In a previous post, I noted that there are 6 core technologies that, together, make it possible to achieve the fully integrated operating environment for process industries that ARC Advisory Group refers to as CPAS: Collaborative Process Automation Systems.

Here they are: 

1. Marriage of Object-Oriented Design with Aspect Oriented Programming: When an object – any plant asset from a controller to a programmable relay – is entered into the DCS system, its operating variables – aspects – can be replicated or customized across the entire system. It allows for efficient programming of non-native devices via the DCS architecture.

2. Thin-client architecture: It’s not new, but it enables the benefit of Object-Oriented Design and Aspect Oriented Programming. It allows allow configuration of assets from a single location, while individual workplaces can be customized as needed for each operator/user. In some cases, adding a piece of field equipment to the network can literally be a drag-and-drop operation.

3. Electrical integration: The biggest integration gap may be the divide between process automation and power management. Rising standardization of electrical systems around IEC 61850 now makes it possible to design DCS platforms that integrate things like circuit breakers and transformers as consistently as switches, pumps and valves.

4. Fieldbus standardization and wireless networks: At the field level, standardization provides gains in interconnectivity that allow a DCS platform to be more flexible in the variety of devices and protocols it can accommodate.

5. OPC Unified Architecture: At the application level, adoption of the OPC Foundation’s Unified Architecture standard makes it easier for a DCS to connect with third-party DCS controllers and PLCs. Once connected, data flows seamlessly, allowing an operator to view every object as if it was part of the native system.

6. State-based control operating strategy: Built on the principle that facilities operate in definable process states, state-based control categorizes those states and provides automated responses when they change. It relies on the improved systems integration to quickly deliver improved productivity, safety, quality and financial results.

Which of these technologies are being applied by your process control system?

Today I’d like to share an excerpt from the new ABB Review article on how ABB is helping extend the life of Boliden’s massive Aitik copper mine by making it more efficient.  This project perfectly illustrates the value and the power of integration.

“Some 1,000 km north of Stockholm, Sweden, past the Arctic Circle, lies an impressive open-pit copper mine, known as Aitik. Although the proportion of metal found at the Aitik copper mine is low – less than 0.3 percent – it is a highly profitable mine because it is run so efficiently. In fact, operations have recently become even more efficient – a $790 million modernization of the entire mining operation has enabled the mine operator Boliden to double its production capacity and extending the life of the mine to 2030. ABB has contributed to this success by supplying a range of products and systems to power and operate the entire site.”

Many technologies make up the solution at Aitik, but the whole thing is held together by ABB’s System 800xA extended automation system.  Integration is key not only used for the equipment on site (gearless mill drives, motors, substations etc.), but for applications such as maintenance systems and the document management system.

To learn more about the Aitik installation and the value they have achieved through integration, read the full story in ABB Review (go to page 56).  What do you find the most interesting?  The IEC61850 integration, controlling the plant through smart phones or asset optimization?  We’d like your comments.

Process controls and electrical system controls are notorious for not communicating well with each other.

But for industries that are sensitive to power – uch as oil and gas production, chemicals, mining, metal and pulp processing, and power generation – the reasons to integrate these systems are well established: to reduce energy costs and operating expenses, minimize downtime, increase operator effectiveness and simplify maintenance strategies.

There have been plenty of plant-level efforts to integrate process controls with electrical systems – based on hard-wiring signals between the electrical equipment and the process control system, and by building complex software gateways.

But these efforts are expensive, hard to maintain, nearly impossible to upgrade and tend not to work as well as envisioned.

The upshot is that, even though process controls and electrical systems need to work together, perfectly reasonable people throw up their hands at the thought of it actually happening.

Now that is changing, thanks to an unlikely and unglamorous intermediary: IEC 61850 – the international standard for automating substations.

The original goal of IEC 61850 (published in 2004) is to make it easier and less expensive to design, build, maintain and update substations. But open standards like this often come to have far broader reach than expected. Innovators figure out how to exploit them to do jobs well beyond their original scope.

And so it is with IEC 61850. It’s not a big leap to see how a standard designed to seamlessly integrate devices and data within the electrical system can be used to integrate the electrical and process control systems – so long as the process control platform is also built to work easily with IEC 61850.

That’s part of what makes ABB’s own System 800xA noteworthy: it’s the first process control system on the market to support IEC 61850 – meaning that it’s not just about process integration, but about whole-plant integration.

Thanks to the way IEC 61850 is written, it’s proving transformational. First, it’s a truly global standard, common for both IEC and ANSI.

Second, it provides a flexible open architecture for both medium- and high-voltage devices.

Third, it’s based on Ethernet communications. So it offers fast, reliable, and secure communications and interoperability among electrical devices – with flexibility to be adapted as new communication technologies arise.

All of this is why the most common description of the standard may be that it’s future-proof. And why people who think about broader integration issues than substation communication are starting to look at IEC 6850 as the standard for communication between any type of IED (intelligent electrical device).

Enough facilities have already used it to integrate electrical and process control systems that the innovation can no longer be considered experimental.

The results? Improved uptime; lower life cycle costs; and increased energy efficiency through better visibility into power consumption, integrated drives and faster plant startups. Problem resolution improves with a centralized plant maintenance system, and plant upsets can be addressed more quickly with a centralized sequence of events list.

A smaller system footprint can reduce spare part inventories, lower training time for users, and make for a simpler overall system design with fewer wires, yet more connectivity.

It remains to be seen where else IEC 61850 may be applied, but for large consumers of electricity, this boring technology standard starts to look pretty exciting.

Does your company utilize IEC 61850?