MSHS successfully upgraded a natural gas power plant in the City of Paragould, Arkansas. Due to the obsolescence of the existing Wartsila WECS3000 engine control and lack of local support, MSHS was contracted to upgrade three Wartsila 34SG gas engines rated at 6350 kW each. The site usually parallels with the grid in baseload mode and power factor control. The controls communicate to each other to perform active and reactive load sharing while in island mode, supplying local city power. MSHS designed and supplied control cabinets with Woodward LECM A-bank, LECM B-bank, LECM C-ignition, Glo-Tech Hot-Valve waste gate actuator, easYgen 3500XT, and Woodward Flex500 speed controls as well as replaced the Siemens PLC S7-300s with state-of-the-art Allen Bradley Control Logix PLCs. The voltage regulator was modernized to a Basler DECS 250 providing advanced communication and logging to the monitoring and control system. The generator protection relay was upgraded to SEL 700G.
The new control system, designed, installed, and commissioned by MSHS, provides automatic start sequence, synchronization, active/ reactive load control, engine safeties, auxiliary controls, automatic cylinder temperature balance, and comprehensive control and monitoring systems, including five thin-client HMIs and two HMI servers running distributed network FactoryTalk SCADA software that improved the power plant’s availability with more reliable energy production and easier and faster remote support.
The new control system provides many more tools for engine testing and calibration: PCC and MCC SOGAV actuation, LECM Coil/Spark Plug test, waste-gate actuator stroke test, and manual cylinder temperature balancing. These tools provide the plant operations teams with far superior interrogation and diagnostic tools to keep the facility running at optimum performance.