Activity

  • Reliable Electrical Power and Utilities at the University of Texas

    Jim Cahill
    As a University of Texas electrical engineering graduate, it is great to hear a success story on the successful electrical load control using Emerson technology on the main campus in Austin, Texas. The campus operates an independent electrical grid but connects back to the Texas electrical grid. The utilities department has a $2.8 million operating budget. The utilities group produces 140MW of electrical power and provides…

  • Simulator Helps Drive Cultural Change Toward Operational Excellence

    Jim Cahill
    At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference, there was a presentation by an electrical power producer on driving cultural change and operational excellence through the use of simulation in the Ovation distributed control system . The facility had a 92% capacity factor so it was basically running all the time. The facility was challenged with aging workers and losing valuable experience. They decided to commit to a formal…

  • Technology Advancements for Power, Water & Wastewater Industries

    Jim Cahill
    At the 2017 Ovation Users Group conference, Emerson’s Steve Schilling discussed the rapid changes going on in the power, water and wastewater industries and the changes in technology required to keep up with these changes. Steve opened highlighting some of the key issues worrying people in these industries—reliability, reliable integration of renewables and distributed energy resources (DER), security, aging infrastructure…

  • Comprehensive Cybersecurity for Critical Infrastructure

    Jim Cahill
    The electrical power generation and distribution industries, especially here in the U.S., have a long history in working to improve reliability and security. This history goes back to the establishment of the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) in the late 1960s as a response to a widespread blackout in the Northeastern U.S. NERC became the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (also NERC)…

  • Upcoming Ovation Users’ Group Conference

    Jim Cahill
    Two weeks from now, July 23-27 2017, will be Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions business unit’s Ovation Users’ Group conference . This year will mark its 30 th year. The Ovation Users’ Group is managed, guided, and run exclusively by its members, with Emerson’s Power & Water Solutions business unit providing financial, personnel, and product support as necessary. This conference is put together by Ovation and WDPF control…

  • Avoiding Dangerous Malware Infections

    Jim Cahill
    The malware WannaCry/WannaCrypt has been all over the news recently. Since most of the operator and engineering workstations used in distributed control systems (DCSs) and supervisory control and data acquisition systems (SCADA) are PC-based, the question was naturally could these have been/or be impacted by this dangerous malware. I caught up with Emerson’s Jaime Foose . She noted that it is important to point out…

  • Different Approaches for Managing DCSs and Enterprise Systems

    Jim Cahill
    Author: Dennis Tkacs Why do computer driven systems fail? It’s a subject I want to develop over the next few blog posts. And by fail I don’t mean technically, but rather why do they fail to meet the business cases under which their procurement was initially justified? There are multiple reasons and none have to do with technology. Rather, it has to do with governance and to fully understand the implications we have…

  • Power-Gen International—Heightening Plant and Fleet Readiness

    Jim Cahill
    If you’re in the power generation industry and attending (or considering attending) next week’s Power-Gen International conference in Orlando, Florida USA, make sure to connect with the Emerson team in Booth 1849 . They are ready to listen to the challenges you face and offer ways to heighten your plant and fleet readiness to help improve availability and gain more efficiency from your operations and workforce. Register…

  • Technology Enhancements Simplify Foundation Fieldbus

    Jim Cahill
    I want to once again elevate the comments of Emerson’s Jonas Berge around the topic of educational materials for the Foundation fieldbus digital communications technology. In a post, For Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design-Use Typicals Approach , a commenter asked: Fieldbus technologies have always presented an element of fear amongst the “uninitiated” user. Is there a Fieldbus Installation Tips 101 anywhere that…

  • Cybersecurity for Water Utilities

    Jim Cahill
    One only has to do a Google News search on cybersecurity to know it is a key concern for businesses across the globe. In a Water Online article, SCADA Cybersecurity: What Every Water Utility Should Do Now To Prevent An Attack, Emerson’s Doug Johnson shares areas of concern and a path for water utilities to […] Read the full text.

