Emerson’s Bid to Digitize the Isolation and Pressure Relief Valve Markets

Terry Buzbee, Group President, Final Control, recently discussed Emerson’s acquisition of Pentair’s Valves & Controls business with ARC Advisory Group in Houston. This discussion took place days after the announcement that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) had approved Emerson’s acquisition of Valves & Controls, with the caveat that the company sells Pentair’s switchbox business to Crane.

News of Emerson’s bid to acquire the Valves & Controls business created quite a stir in the market when it was first announced as the acquisition pairs the leading global supplier of control valves with the leading global supplier of isolation and pressure relief valves. The acquisition significantly expands the breadth of Emerson’s valve portfolio, strengthens its European presence, and increases its valve service capabilities. Most importantly, however, is Emerson’s stated goal to digitize the isolation and pressure relief valve markets.

While millions of these pressure relief and isolation valves are installed worldwide, most of them are not connected assets. At the same time, these valves perform critical tasks that can have a huge impact on plant performance. Digitizing these devices will create significant opportunities for owner-operators to increase safety and reliability.

Status Quo Leads to Unnecessary Cost and Complexity
Isolation and pressure relief valve suppliers typically focus exclusively on the valve body, leaving the valve actuation and instrumentation of the valves to separate groups of suppliers. As such, these products are typically bought and sold as a commodity from different vendors. This leaves it up to the customer (or an independent integrator) to assemble the separate components into a functional valve assembly.

This situation leads to a highly fragmented market, creating unnecessary confusion, complexity, cost, and often even downtime for owner-operators. And when an owner-operator experiences trouble with one of its isolation or pressure relief valves, there’s often a lot of finger pointing by the various vendors involved as none want to assume responsibility for the incompatibility or failure.

Emerson Expands Its Presence Across Multiple Valve Markets
With its acquisition of Valves & Controls, Emerson now owns some of the leading global isolation and pressure relief valve brands. Prior to the acquisition, Emerson’s valve portfolio consisted almost exclusively of modulating control valve and valve actuation brands. The acquisition significantly broadens Emerson’s overall valve portfolio and provides the company a leading presence in a pair of valve markets in which it previously only dabbled.

Emerson’s plan is to leverage the company’s expanded scope of valve and automation solutions to revolutionize how isolation and pressure relief valves are bought, sold, and maintained. By combining Pentair’s leading isolation and pressure relief valve brands with Emerson’s leading control valve brand, Fisher, the company plans to become a main valve contractor (MVC) capable of handling all the valve needs of the owner-operators. Combining the company’s newfound ability to serve as a MVC with the company’s strong presence in the DCS, asset management, intelligent field device, and main automation contractor (MAC) business, allows Emerson to serve as a partner to owner-operators for most of their automation needs.

Eliminating Unnecessary Cost and Complexity
By leveraging its strengths in control valves, distributed control systems, plant asset management, and digital valve positioners, Emerson has helped reduce the cost and complexity of installing, operating, and maintaining automation assets across the lifecycles of its customers’ plants. The company now plans to extend this approach to include isolation and pressure relief valves.

The current status quo of purchasing isolation and pressure relief valves separately from the actuator and instrumentation adds an unnecessary level of uncertainty that often increases the time and cost of installing these valves, while potentially reducing overall valve compatibility and reliability. By acting as a one-stop-shop for isolation and pressure relief valve bodies, actuation, and instrumentation purchases, installation, and servicing; Emerson hopes to strip away this unnecessary level of uncertainty to help reduce the time, cost, and effort required to install and commission these valves. Taking this one step further; Emerson also hopes to leverage its strengths in wireless networking and intelligent field devices to increase the availability and reliability of critical emergency shutdown and other safety valves, thereby increasing overall plant safety.

Expanding Valve Automation Landscape
Control valve installation and maintenance practices have changed dramatically with the adoption of digital positioners, digital field networks, and predictive maintenance practices. While there is still plenty of room for improvement, these changes have already helped reduce costs and unplanned downtime for owner-operators that have successfully adopted these new technologies and corresponding work processes.

ARC feels the time is right for owner-operators to begin expanding their valve automation landscape by making similar changes to the installation and maintenance practices for isolation and pressure relief valves. Automating and connecting isolation and pressure relief valves can provide significant economic benefits, but success depends on a willingness to embrace new technologies and buying practices.

A key benefit for those who adopt new buying practices for isolation and pressure relief valves is that a single supplier (Emerson in this case) can assume responsibility to ensure these components are integrated safely and securely and supported by the appropriate services. This will become increasingly important in the future as isolation and pressure relief valves are integrated into plant automation and other systems.

Early involvement by a MVC can have a big impact on project success. MVCs provide economic advantages to owner-operators in three key areas: reduced coordination effort, reduced commissioning time, and reduced customization costs, all of which help reduce risk. Cumulatively, these can help reduce both installed cost and overall cost of ownership. As a single source of responsibility, the MVC removes the associated effort and cost of juggling several different suppliers, and/or integrators from the owner-operator. Single point of ownership minimizes or eliminates the need for custom integration, which often adds significant cost and risk to a project.

If the industry continues to implement traditional technologies and buying practices, end users will continue to be burdened by unnecessary costs, complexities, and inefficiencies. With its acquisition of Pentair’s Valves & Controls business, Emerson is betting that end users will be willing to adopt new technologies and new buying practices for their isolation and pressure relief valves. Emerson has invested significant energy and resources to put itself in a position to serve as a main valve contractor. The transition won’t be easy, but significant benefits will be available to those owner-operators that successfully navigate the waters of change.

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Keywords: Emerson Automation Solutions, Pentair, Digitization, IIoT, Isolation Valve, Pressure Relief Valve, Main Valve Contractor, Main Automation Contractor, ARC Advisory Group.