Given the background of double-digit per annum growth in electricity demand, the construction of China’s first ultra-supercritical power plant is a vital project.

Located in Yuhuan City in China’s Zhejiang Province, the HuaNeng Yuhuan Power Plant is China’s first 1000 megawatt-per-unit facility, and the largest of its kind – when completed, its four units will have a 4000-megawatt capacity. Yuhuan is also the first plant to use ultra-supercritical technology, which increases the efficiency of clean, coal-based electricity generation from 43percent to 45percent.

Owner/operator HuaNeng Power International Inc is building the plant in two phases. The first two units are expected to become operational during 2007 and the second two in 2008. Fifteen billion renminbi (RMB) (US$1.8billion) is being invested in the project.
East China Electric Power Design Institute (ECEPDI) is responsible for engineering the Yuhuan facility. Founded in 1953 and headquartered in Shanghai, ECEPDI provides comprehensive engineering, consulting, project management and contracting services.

The institute works under China Electric Power Engineering Consulting Group Corp and employs more than 1000 people. In China, ECEPDI has engineered 144 power plants with a total combined capacity of more than 44000 megawatts. It has also contributed its engineering expertise to
24 overseas projects.

Design initiative

ECEPDI formed an alliance last year with Intergraph’s Process, Power & Marine division to develop a standard system for electric power generation facility engineering and design, throughout China.

Supporting the drive to increase China’s generating capacity in line with rapid economic development, the system integrates Intergraph’s established plant design, instrumentation and P&ID engineering tools through the company’s SmartPlant Foundation workflow and information management software.

“ECEPDI recognises this is more of an integration, information and workflow management challenge than an engineering tool problem,” says ECEPDI Vice President Zheng Shao qin. “We are working with Intergraph because of its expertise and advanced technology leadership. Intergraph has a long history of quality support and training services in China and a substantial investment in personnel and facilities.”

“Coupled with accelerated construction programs, ECEPDI’s initiative represents a turning point for the electric power generation industry in China,” says Kevin Stanley, senior vice president, Americas & Asia for Intergraph Process, Power & Marine. “The institute’s enterprise integration platform promises to provide a comprehensive engineering basis for China’s plans to design and build hundreds of nuclear, gas and coal-fired electric power plants to meet the rising electricity demands of the country’s continuing economic boom.”

At Yuhuan, ECEPDI has used a combination of Intergraph software tools for piping and instrumentation, plant design and visualisation to design the areas of the plant, including its steam facility and thermodynamic system.

For the institute, Yuhuan represents a breakthrough in power plant design: technology-driven benefits to date include the bi-directional transfer of drawings, as well as a high consistency between plant design drawings and reports.

Thanks to the intelligence of the software ECEPDI no longer needs to produce CAD drawings for every phase: it can simply create a version for each phase, as well as making different views of the data available to the various engineering disciplines.

ECEPDI engineers have used intelligent plant design and review software to generate about 1000 plant drawings and to view the plant, including early clash detection. ECEPDI engineers say they can now view the Yuhuan layout quickly and easily. This facility also allows the owner/operator to check the model.

“By using intelligent tools and technologies, the HuaNeng Yuhuan project is setting a new engineering design standard for China’s power industry, centred on the optimal use of plant information,” Stanley says. “The effect is faster, more productive design and build, followed by best-in-class electronic handover and more efficient, cost-effective operations and maintenance.”

For more information, visit http://www.ecepdi.com or www.intergraph.com