Control System World

exida, the global leader in functional safety certification for the process industries, has certified the Riken Keiki SD-1RI Infrared Gas Detector for functional safety, ensuring that it meets the functional safety requirements for Safety Integrity Level (SIL) 3 capability per IEC 61508: 2010.

“We are pleased that Riken Keiki has chosen exida as its Certification Body (CB),” says Karou Sonoda, principal engineer, exida-Japan LLC.

“exida’s extensive Gas Detector certification experience gives us the technical depth to really understand the product.”

“exida has done more fire and gas sensors than any other certification body,” says Riken Keiki. “Its extensive technical experience, Japanese language support and project management were very beneficial and made the entire project go very smoothly.”

Tyco International has announced today that it has completed the acquisition of Industrial Safety Technologies (IST), a global leader in gas and flame detection, from Battery Ventures for $329.5 million in cash. On an annualized basis, this business is expected to generate approximately $140 million in revenue.

The combination of IST with Tyco's Scott Safety business will make Tyco one of the largest global designers and manufacturers of gas and flame detection products, offering customers a full range of safety solutions across both fixed and portable detection.

Tyco (NYSE: TYC) is one of the world's largest pure-play fire protection and security company. Tyco provides more than three million customers around the globe with the latest fire protection and security products and services. A company with $10+ billion in annual revenue, Tyco has over 57,000 employees in more than 900 locations across 50 countries serving various end markets, including commercial, institutional, governmental, retail, industrial, energy, residential and small business.

Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, was presented with a Bronze Stevie Award for Sales & Customer Service in the computer software category for companies with up to 100 employees on Friday, February 27th.

The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service are the world's top sales awards, business development awards, contact center awards, and customer service awards. The Stevie Awards organizes several of the world's leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business AwardsSM and International Business AwardsSM.

This year's competition received more than 1,900 nominations from organizations of all sizes and in virtually every industry, which is an increase of 27 percent over 2014. Finalists were determined by the average scores of 139 professionals worldwide that acted as preliminary judges.

Kepware stood out as a top contender due to its dedication to consistently providing an exemplary customer service experience. It has accomplished this goal by aligning its Technical Support and Engineering Solutions teams through the Agile methodology, which allows the company to streamline its customer feedback cycle and improve customer service. Kepware is also working to identify areas of improvement and further advance its customer service through a support survey program implemented in 2014.

"We're honored to be recognized with a Stevie Award for the second consecutive year," said Matthew Roy, Director of Technical Support, Kepware. "This award recognizes Kepware's dedication to our customers, and challenges us to continue finding new ways to improve the customer experience year over year."

The awards were presented to honorees during a gala banquet on Friday, February 27 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.

By Reuters: Egypt is planning to build solar and wind power plants in the next three years with a combined capacity of 4,300 MW, said a report.  Egypt's economy is showing signs of picking up after being damaged by political turmoil in recent years, with difficulties accessing hard currency and energy shortages among other problems, and has begun economic reforms under President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi.

The government hopes an investment conference later this month will attract billions of dollars of foreign money to help develop the economy.  Egyptian investment bank EFG Hermes said it was studying investments in renewable energy and hopes to start a leasing business in its home country within months as it looks to take advantage of improving economic sentiment.

"We hope to launch a leasing business during the first half of 2015, subject to regulatory approvals, as the opening move in a number of new expansion projects for the bank, which could lead to extending its business into sub-Saharan Africa in time," remarked chief executive Karim Awad.

"We want to expand (our private equity) business and we're looking very actively into Egypt today and the renewable sector," Awad told Reuters on the sidelines of a media event hosted by the bank. EFG, he stated, was expecting to play a key role in both attracting cash and putting its own money to work.

The Egyptian bank also wants to expand its operations, which include brokerage, asset management and advisory services, in the Gulf region and consolidate its leading position in its home market.  This includes listing companies on the Egyptian bourse, where it is currently advising Orascom Construction on its spin-off and dual-listing in Egypt and Dubai (UAE) and Emaar Misr, the Egyptian arm of Dubai developer Emaar Properties.

"It's an extremely positive sign," said Awad of the new listings. He declined to say how many deals the bank was working on but indicated all were in interesting sectors including food and beverages.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, today launched its Symphony® Plus SD Series of flexible control and input/output (I/O) products, which offer total plant automation across application types, irrespective of size or physical location. They will be showcased at ABB’s Automation and Power World event in Houston, Texas, from March 2-5.

The SD Series is designed to improve energy efficiency and productivity in diverse operating environments within the power and water industries. The new range is especially suited for applications where control is distributed over a wide area often in harsh conditions, such as wind and solar power plants as well as water facilities.

The new portfolio is the latest addition to the Symphony Plus product family, ABB’s flagship automation platform for the power generation and water sectors and the most widely used distributed control system (DCS) in these industries.

“The launch of the SD series is a reaffirmation of ABB’s commitment to continue investing in the Symphony Plus platform based on an ‘evolution without obsolescence’ approach of introducing new technology with enhanced benefits while protecting the long-term investment by ensuring full compatibility with existing installations,” said Massimo Danieli, Managing Director of ABB’s Power Generation business, a part of the company’s Power Systems division.

