System and method for planning the operation of, monitoring processes in, simulating, and optimizing a combined power generation and water desalination plant

A system for planning the operation of, monitoring processes in, simulating, and/or optimizing a combined technical installation of power generation and water desalination plants, wherein the combined technical installation comprises:

• a power plant or individual power plant units;
• a plurality of sets of water desalination units, each set being associated with a respective desalination technology that produces a corresponding water quality and water quantity, wherein the sets receive a process flow from at least one of the power plant units;
• and
• a water mixing component connected to receive a process flow from each set of water desalination units;
• the system comprising:
• a process control system for providing optimized operating points to the combined technical installation;
• and
• a processing device configured with program code to generate:
• at least one operation planning module, at least one process simulation module and at least one process optimization module, where components for modeling, simulating and optimizing the technical installation are stored in the modules;
• a data management layer which is connected to provide the at least one operation planning module, the at least one process simulation module, and the at least one optimization module with real-time and historical process data from the process control system via at least one interface,
• wherein the modules are configured to calculate at least one of performance parameters and operating values using at least one of the real-time and historical process data provided via the data management layer and the stored components and to transfer at least one of the performance parameters and operating values as optimized operating points to the process control system via the data management layer, wherein the performance parameters include parameters specific to power generation plants, desalination plants, and a combination of those parameters, and
• wherein the at least one operation planning module is configured to calculate an optimized operating schedule for at least one of the units of the technical installation based on at least water quality limits associated with the water mixing component.