Particular demands are made on the operation and monitoring of thick-walled components and pipes: high availability, flexible stress, low maintenance costs and operational safety. Conventional power plants will have to respond to the volatile requirements due to the fluctuating feed-in of renewable energies with an efficient and flexible operation. The resulting stresses are to be detected and assessed early on. The approach of STEAG Energy Services (SES): SR1: The operating pressures and temperatures are recorded at 30-second intervals, and the calculatory creep damage and low cycle fatigue are determined. Via the SR1 Cockpit, the components with the highest stress as well as particularly critical operational events can be viewed in the web browser. SR::SPM: To determine the stress of the pipes, force and displacement measurements along the pipe are recorded in addition. Every five minutes, a complete pipe system calculation is carried out in order to determine the reference and actual values of the sectional strains and thus the lifetime consumption of the pipe bends. The benefits: Reduction of the inspection effort for highly-stressed components (incl. extension of the inspection interval); early detection of critical conditions; proof of the specified normal operation to authorities, TÜV, and insurance companies; important information on the component condition to enable assessment and optimization of the influence of flexible modes of operation.