Solvay Green River is developing a 20-year vision for the future of its process control system assets.
Kevin Kelley learned the value of control system lifecycle management the hard way.
Following three losses of control system power in 2012, the process control foreman at Solvay Chemical’s Green River soda ash production facility in southwestern Wyoming oversaw the long-delayed replacement of the unit’s heretofore “uninterruptible” power supply (UPS). Replacing the UPS itself went smoothly, but then 64 of 300 associated control system power supplies failed to power back up. After not a little scrambling to keep the unit up and running, the team discovered that the 14-year-old power supplies in question had a recommended replacement interval of eight years. “It really bit us,” Kelley said.
So began an ongoing journey at Solvay Green River to better understand and proactively manage the lifecycle status of the plant’s process control systems. Kelley shared Solvay’s story in his best-of-conference presentation, “Solving the Lifecycle Management Equation,” at this week’s Yokogawa Users Group conference in Orlando. Today, the plant’s CENTUM VP R5 system from Yokogawa encompasses some 12,000 I/O points, 22 Field Control Stations, 17 operator stations, six engineering stations and eight plant servers. Further, it controls processes spread out across 20 miles.
Read the rest of the story by Keith Larson at Control Global
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