ABB Modernizes Lakewood Cogen Consoles with Symphony Plus in New Jersey


The Symphony Plus control system's secure, open architecture allows operators to seamlessly transition to the latest HMI environment.



Orlando, Florida – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, today announced it has successfully commissioned a Symphony Plus control upgrade for the Lakewood Cogeneration Plant of Essential Power™ (formerly known as North America Energy Alliance) in Lakewood, New Jersey.



This announcement was made in advance of the Power-Gen International 2013 exhibition and conference in Orlando where ABB is exhibiting in booth #1101 at the Orange County Convention Center.



Lakewood Cogen is a combined cycle facility with a generating capacity of 246 MW. The combined-cycle configuration facility consists of two combustion turbines and one steam turbine. Cogen uses natural gas as its primary fuel source.  It also uses ultra-low-sulfur diesel (ULSD) fuel as a backup fuel to operate during natural gas supply disruptions.



ABB has upgraded the Lakewood control room with the field-proven human machine interface (HMI) of the Symphony Plus family, S+ Operations, tailored to the needs of power generation industries. ABB has also been in charge of engineering, installation and field services. The selected solution enables each upgraded unit to operate at high level of efficiency, reliability and availability, thereby extending equipment life and reducing maintenance and downtime. This is a key benefit of ABB's commitment to an "evolution without obsolescence" policy, which supports customers in finding a balance between the introduction of new technology and maximizing the return on asset investments already made.



Plant reliability is a key requirement for Lakewood Cogen. A smooth migration without system disturbances was critical, so the ABB team shipped critical components in advance and commissioned the new Symphony Plus HMI's in parallel while the old system continued to operate.  This ensured a smooth and painless migration to the new system. ABB's evolution strategy allowed Lakewood to upgrade the consoles without requiring unit downtime. This project evolved the existing PPB consoles with S+ Operations.



"ABB has a long history of helping our clients evolve their existing assets in a low risk manner," said Mark Taft, senior vice president and general manager for ABB Power Generation, North America. "Our Symphony Plus solution brought Lakewood Cogen's plant into a modern operating environment in the most cost-effective manner, maximizing the inherent advantages of our simple, scalable, seamless and secure Symphony Plus control system."



ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 150,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, employ about 30,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service, engineering and other major facilities.



For more information, please contact:



ABB Media Relations



Bill Rose

919-807-5743 – office

919-244-4879 – mobile

bill.rose@us.abb.com




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