Benchmarking efficiency parameters

Parag Yelegaonkar, Manager – Business Development, Testo India Pvt Ltd

“The life expectancy of any power plant can be extended by using the right T&M instruments effectively”

Parag Yelegaonkar, Manager – Business Development, Testo India Pvt Ltd, discusses how for the enhancement of life of any power plant equipment, and periodic checks using T&M equipments are very important.

Shift from conventional to non-conventional energy production
The Indian power sector has been under major transformation during the last four to five years where very aggressive targets are underway in the renewable energy, biogas and agriculture plant for energy production and STP plants. There is a significant growth observed year-on-year in the Indian solar and wind sector.

Driving growth of the economy
In India, geographically all the regions are expanding in energy production, considering the use of available natural resources such as high wind velocity sites, water availability and agricultural waste etc. These renewable energy sources are used for generating the required electricity for the respective states and thus, driving growth of the economy with nearly meeting the targets set by the Indian government.

Reducing diesel consumption
The Indian government has a very clear directive to electrify the railway tracks for electric locomotives and minimise use of diesel engines. This is in view of targets towards reduction in the diesel consumption of the country and also reduction in dependency on oil exporting countries, reduction in air pollution and associated cost reduction to a very large extent. We have been supplying our instruments to Indian Railways for supporting their traction lines inspection needs. Testo’s smart thermal imagers, smart electrical instruments, and portable condition monitoring instruments are being used by Indian Railways for troubleshooting of traction lines and sub-stations. This has resulted in an increase in availability and reduction in losses due to breakdowns.

Positive transformations for a sustainable society

Testo’s thermal imagers
During the installation phase, the T&M equipment are very much required and used in setting up benchmark parameters for various process tags. These benchmark parameters recorded can be used to check and confirm the safe and efficient operation of the power plants throughout its lifecycle. One can as well derive the optimum efficiency of each power plant equipment and record the measured parameter values by using T&M equipment for future use looking in to consistency in optimum operation and for all kinds of troubleshooting jobs. About the enhancement of life of any power plant equipment, it goes without saying that periodic checks are very important. A small lapse in preventive and predictive maintenance can lead to highly unsafe conditions and thus results in loss of huge revenue and system breakdown, which can be easily corrected with equipment such as Testo’s thermal imagers.

The power of early failure detection
The early detection before power plant equipment’s failure or any major deviation in the measurement value of critical electrical or any other process parameter can save from catastrophic failures of an equipment and can avoid the loss in terms of cost as well as availability. Therefore, the life expectancy of any power plant can be extended by using the right T&M instruments effectively.

The analyser
Electrical power quality analyser is a very fundamental instrument used along with true RMS digital multimeters, TRMS clamp meters for measurement of electrical voltages, current, power, and thermal imagers for detecting the hot spots in the entire electrical network.

New usages of measuring instruments
Today, we are witnessing a multiplied growth in the overall industry accompanied by the infrastructural renaissance. This has led to the growth of advanced T&M instruments that can act as a back-up for the power domain. Considering our latest and most advanced solutions for instance, our electrical instruments are very distinct and unique in their features. They are excellent instruments to inspect the electrical components and circuit failure threats. The unique clamp meters and multimeters are intuitive, can measure several parameters in a single component and even have a patent feature. We also have a range of smart probes, which equips the users with smart and easy measurement techniques using the smartphone interface.

Our latest solution to the industry is the new range of smart thermal imagers
and high-end thermal imagers with smartphone integration designed to deliver networked thermography mostly used for predictive and preventive maintenance in electric and power sector. With so many features and applications evolving for our measuring instruments, the future looks very bright and full of opportunities.