Symphony Plus: The evolution continues

Much has happened in the past year. The global introduction of Symphony™ Plus in April 2011 was followed by rollouts in all the regions and major markets of the world: the Americas, Europe, Asia, China, the Middle East and Africa, India, South Korea, Australia and many more. Most of these rollouts took place at high-profile industry trade fairs and conferences like Power-Gen, or at ABB’s hugely popular regional Automation and Power World events. Over the course of these events, hundreds of installed base customers and thousands of representatives of the power generation and water industries attended the launch presentations and live demos.

The response of our customers and of the market in general has been overwhelmingly positive. New orders and upgrades have flowed in. Within the first 12 months, ABB has delivered or is delivering Symphony Plus total plant automation systems to control more than 8,000 MW of electrical generation. And the request for upgrades or expansions from existing installed base power and process customers has been equally impressive. Profiles of several of these Symphony Plus projects are presented in this issue of In Control.

On the product front, ABB has been very active. New functionalities and features are continuously under development to ensure that Symphony Plus delivers the best-fit automation system for the markets it serves. Over the past year, new product functionalities and enhancements have been introduced to all areas of the system – from electrical integration and alarm management to engineering efficiency and cyber security. And now, as Symphony Plus reaches the one-year anniversary of its introduction, we are excited to announce the addition of several new control and I/O products that are specifically designed to meet the present and future control needs of our customers.The Symphony Plus controller family grows
One of the strengths of the Symphony Plus portfolio is that it includes a comprehensive suite of standardsbased control hardware and software that meets the requirements of total plant automation.

S+ Control HPC800 is the latest addition to the Symphony Plus controller family. It complements existing controller versions and is suitable for applications that require modular DIN rail packaging.

HPC800 features a high-performance, Fast Ethernet-based plant network that makes it particularly suitable for distributed control applications in modern conventional and renewable power plants and water networks. Intelligent electrical and field device integration, as well as PROFIBUS and HART communication protocols, are also available with this controller.

All the Symphony Plus controllers, including BRC410 and HPC800, are flexible and secure, have a high-performance capability and include state-ofthe art ABB control technology. They are interoperable with previous generations, and share control functionalities and technologies that are designed to protect the customer’s investments over the plant’s life time.

S+ Control HPC800 controller S+ Control HPC800 is a high-performance, high-capacity process controller that supports the plant’s total control requirements. HPC800 features include: Simultaneous support of Harmony (and S+) Rack I/O, S800 I/O, S+ HART I/O, S+ Turbine I/O and intelligent field devices (MCCs, IEDs, flame scanners, etc) PROFIBUS DP, HART and Modbus TCP support Uses ABB’s extensive set of fieldproven standard function code algorithms and is configured by S+ Engineering Composer tool Downloadable firmware Extended user configuration memory (NVRAM) and runtime memory (RAM) Support for 30,000 function blocks Flexible and online configuration capability

S+ Control PDP800 PROFIBUS Interface module S+ Control PDP800 PROFIBUS Interface module provides connection between the HPC800 controller and PROFIBUS DP communication channels. This allows for easy integration of intelligent devices such as smart transmitters, actuators and intelligent electronic devices (IEDs). Each device’s resident information can then be used in control strategies and higher level applications. PDP800 PROFIBUS interface features include: Supports PROFIBUS DP V0, V1, V2 Supports PROFIBUS PA devices through DP/PA linking device Supports 1 msec time stamping of devices by PROFIBUS DP V2 Supports electric and fiber optic media for PROFIBUS DP link Up to 12 Mbps rate of PROFIBUS DP link Up to 15 km by fiber optic PROBUS DP link

S+ I/O HAI805 and HAO805 HART modules S+ I/O HAI805 and HAO805 HART modules provide connection between the HPC800 controller and intelligent devices using the HART communication protocol. Unlike traditional HART I/O modules, these HAI805 and HAO805 modules have dedicated HART modems for each I/O channel. This allows for better signal isolation and faster processing, and it makes the secondary, tertiary and quaternary digital variables available for use in real-time control applications within the HPC800. HAI805 and HAO805 features include: HAI805 (8 analog input channels) HAO805 (8 analog output channels) Dedicated HART modem for each I/O channel Each channel’s secondary/tertiary/quaternary variables are available for use in control applications Update rate of secondary/tertiary/quaternary variables for all channels is less than 1 second

Based on field-proven technology
The HPC800 controller uses ABB’s set of best-in-class control technologies to build its automation solutions. This allows end customers and EPCs alike to effectively reuse their extensive library of ABB field-proven and time-tested control solutions with these latest control products. Specifically, HPC800 solutions:

• Use the same extensive set of field-proven INFI 90 function code algorithms as in our large installed base of controllers
• Use traditional INFI-Net exception reporting over redundant 100 Mbps Fast-Ethernet (PN800)
• Extend current Composer graphical design engineering tools with device management capabilities

In summary, HPC800 control-based solutions provide increased flexibility and best-fit automation for all power and water applications. They reduce system installation and maintenance costs and preserve the customer’s investments through their backward compatibility with previous generations.

Many more Symphony Plus products and upgrades are in the pipeline. Forthcoming releases include AC 870P controller enhancements, which will provide upgrade support for existing CMC-50 controller installations; and IEC 61850 connect options, which will further expand S+ Operations ‘single window to plant operations.’

Each of these new products and enhancements is confirmation of ABB’s commitment to its installed base and to meeting the current and future automation system requirements of its customers.