Future Enhancements
DCS system capacities and controller performance will continue to improve, therefore enabling even higher I/O quantities per controller from both hardwired and integrated fieldbus paths. Continued and more widespread use of DCS electrical system integration using the IEC 61850, Profibus, and Profinet industry standards is expected.
Regarding the physical layer of fieldbus technologies, one would expect that all standard protocols will evolve toward a redundant high-availability Ethernet for fieldbus trunk networks. This would allow a common industrial Ethernet field network to be run to all areas utilizing fieldbus instruments and electrical gear and would eliminate the need for multiple media types when various bus protocols are used. The need for less-protocol-specific cabling would result in a more cost-effective plantwide wiring scheme.
Also anticipate increased use of wireless technology for instrumentation using standard protocols and perhaps mesh networks for the integration of communication devices within the DCS for control as well as for asset optimization.
For the foreseeable future, DCS application software will continue to provide new strategies and features in support of plant goals to improve operations, process production, and reliability. The addition of information systems that enhance the retention of staff expertise (a necessity in plants with an aging workforce) will result in operational improvements and support efficient plant operations.
We also anticipate the increased deployment of asset management with process-related asset-monitoring objects that are specific to power plants. Computerized maintenance management strategies within plants will also improve reliability.
As business demands may pressure power plants for production increases, there also may be new motivations to apply advanced optimizing control applications. For example, as more electrons entering the electrical grid are produced by sometimes less-predicable sources, such as wind and solar energy, new operational requirements may be imposed upon existing generating units. Situations such as this can drive future plant adaptations that may benefit from optimized control or advanced control combined with electro-mechanical modifications to support variable-load optimization.
--Ralph Porfilio (ralph.porfilio@us.abb.com) is the director of technology and applications engineering with ABB's Power Generation North America Division (www.abb.com), and ABB Inc. company.
DCS Security and the Open SystemWith today’s "open" DCS systems, care needs to be taken to include security measures that can be easily integrated into a particular plant owners’ overall security strategy. Critical infrastructure protection (CIP) regulations developed by the North American Reliability Corp. and sanctioned by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have spawned many DCS and SCADA security-related organizations, committees, and discussion groups. The subject of DCS security poses new challenges for plant owners as well as DCS vendors. From the plant owner perspective, security procedures need to be documented and adopted by system users, especially those in O&M. Procedures need to be enforced, maintained, and updated whenever changes are required. For tracking system changes, the latest DCS provides a new audit trail feature. Modern DCS systems are capable of supporting secure configuration at many levels (including domain, network, operating system, engineering tools, user access to stations, individual control screens, aspect links, faceplates, and tuning). As plant owners tailor security procedures to support plant-specific and fleetwide goals, the third-generation DCS system will remain adaptable to support a wide range of customer-specific strategies. |
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