"MatrikonOPC products have performed flawlessly. We have had absolutely no problem with the interface system."
Duane Hill, Dairlyland Power Cooperative
Dairyland Power Cooperative is a Wisconsin-based generation and transmission cooperative (G&T) that provides the wholesale electrical requirements and other services for 25 electric distribution cooperatives and 20 municipal utilities in the Upper Midwest .
The company’s John P. Madgett Power Station, built on the Mississippi river at a cost of $179 million, has been in commercial operation since November 1979. The large single unit station has a generating capacity of 400 MW of electricity.
Dairyland’s Plan to Improve
In the fall of 2004, Dairyland began a modernization project that would increase its capacity by 24 MW and improve reliability by more than 6%. Extensive maintenance and equipment upgrades, including the installation of an Intelligent Sootblowing System and the replacement of the plant control system, were performed as the plant underwent a major overhaul.
In order for the Intelligent Sootblowing System to perform optimally, it required approximately 100 inputs of field data from the plant’s Emerson/Westinghouse Ovation DCS, updated every 5-10 seconds. To ensure efficiencies in power production, energy savings, and a reduction in equipment and maintenance costs, a reliable data link between the plant's DCS and the sootblowing computer was required.
Standards-Based Solution
Because both the sootblowing system and the DCS were OPC-compatible, Dairyland researched possible OPC solutions that would improve data reliability. After evaluating software from MatrikonOPC, they opted for their standards-based OPC solutions as the best technology to provide fast