Emerson installs Ovation at Spanish solar plants

Emerson Process Management has announced that, over the last year, it has been selected to install its Ovation control technology at six new solar plants in Spain.

These plants, along with an Ovation installation at an operating solar power plant, will provide 350MW of clean energy to Spain's power grid - enough electricity to power about 70,000 homes.

The current Spanish Royal Decree, which calls for 500MW of concentrating solar power (CSP), has been largely responsible for a significant increase in CSP development activity in Spain since 2008.

These solar plants, all of which utilise parabolic trough design, are owned by four separate energy companies.

One of the plants went into commercial operation in May 2009, another is currently in the start-up/commissioning phase and the remaining plants are slated to go into commercial operation in 2010.

For CSP plants, Emerson's Ovation technology can monitor and control mirrors, heat exchange, thermal oil or molten salt storage, steam turbine operation and the balance of plant processes.

Ovation can also interface to third-party equipment as needed.

Emerson's complete automation and control solution for power generators can also incorporate AMS Suite predictive maintenance software, which streamlines plant commissioning and start-up and offers opportunities for continuing operations and maintenance savings.

The Emerson solution also includes Smart Wireless technology, as well as Hart, Foundation Fieldbus, Profibus and Devicenet intelligent field devices, such as Rosemount pressure, temperature, flow and level measurement instrumentation and Fisher control valves, regulators and instrumentation.

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