System and method for adaptively operating a power generating plant using optimal setpoints

A system for operating a power generating plant, the system comprising:

• one or more power generating assets;
• a supervisory controller communicatively coupled to local controllers of one or more power generating assets, the supervisory controller comprising a plurality of independent applications and a central optimizer module, the plurality of independent applications and the central optimizer module configured to perform a plurality of operations, the plurality of operations comprising:
• receiving, via the plurality of independent applications, a plurality of operational parameters relating to the one or more power generating assets in the power generating plant;
• generating, via the plurality of independent applications, a plurality of marginal effect maps based on the plurality of operational parameters, each of the plurality of the marginal effect maps comprising a model of information relating operational setpoint selections of the one or more power generating assets to expected value or an effect on a component and failure mode;
• receiving, via the central optimizer module, the plurality of marginal effect maps from the plurality of independent applications;
• determining, via the central optimizer module, one or more operational setpoints for the one or more power generating assets in the power generating plant based on the plurality of marginal effect maps to optimize an economic value of operating the one or more power generating assets;
• and
• communicating, via the central optimizer module of the supervisory controller, the one or more operational setpoints to the one or more power generating assets in the power generating plant.