects were marginally viable before
the current crisis, and with today's risk/benefit equation, they
just no longer were financially viable. Replacing that capacity
with other sources will take time. Because most nuclear plants
are considered as 'base-load' units, many generation
companies have turned back to large coal or thermal units.
Many of our customers have reported a renewed interest in
carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) projects. While this
can be a costly process, over time it will come down and it is one
solution that does offer a cleaner solution for all fossil fuel
generation sources.
India's huge appetite and need for
additional power generation capacity is
different than say in Europe, where the supply
and demand are much closer matched. So
how Germany addresses its nuclear power
plants is going to be very different than how
India addresses the same issue. I am a
strong advocate that every state, country and
region needs to have a balanced portfolio of
generation types to insure a predictable and
reliable source of energy. An increased
variety of generation sources balances a
myriad series of risks and insures stability.
Each generation type is subject to supply and
price variability. India's very high reliance on
coal units today needs to be assessed against
the nuclear option, as well as against
renewable energy sources.
Please discuss your existing business set-up in India, and share
with us AspenTech's growth plan for the subcontinent.
As noted, AspenTech is leading supplier of software that
optimizes process manufacturing-for energy, chemicals,
pharmaceuticals, engineering and
construction, power & utilities and other
industries that manufacture and produce
products from a process. Given the depth
and breadth of the industries we support, we
employ a combination of direct sales and
services, as well as an extensive partner
network. In India for example, our partner
Helium Consulting is an extremely
knowledgeable partner with years of
experience with our solutions that focuses
on the power and utility, metals and mining
and consumer products process industries.
Their local presence combined with their
technical knowledge of our products is hard
to surpass. In other industries like oil & gas
and chemicals, AspenTech services those
industries directly from our local offices in
Pune. With India's dramatic growth rates in
these industries, we see a matched demand for our solutions.
As the industries mature and the business complexities
increase, we look forward to offering business solutions to
solve them and drive tremendous value for our customers.