Control System World

Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the manufacturing and infrastructure operations industries, has completed a major control systems and technology upgrade at 12 Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority sites. With 5,839 MW of generating capacity, PREPA is one of the largest public utilities in the United States and the sole provider of electricity for 1.5 million customers in Puerto Rico.

Under the terms of an agreement signed in 2010, Invensys supplied its Foxboro® I/A Series® distributed control system, including its new Foxboro Control Software solution, to help PREPA diversify its production capabilities and become more nimble as it begins to add renewable energy to its power mix. Invensys also provided field service and start-up support, as well as design, testing and implementation services, including access to its Power Center of Excellence in Foxboro, Mass.

“We recently initiated a long-term strategy to expand the use of natural gas and renewable fuels at our generating plants, which required modern systems and technology,” said Jose Mulero, chief engineer, Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. “Invensys Operations Management’s Foxboro I/A Series control technology, particularly its Foxboro Control Software, gives us the flexibility we needed to complete dual fuel conversion at all our targeted units, and we can do it sooner and with fewer costs. Because of the open nature of the technology, Foxboro solutions will help us provide reliable, cleaner energy in a safe, responsible and sustainable manner, as well as meet our long-term strategic objectives and comply with future regulations.”

“Our Foxboro DCS and Control Software offerings perfectly illustrate our commitment to innovation and open technology,” said Gary Freburger, president of Invensys Operations Management’s systems business. “Power companies are facing new, ever-more complicated challenges, even as their equipment and workforce continue to age. Instead of continuing to make like-for-like replacements or undertaking a major end-of-life installation in an attempt to meet these challenges, many of our customers, like PREPA, are choosing to modernize their existing systems. That can be the most cost-effective transition to improving real-time plant efficiencies and profitability. We are pleased to serve as PREPA’s trusted partner and excited about the value we are able to deliver to them and their customers.”

The innovative iTHERM® TM4xx thermometers of the new, modular hygienic line have been designed to meet all requirements of the Food&Beverages and Life Sciences industries and comply with the highest quality standards.

Consistent user-friendliness and innovative solutions lead to improvements in plant safety, end product quality and operating costs.

The iTHERM® TM4xx product family offers an up to now unequalled variety of versions. The clear segmentation with only two metric standard products leads to simple & fast product selection at a high reliability.

The iTHERM® TM401 assembly offers typical Endress+Hauser quality at very economic prices for standard applications, whereas the advanced iTHERM® TM411 thermometer comes with cutting-edge innovations for highest demands:

• iTHERM® QuickSens and StrongSens - the fastest and most robust inserts worldwide.
• iTHERM® QuickNeck- the new, dividable neck with quick release for tool-free recalibrations.
• iTHERM® TA30R - new stainless steel terminal head with protection class IP69K and optimal accessibility of the terminals.

All innovations aim at the utilization of presently unexploited optimization potentials. If consequently used, the result is distinctive reduction of maintenance costs and downtimes as well as improvements of product quality, process efficiency and safety.

AES is an international power company located in North Palm Springs, California and specializes in power generation, utilities and renewable energy. Recently, AES Wind Generation initialized a 49 turbine (one megawatt each) wind farm as part of the Mountain View IV Wind Energy Project and began searching for a dependable SCADA and alarming system to operate it. After an exhaustive search for which software was the best fit, AES found in ICONICS GENESIS64™ and Hyper Historian™ a complete SCADA and Data Historian that met all of their objectives.

To view and download the complete success story, click HERE

Designed specifically for the solar panel manufacturing and traffic management industries, the Industrial Automation Group of Advantech has released the new ECU-1710A automation controller that combines an embedded computer and plug-in DAQ cards into one low profile, small footprint unit.

The fanless ECU-1710A integrates two Advantech DAQ cards (PCI-1710UL & PCI-1720U) onto the motherboard which offer 16-ch Analog Input, 4-ch Analog Output, 16-ch Isolated Digital Input and 16-ch Isolated Digital Output channels whilst making the system more compact whilst enhancing the reliability of the system to make it especially useful in environments with limited available space.

To enable customers develop their own applications and monitoring solutions the ECU-1710A supports DAQNavi. DAQNavi is free software that you can download from the Advantech website. It is a single integrated software package for programmers to develop their application programs and includes all utilities, driver, SDK and documents necessary for hardware configuration, testing, and programming.

To allow this exciting new device to perform complicated processes required for calculating traffic flow and the fine measurements needed for solar cell manufacturing the ECU-1710A is powered by an Intel® Atom™ D510 dual core processor, 1GB DDR2 RAM and provides the following communication interfaces: two 10/100M Ethernet, two RS-232 serial and two USB 2.0 ports.

