Detailed Analysis and Reporting Description

GADS NxL Analysis & Reporting allows you to calculate industry-standard performance measures using the GADS data for your generating units as the basis for those calculations. For more than 50 years, measures of generating unit performance have been defined, recorded, and utilized by the electric power industry. 

The statistics calculated by GADS NxL software conform to the performance indexes and equations found in Appendix F of the NERC GADS Data Reporting Instructions.

Analysis and Reporting not only calculates these important standard measures, but also includes those measures, such as the PJM, ISO-NE, and NYISO Equivalent Demand Forced Outage Rate (EFORd), that have been developed to respond to the deregulated capacity and energy markets. The EFORd methodology embedded in GADS NxL is the same used by PJM, ISO-NE, and the NYISO.

GADS NxL’s proprietary SmartProc™ process for calculating GADS data, intelligently determines what data needs to be processed, saving time and increasing efficiencies.

The performance measures calculated also conform to ANSI/IEEE Standard 762-1987 entitled "IEEE Standard Definitions for Use in Reporting Electric Generating Unit Reliability, Availability, and Productivity".

 

Database Options

GADS NxL Analysis & Reporting is a full-featured 32-bit software application built on Microsoft's .NET framework allowing the GADS Performance and Event data tables, as well as the calculated statistics data tables, to be stored in any of the following database systems:

• Oracle 8i
• Oracle 9i
• Microsoft Access
• Microsoft SQL Server 7
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000
• Microsoft Data Engine (MSDE)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Desktop Engine (MSDE 2000)

Benefits

All of the GADS performance and event data and the calculated statistics, such as heat rates, service hours, outage hours, factors, and rates, are stored in various tables in a single database, allowing for easy interface with existing or new applications with database formats that you are already familiar with. Additionally, modern database querying methods make it easier to extract information on an ad hoc basis.

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Installation

Configurations

The application can be installed to run in any and all of the following configurations:

• Desktop – individual user (Microsoft Access, MSDE, or MSDE 2000)
• LAN/WAN Windows application with unlimited concurrent user access
• Intranet using Internet Explorer or Netscape (no client-side software)
• Internet using Internet Explorer or Netscape (no client-side software)

Full Windows, Basic Authentication with SSL, and Forms Authentication with SSL available for full security for all application interfaces.

Types

The event and performance data and calculated statistics are stored in tables in one database. Depending on your data requirements and infrastructure, you can have a:

• distributed installation with a database on each engineer's, GADS reporter's or analyst's desktop
• LAN/WAN installation with a single database on a central server
• browser-enabled installation with a single database on a central server

Installations are not limited to just one of these methods. 

For example, if you have plant engineers in remote plant locations that do not have either Internet or intranet access, they can have the "distributed installation" at each remote plant location while the remainder of your engineers, GADS reporters, and analysts access the single centralized database via a Windows (LAN/WAN) user interface (UI) or a browser-enabled UI (Internet or intranet)—all at the same time. Remote users can easily calculate the performance measures for their own units, but additional arrangements must be made to provide them with the results data for the rest of the fleet, if required.

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User and Group Authorization

Establish users (such as engineers, managers, GADS reporters, and analysts) and groups for authorization to load source GADS data, perform calculations, and/or generate reports for authorized units and/or groups of units. Individual users may perform authorized actions only and view the calculated statistics only for the units that they are authorized. Designated Administrators can load, calculate, and generate reports for any and all units in the database.

 

Data Input

Data can be loaded from either:

• GADS NxL Data Entry data tables
• MicroGADS™ Data Entry & Edit (must be imported into GADS NxL Data Entry data tables before loading)
• 80/82-column ASCII formatted standard GADS files

Analysis Options

Options Available on a Generating Unit Basis

• Daylight savings time, including DST settings for North America, Europe, South America, Russia, Australia, and New Zealand
• Jointly owned (capacity, generation, and fuel usage data is supplied for both the owner's share and the full unit – used in reporting)
• Assign the unit to one or more groups such as the GE T/G group, the B&W boiler group, etc. The number of user-defined groups is unlimited.
• Peak period data set (each unit can have a unique set of demand periods and have the program produce statistics for only those periods, ignoring the time in between) This option is useful in determining commercial availability.

