Patent Document ID: 8738424
Application ID: 11988975
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for monitoring a power generating plant connected to a power grid and outputting data regarding at least one of plant output activity and capacity utilization supplied to the power grid comprising the steps of: positioning an imaging subsystem having at least one infrared camera in view of at least one of one or more stacks of the power generating plant and effluent plumes produced by the power generating plant connected to the power grid, capturing, with the at least one infrared camera of the imaging subsystem, images of the at least one of the one or more stacks and effluent plumes, converting, with at least one processor, the captured images of the at least one of the one or more stacks and effluent plumes into electronic image data representing the captured images of the at least one of the one or more stacks and effluent plumes, defining, with the at least one processor, one or more active regions within the electronic image data corresponding to the at least one of the one or more stacks and effluent plumes using an analysis subsystem, comparing, with the at least one processor, the electronic image data extracted from the active regions against a baseline of previously acquired image data from active regions of earlier captured images of the at least one of the one or more stacks and effluent plumes, converting, with the at least one processor, the electronic image data into output active regions density data as measures of at least one of the plant output activity and capacity utilization supplied to the power grid, accumulating, with the at least one processor, the measures of the at least one of the plant output capacity and capacity utilization supplied to the power grid over a time period using an accumulation subsystem, wherein the accumulating over the time period is one of continuous accumulating or accumulating for a shorter period of time than the time period at regular intervals throughout the time period, establishing, with the at least one processor, the baseline based on an average value of the measures acquired over the time period, predicting, with the at least one processor, disruptions in the power grid based on changes in the measures acquired over the time period, and reporting to end user devices, with the at least one processor, the measures of the at least one of the plant output activity and capacity utilization supplied to the power grid to inform end users of a contribution of the power generating plant to the power grid.