Every company is dependent on some type of asset that keeps the business in business – be it a computer, a centrifuge, or a megawatt transformer. In a large enterprise, reducing costs related to asset maintenance, repair, and ultimate replacement is at the top of management concerns. Downtime in any network, manufacturing, or computer system ultimately results not only in high repair costs, but in customer dissatisfaction and lower potential sales. In response to these concerns, this paper presents a methodology for creating a real-time Condition-based Maintenance (CBM) solution with the OSIsoft PI System. It provides valuable guidelines for planning an enterprise system that monitors critical maintenance processes and assets. This paper provides answers to many high priority CBM questions including:

• What is condition-based maintenance and how can it benefit your company?
• How to plan, create, and deploy a real-time CBM solution for all of the assets in your enterprise.
• How to create a framework that captures asset data, characteristics, and performance, and reuses asset models can save time and maintenance costs
• Why on-demand, role-based visualizations of asset conditions are essential for effective condition assessment and decision-making.
• How accurate real-time data reduces down time of systems through timely awareness of asset condition from workflow and triggered notifications

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It takes Pacesetters two steps to optimize their maintenance efforts. First they automate their realtime data acquisition and storage using standards-based software applications. Second, they implement CBM systems that assess equipment health based on timely and accurate information. This enables Pacesetters to prioritize their maintenance efforts by moving human and capital resources away from well functioning equipment to areas that scream for early attention.

While at first it might seem that Pacesetters’ accomplishments are currently out of reach, most corporations are indeed surprised to find out that these steps are easier to complete than initially perceived. Using commercial-off-the-shelf software and standards-based applications, such tasks can be completed economically and provide exceptional add-on value to the CMMS installations.

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AQUALGAE is a Spanish company specialized in integral solutions for microalgae production, including design and manufacture of photobioreactors, supply of microalgae strains and culture media. Microalgae play a key role in aquaculture, food and feed industry, and may prove to be outstanding for better biofuels, food and pharmaceuticals, and water/wastewater treatments.

AQUALGAE soon turned to InduSoft Web Studio to create flexible and robust SCADA/HMI systems that could grow with advancing technology in the increasingly important microalgae production industry.

With InduSoft Web Studio, AQUALGAE has been able to meet the shifting requirements of customers who require a robust and highly flexible SCADA/HMI system to control and monitor photobioreactor plants.

Microalgae are microscopic algae typically found in freshwater and marine systems. They have a very high photosynthetic efficiency and may be found in all habitats of our planet. Microalgae are the main primary producers and contribute to the major capture of CO2 from the atmosphere, with its concomitant O2 release. There is a tremendous biotechnology potential over microalgae still to be explored.

With climate change recognized as one of the top threats to our planet, microalgae may prove to be key for CO2 mitigation, creating biofuels, developing food and pharmaceuticals, and water/wastewater treatments. The vast array of products that can be produced through microalgae cultivation include everything from industrial applications to health and food supplements.

AQUALGAE is a company specialized in integral solutions for microalgae production, from small-scale labs to pilot-scale and large scale projects. The company designs, manufactures, and installs different type of photobioreactors, as well as offering microalgae starter cultures, culture media, and auxiliary equipment.

Due to the rapid growth in the industry, scalability is critical to new systems developed by AQUALGAE. When they discovered that their original SCADA software platform was not flexible enough to handle the growing demands of customers. AQUALGAE soon turned to InduSoft Web Studio to create flexible and robust SCADA/HMI systems that could scale easily with advancing technology.

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Kepware Technologies, a software development company focused on communications for automation, announced today that leading power and automation company, ABB, has integrated KEPServerEX with its flagship product, 800xA Integrated Control and Safety System (ICSS). Selected as the main automation contractor for the world's first operation focused on converting gas from coal seams into liquefied natural gas, ABB utilizes Kepware's highly flexible and reliable communications platform to meet the project's demanding scalability needs.

Widely regarded as a leading innovator of clean and efficient energy solutions, ABB has undertaken this project in an effort to develop more environmentally-friendly fuels. As part of the operation, the company introduces several new wells on a daily basis that have between 50 and 70 data points being scanned on a 30 second cycle time. These requirements necessitate the ability to bring wells on and off line in a highly streamlined and efficient manner.

To ensure ABB could reliably configure these well sites and retrieve the vast amounts of data they produce, the company integrated Kepware's KEPServerEX communications platform. With its library of over 150 PLC, RTU, and device-type drivers, KEPServerEX helps users connect, manage, monitor, and control diverse automation devices and software applications through one user interface. Its robust functionality enabled ABB to scale the project without learning new communications protocols or introducing other applications. Furthermore, with the ability to import and export KEPServerEX configuration information in an easy-to-understand XML format, ABB has a simple, scalable, and reliable method for configuring new wells.

"With KEPServerEX, we were able to automate a traditionally manual process associated with bringing wells online—and with this particular project's expansion speed, we had no time physically to provision wells," said Mike Oakley, Consultant Engineer, ABB Ltd. "KEPServerEX worked seamlessly with our flagship control system so that a single button click would have the potential to bring hundreds of wells on or off line in mere minutes."