A control room is regarded as the core of a plant or network. It is a central point from where operators can monitor and direct all processes.
But overtime, systems slow down and are less able to cope with the increased demands put upon them and they become more prone to failure. To ensure optimal process efficiency and to take advantage of improvements in functionality, it is imperative to update control software and hardware on a regular basis.
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“The customers that are more tuned in and really pay attention to their automation, try to keep their systems as up-to-date as possible, so that they can really just get more life out of the system,” says Connie Evans, sales director for Honeywell Process Solutions Middle East.
“But you will find people who neglect their systems and then find themselves in the situation where they are forced to upgrade.”
Much of the Middle East’s industrial infrastructure was built during a huge expansion drive over the past two or three decades and many facilities’ control stations are now in need of renewal.
For some suppliers operating in the region, modernising process control systems is now becoming as an important a part of their business as fitting out new installations.
“A lot of existing facilities, especially the ones that were installed in the ’80s and even into the early ’90s, are very much in need of upgrade,” he continues.
Some of the facilities built in the early ’80s were among the first systems in the Middle East to get truly distributed control and a lot of them have not been updated since they were built.
Demand for system upgrades is strong across all process industries in the region, according to Evans, including utilities, petrochemicals, refining, and oil and gas.
Already this year, the Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation, Kahramaa, has ordered an upgrade of its national control centre from AREVA T&D. The French group installed the unit in the late 1990s. Kahramaa awarded the contract alongside a request for 14 gas-insulated substations.
“There are a lot of expansions going on and, typically speaking, those extensions need to be interfaced into existing facilities,” Evans explains. “When that happens, there is almost always a need for some amount of upgrade to the existing facilities to prepare them to be able to interface into the new systems.
Smooth choreography
Upgrading a control system requires meticulous planning. Much work can be performed online, while the process is still live, but sometimes an outage is unavoidable. The development of automated migration tools, however, is continually cutting the length of downtime required for a major upgrade.
“Obviously our clients don’t want to stop production because that stops their money flowing and so, where we can, we do what we call hot cut-overs,” notes Evans.
A lot of preplanning has to be done and it has to be extremely well choreographed. That means making sure that you and your client and their operations are all totally tuned in to what has to happen, because it has to happen step by step by step. Otherwise you break the chain and the next thing you know you are taking a unit down.
Service agreements
But major overhauls can mostly be avoided by having a strategy to always keep software current. Suppliers usually offer service packages for their process control systems, which include software updates.
“A lot of our customers have service contracts with us that, especially from a software point of view, keep their systems refreshed on a regular basis,” says Evans.
It also gives them advantages to be able to keep their hardware refreshed as well, because with the support contract they get preferential pricing on hardware.” He adds that if customers are disciplined in the use of their contracts and keep pace with system releases, upgrades are easier to carry out.
Given the complexity of updating process control software, Honeywell tries to keep releases to a minimum, with about one a year for its Experion Process Knowledge System.
About seven years ago, we released a new product line Experion and in the first two or three years of that product’s life there were a number of software upgrades and enhancements.
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Now the system is starting to get some maturity, so upgrades become more enhancements and added features and we try our best to bundle as much stuff as we can into one release,” says Evans.
Honeywell also offers lifecycle management contracts.
This is typically a three to five year contract that has embedded in it mini projects and those projects are done over time with the aim that customers will end up with a totally refreshed system,” he explains.
The transition is less painful – they can plan for it, not only for disruptions in work, but also it is much easier to plan for financially, because they know they are going to be paying the exact same amount year over year for five years, and they can see what is coming.
Upgrades are also made easier if suppliers manufacture systems that are backward compatible, which Honeywell says it always ensures.
“Our personal philosophy has always been a continuing evolution of systems, we have never obsoleted a system,” says Evans. “It has ended up from time to time costing us more in R&D, but we made a decision 30 years ago that as we expanded our technology and when we came out with new systems that we would always make them backwards compatible with existing systems.
There has always been a path to the future for our clients.”
Substation control
On the electrical utility side, demand for control systems upgrades is likely to accelerate in the years ahead, driven by the introduction of the IEC 61850 standard for substation automation. This is a new protocol that defines communication between devices in a substation and its control system and aims to ensure that automated substation equipment from all suppliers is interoperable.
It has also been designed as future-proof, meaning instruments will be able to follow progress in communication technology, thereby safeguarding investment in equipment.
The standard, which was launched in 2004, has not yet gained widespread application. But, as its benefits become better understood, it will be certain to catch on, and more substation automation system orders, such as the one made by Terna in November, can be expected.
The Italian grid operator signed a €6 million (US $9 million) deal with Areva T&D for IEC compliant substation automation systems.
The order included 65 power connection bays and new fiber optic electrical connections, as well as maintenance services for 10 years.
At present, it is mainly the US, UK and India that are implementing the technology. But DEWA has also started installing the new protocol at its substations.
In the past, some operators have been reluctant to modernise control systems because of the fear of long outages. But as automated migration tools continue to cut the amount of downtime needed, and as demands for improved process efficiency grow, plant owners will be unable to continue running antiquated systems for long.
The benefits of using latest generation process control technology include lower maintenance and materials costs, improvements in output, faster access to data and, ultimately, fewer failures and unplanned outages. Benefits that few can afford to ignore.
