The PacifiCorp Energy challenge was to implement an alarms and events server for their power generation systems that would extract and store event data from the sequence of events recorder.

The PacifiCorp Energy challenge was to implement an alarms and events server for their power generation systems that would extract and store event data from the sequence of events recorder in the PLC control system. Once that was in place, a client application was needed to view the stored alarms and events data. Many alarms are generated when a generator is suddenly stopped.

The SCADA system did not provide accurate event time stamping of the alarms or store the alarms for later use, noticeably increasing recovery time from an unplanned shutdown, leaving PacifiCorp unable to meet demands for power, and incurring significant down-time costs.

The ability to analyse concrete data from alarm related events would enable engineers to provide support with confidence and ultimately to shorten the length of the shut-down.

Several factors led PacifiCorp to purchase and install the Matrikon A+E Archiver for storing alarms and events.

* Overall satisfaction with other OPC servers used at the Hydro Control Centre facility.

* The existence of sequence of event recorder modules in the PLC controls system.

* A software solution would be significantly less costly than a proprietary hardware system.

The MatrikonOPC A+E Historian is a Sequence of Events (SOE) database that collects and archives time-stamped, text-based information from any device that can send information using serial, TCP/IP, printers, network printers, or OPC A+E.

The A+E Historian is perfect for merging DCS alarms and events, logging network events, replacing sequence of event recorders, loggers, or any other type device that sends text-based messages.

PacifiCorp also purchased and installed a modified version of MatrikonOPC Server for Modbus.

This OPC Server is modified specifically to communicate with Monaham sequence of event modules in the Modicon Quantum PLC control system connecting and reading 256 to 512 points for alarms and/or status.

This software serves up the raw data from the data sources into the OPC A+E Historian.

Intellution iFix is used as the HMI client application.

The application performed impressively in a test system.

It has since been installed at the JC Boyle plant in Oregon and it is performing equally as well.

The software modification and implementation went very well because there were clear objectives, with sufficient information to do the design.

There were a couple of minor issues that were quickly resolved.

One was the hand-shaking issue when extracting the data from the sequence of event recorder and the other was the rate of extraction.

The Matrikon personnel on-site for the implementation of the test systems worked on the implementation and training on the A+E Archiver, Viewer and the OPC server.

They were very knowledgeable with the applications and were able to efficiently resolve problems which occurred during the implementation.

PacifiCorp now have the ability to store and view events so that they can accurately and expediently troubleshoot the system in the event of an unplanned shut-down.

With easy access to this data the engineers can provide confident support, reducing maintenance and down-time, quickly meeting the demands for power and avoiding lost revenue.

The long term plan is to install the applications in all of the PacifiCorp generation facilities.

PacifiCorp is one of the lowest-cost electricity producers in the United States, providing more than 1.6 million customers with reliable, efficient energy.