Calculation Options

• Deratings calculated on a gross or net capacity basis
• Overlapping deratings (see FAQ for more details)
  • Masking or shadowing
  • Additive
  • Event number order (NERC)
• Example 3D derating calculation method (See FAQ for more details)
• Custom cause code groups

Time Periods and Ranges

GADS NxL software allows you to perform calculations across any range of time desired and is not limited to beginning or ending on "pre-determined" boundaries, such as beginning or ending of a month, quarter, or year.  The calculations can cross multiple years, as well.

The time period granularity or "fineness" of the calculations are as follows:

Hourly	4-weeks (13 periods per year)
Daily	Monthly
Weekly (Sunday to Saturday)	Quarterly
Weekly (Monday to Sunday)	Yearly
Fixed by user with "n" equal intervals	Fixed by user with period date/times entered manually (stored in data table)

Calculations are done for all selected units and groups, and all selected time periods in automatic back-to-back runs. All of these calculated statistics are stored in the data tables for later reporting, eliminates the need to perform re-calculations or zipping/unzipping dBase files in order to run reports for different time period granularities (e.g., doing annual reports followed by monthly reports) when using other GADS software products.

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Results Tables

All of the calculated statistics and the data used to calculate these statistics are stored in database tables for later use by the report generator.

The data tables contain more than 150 calculated and source data points per each unit for each time period calculated. In addition, there are more than 25 calculated and source data points for each event record.

Some of the data contained in the results tables are as follows:

planned outage ( PO) hours*	equivalent forced outage rate (EFOR)	cause code
planned outage ( PO) scheduled extension (SE) hours*	equivalent demand forced outage rate (EFORd)	event type
maintenance outage (MO) hours*	equivalent availability factor (EAF)	duration of the event in clock hours
U1 outage hours*	equivalent unplanned forced derated hours during Reserve Shutdown (EUFDHRS)*	impact of the event in hours (full outages and RS) and equivalent hours (deratings) in both hours and MWhrs
U2 outage hours*	gross and net generation	event contribution code
SF outage hours*	monthly gross and net capacities	event description
D1 equivalent hours*	fuel burned for all 4 fuel types (in English or metric units)	gross/net available capacity for each derating
service hours*	fuel Btus or Joules for all 4 fuels burned	equipment group that cause code is assigned to (user-defined)
gross/net output factors	gross/net heat rates  (Btu/kWh or kJ/kWh)	impact of the event in hours and MWhrs for each calculated time period overlapped
gross/net capacity factors	attempted/actual starts	starting reliability

* Each calculated event type and time measurement has two data fields in the data tables:  the calculated "hours/equivalent hours" and the calculated "MWhrs."  The calculated MWhrs are based on the monthly net or gross maximum capacity on the GADS Performance 01 record. This enables the easy calculation of the various factors and rates based on time or energy data.

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Standard Reports and Options

GADS NxL produces a variety of pre-built standard reports: 

 

Report Options

• Cause codes – selectable on certain reports
  • Custom range(s)
  • User-defined ranges
  • NERC GADS standard groups
  • Define "equipment groups"
• Event types – selectable on certain reports
• Time period and units and/or groups
• Include pumping hours in the service hours
• Include synch condensing hours in the service hours
• Include total unit or joint ownership data in report output
• Rollups to plant, division, group, or fleet can be done on:
  • Unweighted basis
  • Weighted basis – fixed MW (2 sets of weights)
  • Weighted basis – monthly GMC or NMC
• EFORd formulas available
  • PJM/NYISO
  • Markov
• Custom footers on reports to allow for displaying "Confidentiality" messages
• Custom headers on reports
• Display ownership share data or full unit data on performance reports

Report Export Capabilities

The Business Objects' Crystal Report Engine is incorporated into the software and can export each of the reports directly to:

Disk file	Exchange folder	MS Mail (MAPI)
Rich Text Format (RTF)	Excel	Crystal Reports
Word	HTML	PDF

User-created custom reports can be created from "scratch" or you can use the supplied standard reports as a "template."

GADS NxL database tables may be easily imported into Microsoft Excel.

Both GADS NxL and the report engine provide extremely flexible sorting of data records for generating reports.

 

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