USE OF AN EXPERT-SYSTEM SHELL TO DEVELOP A POWER-PLANT SIMULATOR FOR MONITORING AND FAULT-DIAGNOSIS

A prototype real-time knowledge based system, SPARES (Steam Plant Anal ysis using a Real-time Expert System and Simulation) has been develope d to act as an operational and diagnostic aid to operators of steam po wer plants. This system enables abnormal and inefficient operating con ditions such as high stack temperature and low boiler efficiency to be detected, analysed and diagnosed. Some special features of the system include the simulation of the power plant process at any unit loading and under a wide range of normal and abnormal conditions. SPARES is i mplemented on an engineering workstation using Gensym's G2 object orie nted real-time expert system shell modelled on a 250 MW generating uni t in Singapore. The knowledge acquired for SPARES has been encoded in the form of engineering models and objects, rules, and mathematical si mulations and formulae. Efforts have been made to make the representat ion and reasoning structures and methods as generic as possible so tha t similar systems for other power plants can be developed with minimal effort.