Design of MIDA, a Web-Based Diagnostic Application for Hydroelectric Generators

Implementing a cost-effective general maintenance program for generators is of utmost importance at hydro-Quebec. This paper presents the design of MIDA (integrated generator diagnostic methodology), a Web-based application for diagnosing hydroelectric generators. MIDA allows hydro-Quebec maintenance personnel to better establish maintenance priorities based on analysis and trending of data from several diagnostic instruments. This Web-based application represents just the software component of the MIDA project, an eightyear, multi-million dollar research and development project that involved 20 people. The project aimed to develop a simple and rational way to combine measured data from different diagnostic tools in order to determine the general state of each generator. Following the introduction, this paper provides an overview of the MIDA application and its architecture. It then presents the development process, including the evolutionary prototyping methodology which is very well suited to this type of research and development project and the programming language used: MDI, an object-oriented knowledge-based prototyping tool.