A large power utility in Hawaii was looking for more frequent condition monitoring on their Balance of Plant (BOP) generation assets. They had experienced significant equipment failures that occurred between their scheduled quarterly walkaround condition monitoring routes.

In 2016, Arizona Public Service (APS) decided to enter the California ISO (CAISO) market, which allows them to sell power into the California market. One of their key assets was Sundance, a 420 MW unmanned peaker plant located 50 miles outside Phoenix. The entry into the CA energy market meant that starts tripled and run hours doubled almost immediately at the plant. They started looking for wireless Predictive Maintenance (PdM) system because the running hours were typically when no one was on site, which meant that traditional forms of PdM were not possible. Typically, a specialist would collect vibration and other condition data on equipment, but it had to be taken during operation, and it was difficult to get personnel out to the site.“Reliability was foremost on our minds,” commented Don Lamontagne, Supervisor of Equipment Reliability Engineering. “We faced huge loss of potential revenue, as well as fines if we weren’t able to generate power when it’s needed.”