© Siemens AG 2011
SIMATIC PCS 7 TeleControl
Process control system with integral telecontrol center
Automation of widely spread process plants
In a number of industries, especially the oil & gas, water & wastewater, power and transportation sectors, plants may sometimes be extremely widely spread. Individual distributed units may even be more than a thousand kilome- ters away from a central unit with a significantly higher degree of automation.
With a gas pipeline, for example, several slide valve and mea- suring stations are distributed between one of the compressor stations at the beginning of the pipeline and the relief station at the end.
A further example is the canal system of a widely branched wastewater network connected to a central sewage treatment plant via pumping stations and stormwater overflow tanks.
In both cases it is necessary to monitor regional units such as stormwater overflow tanks, pumping stations, slide valve stations or measuring stations from a far off control center, or to control them in the context of the complete plant.
Telecontrol systems with which automation functions can be executed from a remote control center over a telecommunica- tion network (wide area network/WAN) are the ideal solution for such tasks.
The automation of a process plant, as described above, is dis- tributed in conventional implementation concepts between heterogeneous system levels. Process control systems (PCS) are normally used for units with a higher degree of automa- tion, e.g. the central sewage treatment plant. On the other hand, the local automation of small units with a low degree of automation (pumping stations, stormwater overflow tanks) is carried out using simple remote terminal units (RTUs) which communicate with their control center by means of a telecon- trol link. To enable global monitoring, all systems of the auto- mation project (PCS and RTU) are integrated in a host network control system.
However, it is far more effective if the telecontrol center for the RTUs is directly integrated into the process control system using SIMATIC PCS 7 TeleControl. In this case, the network control system as a superimposed integration level can be omitted. Uniform process control and totally integrated engi- neering for central and widely distributed units, together with simple and convenient data management, result in high effi- ciency with regard to operation and engineering. Low training and servicing costs are further positive aspects.