RE: Why are there missing measurements?

Jonas Berge — Sun, 06 Oct 2013 07:35:25 GMT

In my personal opinion, this presentation really embodies what Peter Zornio called “pervasive sensing” at the opening of the Exchange. It was a very good session.

WirelessHART enables existing sites to be modernized & sustained in ways previously not possible, benefitting both operations and maintenance. Wireless changes how we do things, for the better; how we maintain assets, how we look at energy consumption, how personnel operate in the field, and how we manage unmanned sites. One day every plant & field will have 1,000 wireless transmitters. Some sites are already very close.

EPCs can guide clients to modernize the plants they built years ago as a new business model to tie them through slow periods between projects. There is a formal process to modernize a plant step by step using wireless sensors. New projects should also deploy plant-wide wireless infrastructure, to make sure the new plant is not built to be run & maintained the old way with operator rounds; don’t build a new plant old.

With additional sensors throughout the plant, software, and operating procedures in place, "desktop maintenance" planning, energy conservation, HS&E compliance, and integrated operations can become a reality. Assets fitted with additional sensors become smart assets able diagnose their conditions and communicate it to operations & maintenance personnel. With these additional sensors in place, operator rounds can be reduced since the data comes to the operator, the operator need not go to the data. In other words, automate not only control loops, but also automate operator rounds and maintenance inspections. The process equipment is inspecting itself; a new type of self-diagnostics. “Pervasive sensing” across the plant is fundamental to this goal.

Adding sensors using wireless instead of wires enables accelerated deployment making it possible and low risk to deploy during a short turnaround or even while the plant is running. Another element of this is the non-intrusive mechanical installation possible for many of these measurements; strap-on (ultrasonic sensor), bolt-on (position sensor), clamp-on (temperature sensor), stick-on, screw-on, or magnetic (vibration sensor) eliminate the need for additional process penetrations for these measurements. This dramatically reduces cost and risk of deployment as there is no need to cut, drill, or weld pipes and vessels. Moreover, many of the measurement do not need high accuracy; they just need “good enough”.

Therefore more and more plants are installing WirelessHART coverage throughout their process unit areas. Plant modernization is not just system migration, but to add automation where there was none before. Indeed, it is not necessary to replace the control system to add wireless sensors. Most plants add wireless sensors to their existing system and many of the new wireless sensors may connect to separate system for reliability, non-process safety, environmental, energy, and security – separate from the process control and safety system.

Many operation and maintenance problems around the plant can be solved by deploying WirelessHART transmitters “beyond the P&ID” together with an asset management system and other software to obtain asset health information and other plant data. Wireless enables plants to innovate and experiment with new measurements to solve old operational problems.

Today we look back 20 years and wonder how we managed to get things done without a mobile phone, let alone a smart phone. 20 years from now we will look back and wonder how we could run a plant without wireless transmitters.

Learn more about pervasive sensors for missing measurements beyond the P&ID using a second layer of automation from this article: