Activity
  • Cybersecurity for Water Utilities

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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

    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...