Reviewer details
Name: Steve Niven
Position/designation: Control and Instrumentation Engineer
Company: Anglo Coal Regional Engineering Services
Telephone: +27 (0)13 691 5408
E-mail: [email protected]
Product details
Vendor: Siemens
Product name and version: WinCC Ver 6
Telephone: +27 (0)11 652 3683
E-mail: [email protected]
General
Q: In what industry is the scada application?
A: Anglo Coal Goedehoop Colliery - Mining Industry.
Q: Briefly describe the application including information on any pre-existing control system or scada system that was in place.
A: The project was for the construction of an Ultra Fines Beneficiation Plant comprising nine sets of primary and secondary flotation cells, two 100 plate filter presses and all ancillary equipment (84 drives). The control of the new plant was achieved using an S7 400 PLC, utilising Simocodes for all drives, and Profibus and ASI bus networks for all field instrumentation. The project was combined with the existing PLC and scada network into a totally integrated project (TIA) using Simatic Manager. The new PLC was connected to the existing PLCs and scada via Industrial Ethernet and the new Industrial PC 477 Panel PC was configured as a thin client on the scada network. The automation system now consists of 4 x S7-416s and 10 x S7-315s on an Industrial Ethernet backbone.
Q: Who performed the scada configuration?
A: The project and system integration was carried out by Dowding Reynard and Associates.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the scada configuration take?
A: The project was completed using one control engineer, one scada development technician and the assistance of several instrumentation personnel from the mine during FAT testing and commissioning.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular system?
A: The licensing is modular and dependent on the software options selected. Currently on site we have two x redundant 64 000 Tag I/O Servers, one x integrated Engineering Station, five x standard Clients, 10 x Concurrent User Web Navigator which handle standard Internet clients as well as thin clients. Engineering licenses are 'Floating' and can be maintained on a central server.
Q: What upgrade agreements are in place? Are patches and version upgrades free, covered under annual maintenance or managed in some other way?
A: Patches and updates are free and all upgrades are covered under an annual maintenance agreement.
Q: Describe how the after-sales support is handled?
A: The after-sales support, if required, is via the system integrator and Siemens. The mine has the technical expertise to operate and maintain the system.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog, digital, other?
A: The tag base for the new fines flotation projects is approximately 17 000 and the total tag count for the combined project is 59 000.
Q: On what operating system is the scada running?
A: The servers are operating under Windows 2003 server and the clients run on XP Professional.
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
A: By standardising on Siemens equipment, the new PLC and the existing PLCs and scada have been combined into one project using Simatic Manager to create a totally integrated project. All engineering for the PLC and scada was carried out from a dedicated engineering station, all tags and alarms in the scada as well as system errors are automatically generated from Simatic Manager, no importing or exporting of databases is required, any changes to the scada graphics or database are automatically downloaded to the servers and clients, By using the TIA (Totally Integrated Automation) solution we have reduced engineering and implementation time considerably.
Q: What are the key physical communication layers and communication protocols employed in the system?
A: The fieldbus is all Profibus DP on a mixture of copper and fibre dependent on distance. Industrial Ethernet is used between Simatic PLCs and WinCC.
Q: Is the scada system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet?
A: Yes. The system is connected to the intranet and allows full control and/or data monitoring, depending on user access levels. We are also making use of the thin client capabilities of the system with full control access for our PC 477 panels situated at the filter presses.
Q: Does the application utilise web services?
A: Not currently.
Q: What sort of redundancy is incorporated in this scada application?
A: There is a full hot standby redundancy between the two WinCC servers, with full transparency between the servers, so any data lost during a server's downtime is automatically recovered as soon as the node comes back online.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process.
A: The graphics were developed using existing libraries created from the original project with several plant specific objects and sequence control face plates being created. Most of the graphics were created within the standard WinCC Graphics development environment.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: The library of images is very extensive (3000+ ActiveX components) and could be used to create any piece of plant equipment we required.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images?
A: Not answered
Compatibility
Q: Describe any specific scada scripts or custom code that were written for this project?
A: WinCC 6.0 and up comes standard with VBA, VBS and ANSI C, several scripts were written for sequence and faceplate control.
Management reporting and integration
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included?
A: WinCC 6 comes standard with a built-in high volume historian based on Microsoft SQL Server 2000, the new version 6.2 has been upgraded to use MS SQL Server 2005. Trending is configured using the ActiveX trend control supplied with the system, allowing for easy customisation.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: There is a management reporting system called DataMonitor installed that enables exporting of data across the intranet to Excel-based reports as well as various other Internet-based Plant Intelligence tools.
Q: Describe any production benchmarking tools which have been configured as part of the scada system?
A: Not answered.
System safety, security and data protection
Q: Describe any alarm management standards or best practices that have been adopted in configuring the scada system?
A: The project was engineered according to Siemens 'Good Engineering Practices', which requires the WinCC to be part of the Step7 programming environment, and makes use of the Alarm8P blocks within the Simatic PLCs. This allows for 'at source time and date stamping', true sequence of events and a huge decrease in network traffic.
Q: What steps have been taken to firewall the plant network(s) on which this scada system exists?
A: The DataMonitor system, which is the Plant Intelligence Portal, is the only PC part of the Control network that users outside of this network can access, and this has been protected via firewall, allowing access only to registered users through VPN.
Q: Describe any configuration back-up and archive back-up methodologies that have been adopted?
A: Back-ups of engineering software are updated on a monthly basis to an external server. This process is made significantly easier due to the fact that one project contains our entire PLC and scada configuration.
Conclusion
Q: What impresses you the most about the system?
A: The ease of combining the existing and new project into a TIA solution, the simplicity by which various communication networks are configured, auto generation of all tags and alarms for the scada, the open architecture, no proprietary standards or black boxes! Finally the back-up and support from Siemens.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another?
A: The reason behind selecting WinCC as the scada package was because of standardisation and the good working relationship that Anglo Coal has had with Siemens over many years. The products are always at the forefront of technology and are value for money. The technical backup supplied by Siemens is first rate. Siemens is the preferred automation solutions supplier.
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