For further information click ECU-1710A and DAQNavi

Honeywell has signed an agreement with Alliance Oil Company, a leading independent oil operator in Russia and Kazakhstan, to supply Honeywell Experion Process Knowledge System (PKS) at Alliance Oil Company’s Khabarovsk Refinery in far east Russia. The agreement will also include upgrading the plant’s security with the latest Honeywell security solutions, Radar Video Surveillance (RVS) perimeter security and OptaSense pipelines security.

The five-year agreement to use Experion PKS will allow the refinery to integrate data from all critical process subsystems to improve decision-making, reduce on-going maintenance costs by enabling operators to more easily monitor and manage all aspects of the production process and improve the productivity and profitability of the production process.

“By installing a complete range of Honeywell technology we hope to vastly improve our competitive advantage by optimizing our process efficiencies,” said Eugene Vorobeichik, general director Alliance Oil Company. “We chose Honeywell technology as it’s designed to provide a complete solution for not only improving our control systems, but also ensuring the security of staff and our facilities.”

Rockwell Automation has extended the ratings of its Allen-Bradley PowerFlex 755 AC drives to 1500 kW/2,000 Hp, completing the power range of the PowerFlex 750-Series portfolio and providing customers with a wide selection of options and features. The high-power drive builds on the application flexibility and common user experience of the PowerFlex 750-Series, giving heavy industries a new option for advanced power control.

The PowerFlex 755 drive is well suited for a wide variety of applications ranging from simple variable speed and variable torque control to the most demanding systems requiring constant torque control. Target applications include fans, pumps, mixers, compressors, conveyors and extruders, as well as applications for the oil and gas, tire and rubber, refining, metals and mining industries.

“We designed the PowerFlex 755 drives with ease-of-use in mind, and expanded its power range to deliver this user experience to a wider range of applications,” said John Cherney, global product manager, Rockwell Automation. “Whether an application demands one or 2,000 horsepower, the way users interface with any PowerFlex 755 frame is nearly identical. This commonality helps to simplify operation, from configuration and integration to maintenance and troubleshooting.”

The latest frame extension delivers the enhanced control capabilities of earlier high-power models, including features, such as 400/480/600/690 volt ratings and N-1 technology. With N-1 technology, users can configure the PowerFlex 755 high-power drive to utilize one, two or all three of its power structures. This gives the redundancy and advanced control needed to effectively manage load changes, protect equipment, and keep the drive up and running in the event of a power failure. The common DC-bus option allows users to connect the PowerFlex 755 AC drive to a DC-bus configuration, which takes advantage of different drive cycles to share energy. Using a common DC-bus system helps increase system performance and reduce loss – ultimately improving the application’s energy efficiency.

Exida, an accredited global functional safety certification company, has certified the Honeywell SmartLine ST 800 HART Pressure Transmitter as Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 capable per IEC 61508.

“This certification was confirmed through an extensive assessment process including a site audit and completion of a Failure Modes, Effects, and Diagnostic Analysis (FMEDA),” said John Yozallinas, exida evaluating assessor. “Honeywell has a strong global foundation for their development process. Meeting SIL 3 requirements means having a strong, high quality process, and their development team deserves high praise for this achievement.”

ABB announced recently that it has released the newest version of its Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system , SCADAvantageTM version 5.4. This release helps oil and gas companies manage their latest operational challenges with precise liquid metering and instant status checks of remote operations, and brings safety and availability to companies responsible for the critical energy infrastructure.

As exploration and production has moved to increase the output of oil and condensate, accurate liquid metering has become more important. SCADAvantage now supports V-cone and liquid measurement data. This new data is integrated with alarming, trending and historian information to further optimize operations and manage by exception. For specific markets such as Canada, the product complies with the latest ERCB Directive 17 requirements.

ABB worked with leading midstream companies to develop a new liquid volume balancing and leak detection application in this release, to better support safe and reliable liquids transportation.

ABB SCADAvantage includes features to ensure business continuity providing protection against threats from the environment, malicious attacks and other sources. Disaster Recovery works in warm-standby for ultra-fast failover and includes tools for configuring and stepping through a recovery scenario in a safe yet expedited manner.

The new release also includes the latest Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping capabilities. Using the latest mapping software from ESRI®, SCADAvantage allows companies to easily customize the map views to meet their operational needs.

With on-demand text message reporting, operators can be alerted and follow-up on issues or drill down into the data easily with a simple text message on their mobile phone. Text reports can also be requested from SCADAvantage by sending a text message with a particular report identifier.

“With the growing importance of produced liquids, we have created a robust solution for managing liquids measurement data that eliminates the need for costly and risky integration with third party packages,” said Richard Dilcher, SCADAvantage Development Manager at ABB. “Our customers asked for one SCADA system corporate-wide to manage production to minimize training and overall maintenance costs.”

ABB  SCADAdvantage Information