Nuclear and Power Generation

Ensuring that the plant's configuration, operational envelope, and license basis are not lost to avoid potential shutdowns is a critical information and configuration management issue addressed by Hexagon PPM solutions. CMIS (configuration management information system) and PIM (plant information model) initiatives by a majority of the world's major commercial reactor vendors, equipment suppliers, and utility customers are currently using these technologies.

The breadth of the PPM CMIS portfolio include:

• Requirements management and traceability
• Design & licensing basis
• Document management and control
• Engineering drawings/documents
• Vendor documents
• Transmittals and comments/response
• Change management
• Design change package environment
• Change impact analysis
• Data/document authentication
• Project configuration management
• Tag-asset-model relationships
• Pre-handover maintenance and corrective actions
• ITAACs, commissioning and testing
• Records management

Many issues and events can trigger the need to capture existing legacy plant data and documentation:

• Aging plant infrastructure
• Changing maintenance philosophies
• Life extension
• Regulatory compliance
• Safety concerns
• Changing plant personnel

Hexagon PPM has a strong understanding of the challenges and issues in re-establishing the plant documentation environment with the transition opportunity to move from a largely unstructured environment to a structured set of function that allow for relationships between document, tags, etc.

SmartPlant Fusion engages with the existing plant IT infrastructure to uncover the sources of plant documentation. By using “crawler” technologies, duplicates and copies will be uncovered, which begins the first step of the quality process in establishing a structured environment. If you only have paper documents, there are several strategies that can be deployed, including the opportunity to scan and apply intelligence.

The supply of power for industrial and domestic use is placing increasing pressures on electricity generation capacity, resulting in major investment in new power generation plants worldwide. Intergraph Smart 3D's multi-discipline intelligent plant modeling environment is ideally suited for the design and construction of both conventional power generation plants, as well as being used on the latest generation of nuclear reactors designed by leading nuclear reactor designers such as Candu Energy, Westinghouse, Siemens, General Electric, and Hitachi.

The plant information management system (IMS) exists as the operational IMS for the power plant from startup throughout its life cycle. This will serve as the master repository for validated plant design and licensing basis information and it will hold the technical documentation and design data necessary for planning and execution of work originating in the plant’s work management system. It may also serve as the repository for original source document formats of key technical and licensing information that will be converted into an official “record” artifact (e.g. a PDF file with electronic signature or engineer’s seal) for placement into the site’s records management system. 

SmartPlant Engineering & Schematics is proven and the perfect-fit solution for the power industry, both conventional and nuclear. Intergraph offers rule-driven design for power plants to ensure that design is in compliance with safety standards. SmartPlant Engineering & Schematics solutions are well positioned to address the steam generation, distribution, and generation side of design as well as the power substation. Rules help enforce compliance. The instrument and electrical tasks will manage the safe and efficient operations of the plant and the distribution of power to the grid. In conjunction with the physical modeling in 3D, Intergraph offers the best-of-class power generation solution on the market.

For a typical new power generation facility or extension, 10 to 15 percent of the total cost is for engineering design and 50 to 60 percent of the costs are related to material. It is obvious that surplus materials caused by ineffective materials management, even to levels of only five percent, can result in the loss of millions of dollars on an average capital project. Without continuous management and project performance, it is difficult to take the appropriate corrective action to prevent schedule delays. These delays can often be even more costly when they affect the power facility owner's ability to produce and sell power. Effectively managing these complicated business processes in an integrated environment throughout all phases of the project life cycle is vital.