Amid another high-energy day of dialogue and revelations at South Africa’s inaugural Schneider Electric Xperience Efficiency event in Johannesburg, the energy management company launched its PlantStruxure Process Expert System (PES).This integrates the functionalities of Schneider Electric’s PlantStruxure collaborative architecture with StruxureWare Process Expert, a single software environment that combines control applications, supervision and field devices to configure an entire control system.
According to Steve Gerber, southern African business development manager for the Industry Business at Schneider Electric, the local availability of PlantStruxure PES will now enable the region’s industrial companies to meet automation needs while optimising operations and energy management by connecting the field, process, and enterprise levels within a business.
The system further benefits from Schneider Electric’s platform of integrated software applications and suites, StruxureWare, which provides users simple integration, a consistent experience and a scalable platform across any organisation.
“PlantStruxure PES brings together the best of programmable automation controllers (PAC) and Distributed Control Systems (DCS) to form an innovative energy-aware process automation system that meets the demands of today’s production facilities, while delivering on growing energy management requirements. The system combines energy and process data in one platform, providing a consistent, real-time control and operational interface.
“PlantStruxure PES delivers data that drives timely and accurate decision-making to reduce energy consumption and increase process efficiency,” says Gerber.
StruxureWare Process Expert, the software component of PES, leverages a single database to enable users to directly interface with a single process element, such as a pump, during runtime operations with one click. This integration delivers significant value through streamlined operations. The software also allows object libraries built for StruxureWare Process Expert to be easily modified, streamlined and customised for individual processes and users.
“PlantStruxure PES is a leading edge offering in the field of process automation systems that brings the best from the PLC/SCADA and DCS worlds and combines this with integrated energy management features to deliver superior value throughout the lifecycle of a plant,” adds Gerber.
The tight integration of the system ensures efficiency from design engineering through operation, with engineers able to develop the configuration faster and more accurately, while maintenance teams can diagnose and solve problems faster to reduce the downtime of a facility.
Historically, choices have been limited to simple PACs or more complex DCS, with no customisable option for processes with different needs. The run-time services provided by PlantStruxure PES give operators a complete picture of the production process, and enable single-screen configuration and diagnostic access traditionally found only in a DCS operator interface. PlantStruxure PES has the ability to provide clear process information that is crucial to driving production efficiency, including trend data, advanced alarm and events capabilities, and historical knowledge of performance.
PlantStruxure PES is also unique in its scalability and integration with a range of PAC systems, from basic to more complex PACs, depending on the needs of a machine or process.
“In addition, Schneider Electric’s PlantStruxure PES improves efficiency throughout the engineering phase, accelerating plant start-up and minimising project risks. An all-in-one configuration allows for faster system design through a single point of data entry,” says Gerber.
The user interface embeds all the software tools necessary to design a process application, including an application manager, topology manager and project manager. Several functionalities, including control, supervision, network and others, can be combined in the platform to offer a unified engineering lifecycle. Once control system standards have been approved, they can be standardised and reused to kickstart the design for other processes.
PlantStruxure PES supports a range of controllers that are modular, scalable, and redundant with the ability to add or remove hardware online. The controllers support a full range of input and output modules, along with dedicated communication and fieldbus modules, regulatory control, sequencing, motor control, as well as a connection to motors, electrical, power, or smart devices and instrumentation.
“Technology advances continually provide opportunities for industrial facilities to improve energy efficiency, lower operating costs and increase process performance by integrating systems that streamline process automation and control,” according to Craig Resnick, vice president of Consulting at ARC Advisory Group. “Schneider Electric’s new platform, PlantStruxure PES, addresses this market demand by integrating multi-disciplined PAC applications while simultaneously incorporating the flexibility of a DCS interface. This capability allows production facilities to integrate automation, SCADA, and energy management into a common platform, reflecting the trend of solutions convergence in the marketplace.”
Schneider Electric’s PlantStruxure integrates both hardware and software components throughout the plant, delivering a complete process management solution. EcoStruxure connects five domains of business – power, data centres, process and machines, building control and physical security – in an open and flexible technology architecture that delivers up to 30 percent savings in energy efficiency.
