Rockwell On Turbine Controls

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Thread Starter

Hawkes

We are looking at upgrading our Steam turbine and excitation control system, fall of next year, and two of our options that we would like more information on is the Yokogawa centum VP or CS3000, and the Rockwell Logix 5000 system. Has anyone any any experience with any of the two systems on turbine/excitation controls? Good or bad? Things you like or dislike? Has anyone experienced replacing and old system with any of the two systems mentioned? If so what system did you replace? Turbine make and type? Thank you all for your time.
 
P
Hi Hawkes -

I have used both RS products (from PLC5, SLC and now control logix) and Yokogawa (CS, CS1000, CS3000 and no VP), in many applications including steam turbine controls and interface to AVR for generation.
Both are solid well established products, are both have been used in these applications many times.

RS (general - not specific to Control Logix)
Likes - fast scan rate - 10ms -20ms which is capable of direct control of governor, reduced functionality (over DCS) means system integrators generally provide a very basic product easy to debug, limited debugging tools for CROs means gets treated as a mystery box (i.e.; no one touches it - but you get called every time something doesn't work).

Dislikes - comparatively crude / poor analogue control, no redundancy in power or CPU (some redundancy is available but crude - I have not tried control logix redundancy but I would be wary), comparatively poor/no integrated HMI options

Usage - Typically used for small standalone installations - with small RS view / panel view or 3rd party HMI

CS3000 (now VP - basically identical)
Likes - DCS functionality - sophisticated integrated HMI with logic/function block viewing and fault finding, full robust hardware redundancy, mature software product (i.e.; backwards compatible to 1992/3)

Dislikes - fastest scan rate 50ms so requires option card for high speed governor controls (I have not used their current high speed product - should be ok).

Usage - Used for medium to large, multiple units, where all balance of plant are integrated and benefits from same HMI etc.

So - you need to look around and ask;
* How many turbines, balance of plant, what auxiliaries other equipment is getting tied in

* What HMI are you intending to use

* Who will maintain and where will support come from (costs / contracts etc)

* What kind of down time can you afford - redundancy etc

* What is the expected life of the equipment and the normal lifecycle for the vendor (i.e.; hard to get PLC5 gear (late 90's), can still buy Yoko CS gear (early 90's))

And of course
* Who is doing the work for you and do they have the expertise in your preferred platform?

These opinions are of course mine alone.
Most importantly they both do the job very well, and they both have different markets, so you need to figure out what market you are in.

... in fact we are shopping for a new Gas Turbine at the moment, and recognise that GT vendors have more experience building small standalone packages for the mass market (i.e; PLC's), rather than Yoko DCS.

Even though we prefer a Yoko DCS, if the vendor has more experience with the AB PLC, this is probably what we will accept.

Cheers, PB
 
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