A Practical Approach for Implementing Advanced Monitoring Methods on Distributed Control System PCS7

Distributed Control Systems (DCSs) are being widely utilized in different industries. The DCSs are supplanting the conventional automation systems to eliminate some existing frailties. However, monitoring of industrial systems is still very challenging in case of complicated systems. Although effective multi variable methods such as Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and Partial Least Squares (PLS) have been proposed to fulfil the advanced monitoring of such systems, but these methods have not been implemented with the DCSs due to their complexity and high computational burden. This paper proposes a practical approach to implement the advanced monitoring algorithms on DCS PCS7. The proposed method employs the multivariable statistics and PCA methods to detect the system faults. First, the process data is transferred to MATLAB software for the processing purpose. Second, the advanced monitoring algorithm is applied and the results are sent back to the PCS7 by means of OPC communication protocol. The KepServerEX is used to establish the OPC communication protocols. The proposed method is implemented on a real gas pressure reducing station in Fars Province. The results confirm high performance of the proposed method.