Yokogawa Enhances Integrated Production Control System with Unified Alarm Management for Large-Scale Systems

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announced the September 18 release of CENTUM VP R6.07.10, an enhanced version of the CENTUM VP integrated production control system.  CENTUM VP is a core product of the OpreX Control and Safety System family of solutions.

Yokogawa has enhanced CENTUM VP R6.07.10 through the introduction of a unified alarms and conditions server (UACS) that ensures safe and secure operations, even with large-scale systems.  Based on standard rules, the UACS organizes and consolidates the alarms issued by plant devices so that only the more important alarms are brought to the attention of operators, allowing these personnel to concentrate on monitoring processes and improving overall plant efficiency.

The integrated production control system enhancements include:

1. Unified alarm management for large-scale systems
   The UACS operates based on a client-server architecture, centrally managing alarms that are displayed at operators' human interface stations (HISs).  The UACS is suitable for use even with large-scale plant control systems that include safety instrumented systems, programmable logic controllers (PLCs), electrical systems, and other components.  The server and the control functions have been designed to operate in a redundant configuration, so if an abnormality occurs in the operating server, operation is smoothly and automatically switched over to the standby server.
2. Alarm management that drives compliance with IEC 62682 (Ed1, 2014)/ ISA18.2-2016 standards
   The UACS includes functions that meet the shelving, suppressed-by-design, and out-of-service requirements defined in the IEC 62682 (Ed1, 2014)/ISA18.2-2016 alarm management standards.  The UACS supports an advanced function that suppresses alarm indication based on predefined alarm logic, so that only the more important alarms are brought to the attention of operators.  To improve efficiency, this function can be set to, for example, display only key alarms when alarm flooding occurs, or suppress all alarms during equipment maintenance.
   
   Alarm status can be displayed in a format that complies with the requirements of the alarm status transition diagram defined in the aforementioned standards.  In conformance with these standards, the UACS also supports alarm management with other Yokogawa solutions and services in the OpreX Control and OpreX Transformation categories.