Ivanpah (www.ivanpahsolar.com) is owned by NRG Energy (www.nrgenergy.com/), Google (www.google.org) and Brightsource Energy (http://www.brightsourceenergy.com/) and is the world's largest solar thermal power plant with over 3,500 acres of California's Mojave Desert. Ivanpah will be running a 392-megawatt solar power facility, using mirrors (heliostats) to focus sunlight on solar receivers atop power towers. Solar-generated power from all three plants will produce clean, reliable energy to more than 140,000 California homes. Using electricity generated at Ivanpah means displacing more than 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) each year and decreasing water use by 95% when compared with wet-cooled solar plants. To keep more than 700 pieces of rotating equipment online and functional, they use Azima DLI’s Watchman Analysis Program (www.azimadli.com).
The Azima DLI Watchman Analysis Program will be fully integrated as soon as the plant reaches commercial operation. In most scenarios, plants take preventative measures with PdM technologies when experiencing machine failure and downtime. Ivanpah is currently utilizing Azima DLI technology in acceptance testing of rotating equipment during the project’s commissioning phase. Ivanpah currently has an internal maintenance team augmented with the Watchmen Analysis Program. This team has been trained on using Trio data collectors and in 2013 will be taking eLearning Modules to ensure understanding and interpretation of vibration analysis. Azima DLI analysts will also make quarterly visits to assess more than 700 machines being monitored within the Watchman Analysis Program.