Dr. A. Afzalian Dept.

of Computer & Control Systems Engineering, The Power & Water University of Technology (PWUT)
A Short Course, April 2005

Process Automation

Outline:
Examples of automated processes Types of plants and controls Automation hierarchy Control System Architecture Process Automation 2/27

Automation Applications
Power generation
Transmission Distribution Process Manufacturing

hydro, coal, gas, oil, shale, nuclear, wind, solar

electricity, gas, oil electricity, water paper, food, pharmaceutical, metal, processing, glass, cement, chemical, refinery, oil & gas computer aided manufacturing (CIM), flexible fabrication, appliances, automotive, aircrafts

Storage
Building

silos, elevator, harbor, deposits, luggage handling

heat, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC), access control, fire, energy supply, tunnels, highways,....

Transportation

rolling stock, street cars, sub-urban trains, busses, cars, ships, airplanes, satellites,...
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Examples of Automated Plants

Cars
Appliances control (windows, seats, radio,..) Motor control (exhaust regulations) ABS and EPS, brake-by-wire, steer-by-wire 19% of the price is electronics, (+10% per year)

Airplanes Avionics
flight control, autopilot flight management flight recording, black boxes diagnostics fly-by-wire

Process Automation

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Examples of Automated Plants

Flexible Automation, Manufacturing
Numerous conveyors, robots, CNC machines, paint shops, logistics.

Process Automation

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Examples of Automated Plants: Oil, Gas and Petrochemicals Upstream:

from the earth to the refinery
(High pressure, saltwater, inaccessibility explosive environment with gas)

Distribution:
(environmental protection)

Downstream:
(extreme explosive environment)

Process Automation

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Examples of Automated Plants: Power plants

Raw materials supply Primary process (steam, wind) Personal, plant and neighbourhood safety Environmental impact Generation process (voltage/frequency) Energy distribution (substation)

Process Automation

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Examples of Automated Plants:

Waste treatment, incinerators
Raw material supply Burning process Smoke cleaning Environmental control Co-generation process (steam, heat)

Ash analysis
Ash disposal

Process Automation

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Examples of Automated Plants:

Water treatment

Managing pumps, tanks, chemical composition, filters, movers,..

Process Automation 9/27

Automation Systems Manufacturers

Company ABB Siemens Ansaldo Emerson General Electric Honeywell Rockwell Automation Alstom Schneider Electric Invensys Hitachi Yokogawa Location CH-SE DE IT US US US US FR FR UK JP JP Allen Bradley, Rockwell,.. Alsthom, GEC, CEGELEC, ABB Power,.. Tlmcanique, Square-D, ... Foxboro, Siebe, BTR, Triconex, Fisher Rosemount Major mergers Brown Boveri, ASEA, CE, Alfa-Laval, Elsag-Bailey Plessey, Landis & Gyr, Stfa, Cerberus,..

80 B / year business, growing 5 % annually

Process Automation 10/27

Technical Necessity of Automation

Processing of the information flow Enforcement of safety and availability Reduction of personal costs

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Expectations of Automation
Process Optimisation Energy, material and time savings Quality improvement, reduction of waste, pollution control compliance with laws, product tracking Increase availability, safety Fast response to market Connection to management and accounting Acquisition of large number of Process Variables, data mining Personal costs reduction Simplify interface Assist decision Require data processing, displays, data base, expert systems Human-Machine Interface (MMC = Man-Machine Communication) Asset Optimisation Automation of engineering, commissioning and maintenance Software configuration, back-up and versioning Maintenance support Engineering Tools Process Automation 12/27

Data Quantity in Different Plants

Power Plant (25 years ago)

100 measurement and action variables (called "points")

Analog controllers, analog instruments one central "process controller" for data monitoring and protocol. Thermal power plant (today) 10000 points, comprising:
8000 binary and analog measurement points and 2000 actuation point

1000 micro-controllers and logic controllers Nuclear Power Plant three times more points than in conventional power plants Electricity distribution network

100000 10000000 points

Data reduction and processing is necessary to operate plants
Process Automation 13/27

Automation Hierarchy
Little difference in the overall architecture of different applications control systems. ANS/ISA standard Enterprise Resource Planning:
Business Planning & Logistics Plant Production Scheduling Operational Management, etc. Supervision (SCADA) Enterprise

Manufacturing Execution

Manufacturing Execution System:

Manufacturing Operations & Control Dispatching Production, Detailed Product Scheduling, Reliability Assurance,...

Group Control

Individual Control Field

Control & Command System:

Batch control Continuous Control Discrete control Process Automation Primary technology

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Example: Siemens WinCC

Process Automation

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Large control system hierarchy

4
3 Planning, Statistics, Finances administration

Workflow, Resources, Interactions Supervisory

SCADA = Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition

enterprise
supervision

Group Control Unit Control 1 Field Sensors & Actors 0 Primary technology
Process Automation 16/27

A V

Large control system hierarchy Cont 2

Administration: Production goals, planning Enterprise: Manages resources, workflow, coordinates activities of different sites quality supervision, maintenance, distribution and planning Supervision: Supervision of the site, optimization, on-line operations, Control room, Process Data Base, logging (open loop) Group (Area): Control of a well-defined part of the plant (closed loop, except for intervention of an operator)
Coordinates individual subgroups, Adjusting set-points and parameters
Commands several units as a whole
Process Automation 17/27

Large control system hierarchy Cont 3

Unit (Cell): Control (regulation, monitoring and protection) of a small part of a group (closed loop except for maintenance)
Measure: Sampling, scaling, processing, calibration Control: regulation, set-points and parameters Command: sequencing, protection and interlocking

Field: Sensors & Actuators, data acquisition, digitalization, data transmission No processing except measurement correction and built-in protection
Process Automation 18/27

Field level
Field level is in direct interaction with the plant's hardware

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Group level
Group level coordinates the activities of several unit controls Distributed Control Systems (DCS) commonly refers to a hardware and software infrastructure to perform Process Automation

unit controllers

Process Automation

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Local human interface at group level

Sometimes, the group level has its own man-machine interface for local operation control (here: cement packaging)
Process Automation

Maintenance console / emergency panel

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Supervisory level: Man-machine interface

Control room (mimic wall) 1970s...

All instruments were directly wired to the control room

Process Automation 22/27

Supervisory level: SCADA = Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition

Displays the current state of the process (visualization) Display the alarms and events (alarm log, logbook) Display the trends (historians) and analyse them Display handbooks, data sheets, inventory, expert system (documentation) Allows communication and data synchronization with other centres
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Process Automation

Operator workplace: Three main functions

1. Current state
2. Trends and history

3. Alarms and events

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Response time and hierarchical level

Planning Level MES Execution Level Supervisory Level
(Manufacturing Execution System) (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)

ERP
(Enterprise Resource Planning)

SCADA

DCS
(Distributed Control System)

Control Level

PLC
(Programmable Logic Controller)

ms

seconds

hours

days

weeks

month

years
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Process Automation

Complexity and Reaction Speed in Hierarchical levels

months days minutes seconds 0.1s 0.01s

ERP MES

Supervision Group Control Individual Control Field

Site
Complexity
Process Automation

Reaction Speed
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Operation and Process Data

Normally, the operator is only concerned by the supervisory level, but exceptionally, operators (and engineers) want to access data of the lowest levels The operator sees the plant through a fast data base, refreshed in background

Process Automation

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