Fleet Management

KEMA's fleet management services can help you in balancing the operation of your assets and trading

In practice the trading department might make decisions about the operation of assets based on detailed cost information from the generation department. The generation department makes decisions about generator dispatch based on information or instructions from the trading department. The trading department requests improved performance to gain a stronger competitive edge. However, the generation department must consider the consequences of performance on plant condition and operational costs.

To effectively manage your generation assets you must continually evaluate up-selling or purchasing of electricity against decisions on performance versus condition based on:

• dispatch of generators

• costs of generation.

Optimize the dispatch of your generation portfolio
The dispatch of generators involves complex relations. Software models must be used to quantify the marginal costs of the separate generating units and to optimize the dispatch of the generation portfolio under different circumstances.

The same software models are also needed for long-term decision calculations that ensure a suitable timeframe to address contracts, maintenance and investment issues. These long-term calculations can be used to examine the effect of generation scenarios on maintenance costs. This allows the dispatch model to provide direct information on how to dispatch each generator.

Costs of generation
There are four primary costs associated with generation: capital costs, O&M costs, fuels costs and generating capacity. Each of these costs plays a key role in the effective management of your power generation assets.

Capital costs are related primarily to long-term decisions about investments, rehabilitation, upgrading and life extension. Decisions about the dispatch of existing generators need to be based on the consideration of marginal costs. You need to be able to perform so-called "what if" analyses to determine the effects on trading.

O&M costs form an integral part of your whole business strategy. O&M decisions are critical for your generation costs. Your dispatch decisions are the key to the O&M aspect of power generation asset management. Effective asset management requires obtaining the correct data and data streams to calculate the right cost prize.

Fuel costs are a primary factor in the overall cost of generation. The optimum dispatch of generating units at times can be very sensitive to the gas-coal price difference. An integrated risk assessment of fuel prices and electricity prices is necessary to quantify the effect of market developments. Decisions to use a certain fuel quality may cause environmental and technical restrictions, affect maintenance costs and the remaining lifetime of the unit, and affect future fuel costs due to changes in availability.

The generation capacity of a plant also depends on a number of external influences such as ambient conditions, cooling water temperature, availability and emission restrictions.
To optimize your generation capacity, KEMA provides plant performance models to calculate trading forecasts relative to available power and fuel consumption.