  • Knowledge Sharing at Ovation User Group

    Jim Cahill
    User group conferences are a tremendous source of peer-to-peer knowledge sharing. What’s learned at these conferences can be invaluable as a shortcut to learning what works well, what to avoid, and who has similar interests with whom you can connect. Combined Cycle Journal editor, Bob Schwieger, shared his experiences in an article, Users push tomorrow’s […] Read the full text.

  • Applying Wireless Vibration Monitoring in Electrical Power Stations

    Jim Cahill
    In a recent ME Plant & Maintenance article, Wireless Vibration Monitoring –improves reliability and enhances safety (pdf), a rotating machinery engineer describes how his power station used a wireless vibration transmitter to avoid shutting down a turbine producing 200MW of electricity. Online vibration monitoring, running continuously, coupled with analysis tools helps power station personnel to [...] Read the full text…

  • Updated Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool

    Jim Cahill
    The diagnostics available in smart instrumentation can help to improve process efficiency, reduce unplanned downtime, reduce maintenance costs, and more. I received word that a valuable tool, the Foundation Fieldbus Segment Design Tool, has been updated to help in the upfront engineering process. The tool is specifically designed to provide a general guide for reducing [...] Read the full text.

  • Data Integration, Visualization and Analysis in the Water Industry

    Jim Cahill
    Municipalities feel the squeeze between aging facilities and increasing regulatory requirements. Emerson’s Greg Schirm, a member of the Power & Water Solutions team, highlights ways they are addressing these conditions. It seems that running a treatment plant or even a municipal water system was much simpler many years ago. Today, municipalities are facing numerous pressures [...] Read the full text.

  • Start with an Integrated Automation Master Plan

    Jim Cahill
    An Emerson Exchange 365 post pointed me to an article, Weathering the perfect storm, written by Emerson’s Doug Johnson for World Water magazine. The article’s synopsis: Advanced automation technologies can help reduce operational costs, improve efficiency, comply with regulations, and protect against cyber attacks. Doug highlights the many challenges facing municipalities and investor-owned utilities including [...] Read…

  • Securing Ovation Systems per NERC CIP Standards

    Jim Cahill
    In the Emerson Exchange 365 community, I saw a post announcing a February 16-17, 2012 Regional Technical Forum for Ovation system users. I got my hands on a few of the presentations, which I hope to share with you over the next few weeks. Emerson’s Mike DeKlavon, a member of the Power & Water Solutions [...] Read the full text.

  • 2011 Emerson Exchange – The Future of Process Management

    Jim Cahill
    Retired Emerson Marketing VP Dave Beckmann presented The Future of Process Management. His abstract: I will show that the Command and Control management style of the past 100 years is drawing to a close. Increasing complexity in our plants calls for a...

  • 2011 Emerson Exchange Day 2 Recap

    Jim Cahill
    Here’s a recap of some of the articles, community posts, and tweets coming from Day 2 of the Emerson Exchange in Nashville. ControlGlobal.com Emerson Exchange headlines from Tuesday: Electronic Marshalling Slashes Costs for Sulfuric Acid Maker Emerson...

  • 2011 Emerson Exchange – Wireless Relief Valve Monitoring is Now Possible

    Jim Cahill
    Wireless devices are finding their way into more and more applications. The abstract from this session is: Monitoring of relief valves is a challenge, detecting when they are “simmering”, or have lifted-off, or if after a lift-off did they re-seat fully...

  • 2011 Emerson Exchange Day 1 Recap

    Jim Cahill
    Here’s a recap of some of the articles, community posts, tweets, and videos coming from Day 1 of the Emerson Exchange. ControlGlobal.com headlines from Monday: Emerson Takes Aim at Industrial Energy Use Emerson Building Trust, Investing in Technology...

  • Advanced Biofuels: Why Feedstock Neutrality Matters

    Jim Cahill
    Should we be picking the winning alternative energy feedstocks right now? Emerson’s Douglas Morris explores this question in today’s guest post. I’d like to start this blog post with a question: When you hear the term biofuels, what typically comes to...

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