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Custom Software Solutions

Let our experience work for you! Talk to us about your process and we can create a solution that meets your needs and your budget!

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Our Comprehensive Offerings: Unlocking a Range of Solutions for Your Needs

What We Offer

Analysis and Design
ECG consults with your business to advise on the most efficient way to create or enhance an application. We collaborate with you to identify requirements, create and enhance applications and design the best solution.

Programming
With a versatile software development team skilled in a wide variety of programming technologies, we offer proven results that meet your specifications delivered in a product that you can depend on.

Interface
We interface with existing applications and databases to provide a unified solution that leverages the value of current infrastructure.

Maintenance
We enhance functionality, boost performance, and increase the efficiency of your existing systems. Maintenance agreements for long-term support are also available.

Signature on Paper

Application Development

ECG offers a unique blend of power plant engineering knowledge and over 31 years of experience working with customers to develop one-of-a-kind solutions. As Aveva® PI System experts, and Microsoft Silver Certified Partners, our developers meet your needs with customized solutions. Whether designing new systems or interfacing with existing systems, ECG will leverage the value of your process data.

  • Provide real, measurable improvements in key processes and reduce costs
  • Create innovative solutions to complex problems unique to your facility
  • Offer fast and flexible product delivery
  • Decades of power industry experience
  • 31+ years experience using Microsoft technologies
  • Microsoft Certified Partners

Aveva PI Integration

ECG’s extensive experience with the Aveva PI System puts us in a unique position to assist others in proper deployment of the many great products they have to offer. We provide a variety of installation and implementation services for the Aveva PI System platform that include:

  • Site Survey Planning
  • Best-Practice Security Implementation
  • PI System Installation
  • Tag, Interface, and PI-AF Configuration
  • Digitized Dashboards with ProcessBook and DataLink
  • Cloud-Based Information Sharing
  • Performance Optimization
  • User and Administrator Training

Custom Software Case Studies

Constraint Tracking System

Challenge
Every day the generating units of many major utilities are bid into the real-time and day-ahead markets. To avoid substantial penalties, electric companies must accurately bid the Megawatt generation of each of their units. In the past the daily Megawatt availability was determined via conference calls and manual reporting involving up to 250 individuals per morning. This method was time consuming, prone to error, and potentially very costly.

Solution
ECG worked closely with the utility to define their process and to translate it to an application that could digitally quantify and store the past, present, and future Megawatt availability of the entire fleet of power generation facilities. ECG created a full featured website where plant personnel could define and schedule constraints and get immediate feedback through an integrated approval process. This resulted in more reliable bids into the power markets. In turn, all of the information would be instantly available to Supervisors and Management and presented in a manner in which it could be most effectively used.

Outcome
Just a short time after the pilot project was put into production the Constraint Tracking System was the winner or the prestigious Alex Dow award at DTE Energy® for improved operations. Says Gregory J. Ostrowski, a Generation Optimization Specialist with DTE Energy: “If we attribute a reduction in the time people spend on the morning meeting to efficiency improvements due to the Constraint Tracking System, then the savings could be estimated as follows”

Alex Dow Award
Lock Out Tag Out

Protection Tagging System

Challenge
Safety at coal fired powerplants is of the utmost importance. When work is being performed there must be assurances that anyone working in close contact with equipment is not in danger from the unexpected energizing, start-up, or release of stored energy. In days past this was all done manually with hand filled out forms which was slow, tedious and wrought with potential errors.

Solution
With the aid of plant staff, ECG created a web based tag out application that interfaced with red tag printers and a 3rd party work order storage system. The result was an easily accessible interface for tracking all maintenance activities requiring tagouts as well as standard non red tag maintenance. The Protection Tagging application keeps an electronic paper trail of all maintenance activity including the signing on and off of work orders by plant personnel, and the printing and hanging of lock out tags used to maintain OSHA safety standards.

Outcome
The resulting system has been in operation at 7 power plants of a major Northeast utility for the last 13 years. With over 1450+ users fleet wide the Protection Tagging system is responsible for more than 55,329 red tags hung per year and has tracked more than 699,727 electronic signatures yearly. The system also boasts a 99.95% uptime using high availability architecture and is supported by ECG 24/7.

Past Solutions

  • SIX SIGMA 4-Block Reporting Six Sigma 4-Block methodology is used to report on Mill Availability, Equal Availability Factor, Efficiency, Heat rate, and Forced/Planned Outages.
  • Heat Rate Monitoring To identify improvements in heat rate and reduce costs, custom calculations and analysis for fossil-fired plants including fleet wide and unit-specific performance are provided. Calculations include actual heat rate, expected heat rate, heat rate loss, turbine efficiencies, turbine generator losses, condenser performance, boiler accountable losses, air heater trends, predicted heat rate, and a variety of other factors.
  • NOx Reporting In order to monitor the performance and cost of NOx output throughout a fleet in terms of generation load, ECG designed a NOx web reporting application. With this, users quickly view and react to trends in Expected Cost Versus Actual NOx Costs, Estimated Savings, Actual Generation Above Estimated Cost, and Expected Versus Actual NOx emissions.

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