English 
Spanish 
3 min read
The company Cepel launched a system for monitoring the remaining useful life of the turbines producing the resource in the thermoelectric energy market. Soma-Turbodiag will guarantee more control in the undertakings, reducing logistical costs.
Investments in new technologies to reduce costs and optimize energy production in the Brazilian market are increasing. The company Cepel has new equipment that promises to change course of thermoelectric power generation in Brazil. This is Soma-Turbodiag, a piece of equipment that monitors the remaining useful life of the turbines that generate the resource, allowing greater control over expenses and necessary maintenance stops in these systems.
Cepel launches Soma-Turbodiag to reduce costs and optimize maintenance of thermoelectric energy production turbines in Brazil
Cepel is launching a state-of-the-art monitoring system for the prognosis of the useful life of thermoelectric energy production turbines in the Brazilian market.
This is a system that unites the company's main experiences in recent years in the field of structural integrity assessment, monitoring, diagnosis and prognosis of remaining life in thermoelectric plants.
- Portugal SHOCKS the world: How the country is powering its energy almost entirely with renewable energy and inspiring the future
- Ronma Solar: Visionary Leader in the Global Solar Energy Landscape in 2024
- Petrobras revolutionizes the future by choosing São Paulo as the epicenter of green hydrogen and sugarcane biomass
- Automaker launches 500 hp electric pickup truck with solar charging to end Tesla and BYD's reign!
In addition, the knowledge of software development acquired with the Soma – System Oriented to Monitoring Assets project was also incorporated in the creation of Soma-Turbodiag.
The system includes a series of unprecedented calculations for monitoring the useful life of thermoelectric energy turbines, linked to the Soma system, and a patent application was registered at the National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI), with the patent already granted.
The methods were developed to estimate the total cumulative damage due to creep and fatigue and to estimate the remaining life of critical components of turbines in thermoelectric power plants, such as the high-pressure rotor of a steam turbine.
Researchers Carlos Frederico Trotta Matt and Heloisa Cunha Furtado, from the Bruno Reis Cardoso Center, are the great minds responsible for the development of Cepel's project for the national thermoelectric energy market.
They were completed around 2014 at the research center, but still needed to be incorporated into a technological system that would contribute to monitoring.
Thus, Cepel used Soma technology to create the Soma-Turbodiag final product, which is already in the initial phase of incorporation in the national market.
Reduction of logistical costs and minimization of unexpected stoppages in thermoelectric energy production are some of the benefits of Soma-Turbodiag
Cepel's main objective with Soma-Turbodiag is to allow plant controllers to monitor in real time the remaining useful life and the total damage accumulated in the structures.
This is because this information ensures more assertive decision-making both in the plant administration and in the engineers responsible for maintenance shutdowns in the systems.
This benefit attracted the attention of several companies. Currently, Cepel's main customers for the system are Eletrobras, Eletronorte, Furnas, Chesf, CGT Eletrosul and Diamante Energia.
In addition, Diamante Energia already has a Soma-Turbodiag pilot system at the Jorge Lacerda Power Plant, seeking to advance towards the product's commercialization abroad.
Finally, Cepel highlights two other major benefits of using Soma-Turbodiag in thermoelectric energy turbines.
The first is the increase in the time interval between scheduled downtime for predictive maintenance, which reduces spending on this type of service at the facilities.
The second is the minimization of unexpected maintenance stops, since the real-time monitoring of the equipment's useful life will allow more control over the state of the structures.
