Page 40 - Boiler plant and distribution system optimization manual

Optimizing Boiler Plants Establishing the Ideal Scene 25

operational requirements and maintenance mod- 7. Loss Control Management
ifications may have all influenced efficiency. It Assign an annual loss value in dollars to in-
is wise not to make any assumptions about per- dicators of system performance. Each operating
formance. Testing and actual measurements will parameter that will have a significant impact on
tell the story about how the system is performing operating cost and energy losses should be moni-
now. tored.
Examples of possible items for loss control
3. Economic Evaluation of management are:
Energy Conservation Projects
Testing and evaluation will form a good (a) for each 10°F rise in stack temperature there
basis for judging the opportunities for saving will be a $10,000 annual loss if not corrected,
energy with the boiler or system as it operates
in “to days” environment. Payback period, re-
turn-on-investment, life cycle costing and other (b) for each 10% change in excess air fuel costs
economic evaluation methods are important mea- will go up $15,000 annually,
surements of the real worth of a project to modify
a boiler or improve a systems performance. When (c) For each 10°F the condensate returns below
faced with many competing projects, econom- the ideal temperature, $40,000 will be lost
ic evaluation will show which is best and which in a year and so on. Each plant will have its
projects won’t pay. own values.

4. Assignment of Project Priorities 8. Monitoring Results
There is usually competition for limited The use of computers and the ease of acquir-
funding to improve efficiency and save energy. ing data from plant operations provides new op-
Management must have data on which choices portunities to actually monitor performance on a
will be most beneficial. The economic evaluation full time basis rather than guessing or making as-
process makes it possible to rank various projects sumptions. Its easy to claim that equipment will
on the strength of their merits. improve performance or repairs were made prop-
erly, a monitoring system will tell the story and
5. Final Plan can be a valuable tool in managing an efficient
A wise man once said, “If you don’t have a plant.
plan, then you plan to fail.” A final plan infers In the following chapters we will go through
that all facts have been considered and a smart a step by step program for a typical facility where
and orderly course will be followed. you will be shown how to identify and deal with
the many problem areas and establish the “ideal
6. Plan Implementation scene” for your plant.
The plan has now become a working tool.
Like many other tools, plan implementation will
get the job done. Responsibility and control are
key words here. The design must be right, the
contractor must install the changes properly,
maintenance personnel can change things so they
don’t work well and operators can make improp-
er adjustments. So, someone needs to “close the
loop” by asserting responsibility and control over
the project.