Distributed Control Systems for Power Generation Industry

This Distributed Control Systems (DCS) for Power Generation market research delivers current market analysis plus a five year market and technology forecast.  The research is available in multiple editions including worldwide, all regions, and most major countries.  The research covers Electric Power Generation, Industrial Control Systems, Characterizable I/O, Configural I/O, Coal, Natural Gas, Nuclear. Oil, Renewables, Strategic Analysis, Market Size, Industry Trends.

ESG Initiatives Hindering Growth in Distributed Control System Investments from Utilities

The most important market trend in the electric power generation industry is the move to reduce the reliance on coal-fired generating capacity worldwide, due to higher carbon emissions. In general, aging coal plants are now more likely to be retired rather than updated and retrofitted with new features. This has been the case in Europe for some time, but today, new generating capacity planned in North America is predominantly wind and solar PV. The Chinese market, an important segment of the global market, is also ramping up the deployment of renewable generation. The implication of this for fossil-fired generating plants is that they will obtain a reduced share of future electric generation and thus will operate at lower capacity factors in the future. This will raise their overall plant cost metrics, such as “levelized cost of electricity” (LCOE). That in turn will make new investments in these types of plants more challenging to justify economically, even though fossil-fueled generation will remain vital to overall electric systems.

The growing emphasis toward lowering carbon emissions has resulted in smaller unit sizes (by a factor of roughly 100) that do not require full scale Distributed Control Systems. Industrial PCs and/or PLCs are often sufficient. There are benefits in larger scale automation for such installations, but most have been developed by non-utility firms and these developers have usually not concerned themselves with long-term operational issues

Distributed Control Systems for Power Generation Strategic Issues

In addition to providing a five-year market forecast, the Distributed Control Systems for Power Generation market research provides detailed quantitative current market data and addresses key strategic issues as follows.

Take Advantage of the Benefits Offered through Virtualization

Industrial control system (ICS) virtualization offers clear benefits for end users. These include lower TCO, longer ICS life, fewer disruptive changes, and improved ability to manage change and implement continuous improvement. The largest payoff comes from reduced obsolescence. End user organizations should study the virtualization strategies of their potential future ICS suppliers, paying special attention to supplier plans for migrating existing installations (including controllers) to a future virtualized runtime environment.

Consider Characterizable or Configurable I/O

End users should consider adopting the new breed of I/O. Leading automation suppliers have developed a new I/O that is either characterizable, configurable, or a combination of the two. Characterizable I/O includes hardware modules that plug into a rack and can represent analog input, analog output, digital input, digital output, etc. The type of module plugged into the rack determines the type of signal. Modules can be plugged anywhere in the rack and are location independent. Configurable I/O solutions take a similar approach in terms of point independence and flexibility, but the I/O points are configured through software rather than hardware modules. Some vendor solutions offer a combination of characterizable and configurable I/O. Vendors also offer software tools to support the commissioning and integration of smart I/O cabinets without a complete DCS.

The benefits of characterizable and configurable I/O go beyond simply reduced hardware, footprint, and wiring. They allow end users to separate the hardware-related and software-related aspects of the system. With fully adaptable and standard I/O and control hardware, end users can theoretically design and test all the software aspects of the system before it is deployed to the target system hardware. This allows the software to be deployed into the hardware infrastructure at the very late stages of the project. Often referred to as “late binding,” this can compress capital project schedules, reduce risks, and shorten the time to production.

Supplier Expertise and Support

As end user organizations downsized, many lost expertise from their in-house process automation groups. The aging workforce and retirements have also contributed to lost expertise. In many cases, users have supplanted this expertise cost-effectively using the services of knowledgeable DCS supplier personnel with expertise in engineering, maintaining, and optimizing the DCS.

Except for very large and sophisticated multinational corporations, end users should consider turning to suppliers to design and commission Ethernet networks with ultra-high availability and uninterrupted network service through multiple failure modes. Providing the necessary degree of isolation between DCS and corporate network functions to ensure safety and security, while at the same time allowing appropriate information from the DCS to flow to enterprise networks, requires the knowledgeable use of servers and other network infrastructure such as routers, switches, and firewalls.