The use of a data historian to extend plant life

Power stations have always spent much effort collecting data about plant. operation. Since much of this data is paper based, it cannot easily be converted into information to help people do their jobs better. Power plants using more than a few percent of their history of production in decision processes are rare. The purpose of this paper is to describe some specific historian software, the Plant Information System, which is used to collect, compress, store, validate and present real time and historical data. The approach to data recording and storage is described as well as the problems of interfacing with the data sensor systems in the plant and the collection of this data. The influence of the dramatic advances in the power and functionality of desktop computing resources is considered, and finally some examples are given of how historian software may be used in the life management of power plants.