Enhancement of NOx/SOx Central Station

Project Type: Implementation of Desired Enhancements to Existing Centralized Emissions Computer System to Provide for Data Acquisition, Rule Compliance Assessment, and Resource Deployment

Summary of Work Performed: The Central Station Computer System is currently employed by SCAQMD to automatically record daily emissions of five electric utilities and automatically transmit the data to the district to determine compliance with existing regulations. The current Central Station employs an expert system to support compliance assessment checks and alarm tracking. The purpose of the contract is to enhance the existing system by extending its capabilities to include quarterly and annual reporting compliance assessment, automatic detection of monitoring equipment problems, automatic resolution of false alarms, and automatic report generation.

Sierra focused its approach on the synergistic allocation of SCAQMD requirements into existing functions and subfunctions, so as to augment the existing architecture. Phase I required the review of current SCAQMD systems and the development of preliminary and final specifications. In Phase II, we are implementing and testing the system depicted in the figure. Phase III will consist of acceptance activities and will include the development of an Acceptance Test Plan and the conduct of the actual acceptance test. In Phase IV, we will deliver the final system, make it operational, and will provide a complete program package.