SD Series is a portfolio of DIN rail-mounted control and I/O products based on a scalable architecture, flexible design and field-proven technology. The energy-efficient solution pays for itself through reduced long-term energy, operational and maintenance costs. Furthermore, they can withstand extreme operating conditions such as temperatures from -20 to +70 degrees Celsius without the need for additional environmental protection. This significantly reduces their footprint and maintenance costs, and improves reliability and performance thanks to fewer components.

Symphony Plus enables plants and personnel to perform efficiently and balance objectives like asset availability, operational reliability and production efficiency with business goals like asset life extension, carbon reduction and regulatory compliance.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that its subsidiary, Yokogawa Saudi Arabia, has received orders to deliver distributed control systems (DCS) for the PP13 and PP14 combined cycle power plants*1 that the Saudi Electricity Company (SEC) is building in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia's capital city.

The PP13 and PP14 plants will each have a combined net electric output of 1,980 MW. Power blocks 1 and 2 of the PP13 plant are scheduled to begin operating in May and October of 2016, respectively, while the two power blocks at PP14 are scheduled to start in November 2016 and April 2017.

Yokogawa Saudi Arabia will deliver the CENTUM® VP integrated production DCS for the monitoring, control, and operation of these plants' gas turbines, heat recovery boilers (HRSGs), steam turbines, and electric systems (IEC 61850*2) as well as a plant operator training simulator (OTS). The company will carry out all DCS engineering work and provide support for installation, commissioning, and training for operators. Delivery of these solutions is scheduled for the first half of 2016.

In 2012 Yokogawa Saudi Arabia also received an order for the Riyadh PP12 project, and will soon deliver a complete DCS and OTS solution for this 2,175 MW power plant. It is expected that this order and the two orders announced today will enhance Yokogawa's presence in Saudi Arabia.

After the completion of PP13 and PP14, Yokogawa DCS systems will be used to monitor and control operations at SEC power plants having a combined capacity of more than 10 GW.

Yokogawa believes that it was able to win these two orders thanks to:

• The high reliability of the over 30 systems that we have delivered to power and desalination plants in Saudi Arabia
• A strong relationship with SEC that was forged by working together on numerous projects
• Our top-class ranking in an industrial localization program promoted by the Saudi government

As the result of flourishing economic and population growth, the demand for electricity has been increasing in Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern markets. The electric power market is expected to continue to expand throughout this region. Yokogawa aims to use this success in winning these orders to expand its power plant control business throughout the Middle East.

ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has signed a strategic alliance with Ericsson, a global leader in mobile telecommunications, to provide an end-to-end automation platform that optimizes physical and virtual resources for data centers and cloud operators.

By bringing together the Ericsson Cloud System and ABB’s Decathlon® data center infrastructure management (DCIM) system, customers of Ericsson’s cloud services will gain industrial-grade controls and tools to manage and automate a flexible array of power, cooling and IT systems. The new platform will be standardized and designed for ease of use, efficiency and sustainability.

“As the data center market matures, owners and operators are starting to demand the same control and automation capabilities common to other complex, mission-critical environments,” said Peter Terwiesch, President of ABB’s Process Automation division. “Our alliance with Ericsson extends the automation of physical, mechanical and electrical infrastructure right to the heart of IT workload management. It will provide the technology for data center and cloud operators to optimize IT workloads, saving operating costs while improving reliability and the performance of their data centers.”

In a highly competitive environment, operators of data centers are increasingly seeking new operational efficiencies as the management of data centers, their IT systems and facilities – once separate activities – increasingly converge into more holistic operation. The ABB-Ericsson alliance will help to achieve these efficiencies by reducing the need for capital expenditure; enabling more rapid time-to-deployment of infrastructure resources; and lowering energy and maintenance costs through better infrastructure management.

Anders Lindblad, Head of Business Unit Cloud and IP, Ericsson says: “We selected ABB as our partner because the Decathlon for Data Centers is the only DCIM solution available today that can provide a holistic, real-time visibility and control from service processor to power grid as well as enable the dynamic automation of data center physical resources.”

Cloud networking has developed rapidly over the past several years and is expected to reach a market size of $30.5 billion by 2018, which translates into a compound annual growth rate of 29%, according to 451 Research. The cloud is widely accepted as a means of achieving faster data delivery, improved application performance, and increased operational efficiencies for mission-critical workloads.

George R. Brown Convention Center, Houston, TX: Whether it’s collaborating with experts about new ways to strengthen your business or learning about new innovations in technology and smarter devices that can help your operations run more efficiently, we have it all at ABB Automation & Power World 2015: Harnessing the power of change.

Customize your learning experience and choose from hundreds of technical workshops, panel discussions and hands-on training courses designed to address today’s biggest business challenges.

Connect with thousands of your peers and industry experts to discuss best practices and industry trends, and take home practical advice to deal with your company’s specific operating issues.

Earn professional development hours (PDHs) for every workshop you attend, up to 15 total for the entire four-day event; some workshops even offer Continuing Education Units (CEUs).

Attend fascinating and relevant keynote sessions and industry forums focused on current hot topics, such as tomorrow’s energy delivery, human factors and thriving in change.

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