Process plants and pipelines generate thousands of alarms from their automation systems every day – many of which are not serious. Control room operators must then quickly distinguish between routine process alarms and critical alarms that warn of operating problems or safety issues.

Honeywell has unveiled its new DynAMo™ Alarm Suite, an advanced alarm management software that reduces the overall number of alarms while helping operators focus and respond to those most critical.

At issue is the sheer number of alarms, which range from day-to-day activities (known as nuisance alarms) such as the opening of an electrical switch room door, to notification of a critical equipment failure. According to the Abnormal Situation Management® (ASM®) Consortium, ineffective management of nuisance alarms can lead to incidents that cost the process industry billions of dollars, and pose an increased risk of fatigue and stress for operators who must constantly make instant decisions on how to respond when an alarm sounds.

DynAMo Alarm Suite leverages more than 20 years of alarm management experience in the process industries, and can help users reduce overall alarm count by as much as 80 percent, identify maintenance issues, and increase visibility of critical alarms that require urgent attention. Its customizable, role-based dashboard enables operators, engineers and managers to view the health of their alarm system at a glance. A key feature of the new software is that it is compatible with many mobile devices, enabling personnel to view alarm metrics at any time, from almost any location. This ease of access enables more frequent monitoring and faster corrective action, which helps alleviate a major fatigue factor of operators.

“When operators are forced to deal with hundreds of alarms at any given point in time, there is increased risk to safety not to mention process efficiency,” said Vimal Kapur, vice president and general manager of Honeywell Process Solutions Advanced Solutions business. “The DynAMo Alarm Suite is an effective tool for optimizing alarm management programs to prevent alarm floods and ‘chatter,’ and reduce operator stress. The software offers a layer of protection to minimize unplanned outages, safety incidents and environmental releases.”

DynAMo Alarm Suite can be integrated with Honeywell’s industry-leading Experion® Process Knowledge System (PKS), as well as any other control system. Honeywell also offers alarm management consulting, services and support, with worldwide coverage.

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As part of its VPS* initiative, Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it will release an upgraded VPSRemote™ service solution on November 22. VPSRemote is a solution for the remote monitoring and general and preventive maintenance of systems. The upgraded VPSRemote now allows users to link their plants around the world and provide operation support and engineering services from specified locations on the network. The upgraded VPSRemote solution can now be used with information systems as well as control systems.

VigilantPlant Services®: a suite of services that realizes Yokogawa’s VigilantPlant® control business concept by helping customers achieve the ideal plant

Development Background:

As plant control systems grow more complex and sophisticated, they are increasingly used together with safety instrumented systems, manufacturing execution systems, and the like. Manufacturers with global operations thus need the capability to provide remote operation support and engineering services for both the control and the information systems used at their plants.

Yokogawa has provided remote maintenance service since the 1980s, and in 2012 released VPSRemote, a remote monitoring and general and preventive maintenance service that is delivered over a dedicated, highly reliable, and fast network. Yokogawa has now upgraded VPSRemote to add flexibility in how these services are provided.

Advantech WebAccess is a web browser-based software package for human-machine interfaces (HMI) and supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA). All the features found in conventional HMI and SCADA software including Animated Graphics Displays, Real-time Data, Control, Trends, Alarms and Logs, are available in an standard web browser. WebAccess is built around the latest internet technologies. The basic components are:

1. SCADA Node: it communicates in real-time with automation equipment and controls the equipment via serial, Ethernet or proprietary communication via multiple built-in device drivers. Not only does it run local controls and monitoring, but also provides real-time data to all remote clients.

2. Project Node: it is the development platform for WebAccess and is a web server for all clients to connect to the development project or remotely monitor and control the system. All system configuration, project database files and graphics are stored here.

3. Client node: through the ActiveX control inside Microsoft Internet Explorer, it monitors and controls the SCADA Node. The client connects to the Project Node and get the address of the SCADA Node, then communicates directly with the SCADA Node using proprietary communications over a TCP/IP connection. Data is displayed in real-time with dynamically animated graphics along with real-time, historical trending and alarm information. Users can acknowledge alarms and change set-points, status and other data.

4. Mobile Client: the Mobile Client interface is intended for use with smart mobile devices, such as iOS, Android; and Windows mobile devices. In the mobile client users can browse graphics, data-log trends, and tag information in real-time. Set value to tag or acknowledge alarms can also be supported via an intuitive interface.

Main Features include:

• View, control and configure system remotely over an intranet or the Internet using standard web browser
• Mobile client support for iOS, Android and Windows mobile devices
• Support for open standard programming: TCL, JavaScript and VB script
• Open real-time data connectivity: OPC, Modbus, BACnet, DDE Server
• Open offline data connectivity: SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Microsoft Access database
• Full LonWorks LNS and BACnet support
• Distributed SCADA architecture with central database server
• Redundant SCADA, ports and devices
• Google Maps Integration
• Remote access to alarms and data
• SMS alarm notification, e-mail alarm, report and messages
• Web-enabled video and audio
• Multi-layer inter-operable SCADA nodes

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Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, has recently released KEPServerEX® version 5.13. The updated communications platform expands Kepware's support of industry standards, and enables improved interoperability and communications across key industries.

KEPServerEX version 5.13 features client- or user-driven on-demand communications with new Device Demand Poll functionality. This added flexibility enables users to meet the client-driven polling requirements of their application. Also included in this release, the Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Unsolicited Driver for KEPServerEX is now compliant with Open DeviceNetwork Association (ODVA) standards, ensuring interoperability with other Ethernet/IP-based products.

"Interoperability issues are paramount with multi-vendor products, which is why our commitment to supporting industry standards is a top priority as we continue to advance our products," said Tony Paine, President and CEO of Kepware Technologies. "With version 5.13, we improved the performance of our Allen-Bradley ControlLogix Unsolicited Driver and achieved ODVA certification."

The enhancements made to KEPServerEX's EFM Suite considerably advance its communication capabilities for the upstream and midstream Oil & Gas Industry. The EFM Exporter now supports exporting collected archive data directly to any SQL database for custom applications and analysis. Furthermore, the Fisher ROC and ROC Plus Serial drivers now support User Programs in Emerson's Fisher ROC and FloBossTM devices, which enables automatic tag generation and data access to User Defined Points.

"As regulations tighten and Oil & Gas networks span increasingly greater distances, the industry requires new and innovative approaches for collecting and communicating data," said Steve Sponseller, Product Manager of Oil & Gas Solutions at Kepware. "The value of data to the Oil & Gas Industry is growing exponentially. With version 5.13, we paid special attention to helping the industry leverage this information to make highly-informed business decisions."