Patent Number: 
Section: claims

1. A performance evaluation system for determining an overall performance of a power plant including a plurality of components, said system comprising a plurality of sensors communicatively coupled to a processor programmed to evaluate data received from the sensors, said processor configured to:generate a first reference model of the power plant using specification data for a plurality of process components included in the power plant;receive measured data from at least one of the plurality of sensors;generate a first measured model of the power plant using the measured data;determine the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components of the power plant on the overall thermal performance of the power plant;normalize the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components of the power plant to design conditions;determine the impact to plant output and heat rate of at least one of the plurality of components;generate a reconciliation graph using the determined performance impact of the plurality of components, the measured data, and the determined impact to plant output and heat rate; andoutput the reconciliation graph to a user. 2. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to generate the first reference model of the power plant using original specification data of the at least one of the plurality of components. 3. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to generate the first measured model of the power plant using measured data of the at least one of the plurality of components. 4. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to output at least one of the normalized performance impact and the performance impact to a visual display. 5. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is configured to determine the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components of the power plant on the overall thermal performance of the power plant by substituting measured performance data of the at least one of the plurality of components into the first reference model with the original specification data of the at least one of the plurality of components. 6. A system in accordance with claim 5, wherein said processor is further configured to determine a performance impact of at least one sub-assembly of at least one of the plurality of power plant components by substituting measured performance data of the at least one sub-assembly into the first reference model for the original specification data of the at least one sub-assembly; andgenerate the reconciliation graph using the determined performance impact of the at least one sub-assembly. 7. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is further configured to retrieve original specification data of the at least one of the plurality of components from an electronic database. 8. A system in accordance with claim 1, wherein said processor is further configured to retrieve measured performance data of the at least one of the plurality of components from the power plant. 9. A non-transitory computer-readable media including program instructions which when executed by a processor instruct the processor to:generate a first reference model of the power plant using original specification data of process components of the power plant;generate a first test matched measured model of the power plant from measured performance data of at least one of a plurality of components of the power plant;determine the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components on the overall thermal performance of the power plant by incrementally substituting design performance data of the at least one of the plurality of components in the first reference model with its measured performance data;transform the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components into a normalized component performance using original specification data; andoutput a reconciliation graph using the normalized component performance of the at least one of the plurality of components of the power plant and the determined performance impact of the normalized component performance on plant performance. 10. A non-transitory computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 9, further comprising instructions for displaying at least one of the normalized performance data and the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components. 11. A non-transitory computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 9 further comprising instructions for receiving measured performance data from the power plant. 12. A non-transitory computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 9 further comprising instructions for a database configured to store design performance data for power plant components. 13. A non-transitory computer-readable medium in accordance with claim 12 further comprising instructions for a graphical user interface pre-populated with component names and dynamically linked to the database. 14. A method of evaluating a performance of a power plant, the power plant comprising a plurality of major components including at least one of a steam generator, a steam turbine, a condenser, and a cooling tower, said method comprising:generating a first reference thermal model using specification data for the plurality of major components included in the power plant;generating a first measured thermal model using measured data received from at least one of a plurality of sensors associated with the plurality of major components and a processor programmed to receive data from at least one of the plurality of sensors;determining a performance impact of at least one of a plurality of major components on an amount of power plant power generation;transforming the performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of major components to a design basis into a normalized performance impact;determining an expected output at a rated capacity and performance for at least one of the plurality of major components;determining an actual output based on actual performance for at least one of the plurality of major components; anddisplaying a reconciliation graph using the normalized performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of components of the power plant, the expected output at a rated capacity and performance for at least one of the plurality of major components, and the actual output based on actual performance for at least one of the plurality of major components. 15. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein generating a first measured thermal model further comprises generating a first measured thermal model using measured data of at least one of the plurality of major components. 16. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein generating a first reference thermal model further comprises generating a first reference thermal model using original specification data of at least one of the plurality of components. 17. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein displaying the normalized performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of major components further comprises displaying the normalized performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of major components graphically. 18. A method in accordance with claim 14 further comprising determining a performance impact of one sub-component of the at least one of the plurality of major components on a power plant amount of power generation. 19. A method in accordance with claim 14 wherein generating a first measured thermal model further comprises receiving measured component performance data from the power plant. 20. A method in accordance with claim 14 further comprising storing the normalized performance impact of the at least one of the plurality of major components.