As you may know, steam and water analysis systems in power plants present challenges common to many industrial plants in harsh environments. Finding a cost-effective way to predict maintenance requirements without excessive personnel time was one of the requirements when a Power Plant in India set out to select an analysis system for two new power plants. Their choice was Emerson and their system is wireless. Why did they choose wireless and why should you consider wireless?
The total system includes fifty-six Model 1056HT analyzers each using the Smart wireless THUM adapter to provide a highly flexible, self-organizing network. In addition, the Indian Power Plant is using four units each of the Rosemount CFA Silica and Sodium analyzers and four sample conditioning systems. The Power Plant in India chose the Model 1056 because all the units were panel-mounted and by using the Model 1056, the wet chemistry units in the system could also be configured for wireless signal transmission.
While we often think of wireless as a way to save wiring and installation costs in an existing industrial facility, in fact, this project clearly shows that there are other drivers for the choice of wireless. The wireless plants are brand new Green Field projects and the cost of installing a wired system was not the primary factor in the selection of Emerson. Rather it was the quick commissioning made possible by wireless. The time savings involved will allow for early project completion.
Another reason for selection of the wireless technology for the SWAS was the ability to get vital diagnostics from all the measurement points. Analyzer diagnostics such as pH cracked glass are important to maintenance scheduling. Temperature is always measured in the pH, conductivity and DO analysis but typically it is not used in wired systems because it consumes analog input at the DCS. Using wireless, this Power Plant customer in India is able to get sample temperature as required – a significant indicator of the “health” of the sample conditioning system.
Emerson has pioneered wireless steam and water analysis systems for the power industry. With this Indian Power Plant customer, the application clearly demonstrates that there are many important reasons to consider wireless technology in industrial plants of all types.
If you have any questions about how wireless can work for you, please do let us know! We’d be happy to provide you with answers.
Can you advise what are the benefits of ‘Portable Validation SWAS ‘ unit for power industry ?
In reply to Elfie:
Portable Validation SWAS unit are portable SWAS system with conductivity validation units in the portable panel and has traceability to NIST standards. One can troubleshoot the points which are not monitored in the current SWAS, have temporary measurements with minimum investments and is truly portable. These traceable NIST readings can be used for reference readings too.
Elfie , I think the above can be huge benefit for the power industry personnel.
Do people worry about security....is it possible to hack into a wireless network to run havoc in the plant?
In reply to chowyang.neo:
We have 5 layered approaches, Encryption, Authentication, Verification, Key Management and Anti-jamming, to prevent our network from security issues such as hacking, DoS, spoofing, and etc. Also, IEC62591 WirelessHART network is based on IEEE802.15.4 and not on TCP/IP base communication so most of widely used as haching tools in Internet may not be usable for WirelessHART field network.
In reply to Ryo Hashimoto:
More information about wireless solution you can also find on the next link:
www2.emersonprocess.com/.../WirelessHomePage-Flash.aspx
Information regarding security side of our solution you can find here:
www2.emersonprocess.com/.../Security.aspx