Tracking and Reporting of Instrument and Control Data in a Timely Manner

Jody Damron Supervisor O&M 2 - NGS/CGS Salt River Project Phoenix, AZ 85072 KEYWORDS
Application, Cimage, Data, Distributed Control System, Instrument, Maximo, Report, Tracking

Laura Lewis Senior Computer Analyst IT Application Consulting Salt River Project Phoenix, AZ 85072

ABSTRACT
This paper will present a successful way to address the common issue of tracking, troubleshooting and reporting Instrument and Control (I & C) operational data in a standard format and timely manner. Navajo Generating Station, Managed by Salt River Project (SRP), designed a Power Generation Instrument & Control Application that is adaptable for use by multiple plants and is compatible with many plant site distributed control systems: such as Foxboro, Honeywell or Allen Bradley. The userfriendly interface allows the instrument technicians and electricians to easily access instrument & control drawing information (loop, electrical and connection) as well as cable schedules, piping instrument documents and work practice procedures. By having this information available, the users are able to complete their work more safely and efficiently. The application also has links to a document management system, Cimage, as well as a work and asset management system, Maximo. These links eliminate the time it would take to manually search for plant drawings, manuals or critical documents. With plant data available at the users fingertips, troubleshooting and research is simplified and completed more quickly than it would be without the application, resulting in less down time. Daily maintenance, calibrations, state certifications and audit schedules are easily displayed in output reports that are available at the click of a button. This application is currently running in a real situation, saving time and money for SRP. It is proof that it is possible to standardize and track instrument & control data, making it easier to get the job done.

INTRODUCTION
In order to manage plant operations in a safe, cost-effective and productive manner, it is imperative that plant personnel (including the I & C Specialists, Electricians, Draftsmen, Engineers, Operators and Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

Managers) are able to access, manage and report on I & C operational data. This requires an environment where appropriate software tools, processes, standards and governance measures are in place to help enable effective plant operations. Access to quality data with a user-friendly system that facilitates recording, maintaining and standardizing data helps contribute to: safe working conditions, minimized plant equipment down time (planned and unplanned), extended equipment life and fulfilled power demand. The Power Generation Instrument & Control Application (Application) is currently in production saving time and money for SRP. It is designed as a suite of applications to include a shared integration of the Instrument Index, Distributed Control System (Foxboro), Circuit and Raceway Schedules, Cimage and Maximo. Together, this data provides all of the information needed to research and troubleshoot many issues at their fingertips. The Application has proven to be an invaluable tool for researching and troubleshooting plant related problems in a safe, efficient and cost-effective manner on many occasions. Prior to the development of the Application, SRP Journeyman had problems accessing quality information (including I & C operational data, prints and documents, work orders, etc.) which can lead to unsafe and inefficient work conditions. Research could take hours, days and even weeks for certain problems, as data was not always electronic, centralized, secure, up-to-date or accurate. With the advent of this Application, SRP personnel have electronic access to I & C operational data, allowing them to quickly and safely identify and solve root cause problems resulting in less equipment down time. In addition, SRP plant personnel are able to easily produce reports for circuit schedules, instruments, loop data, daily maintenance, calibrations, state certifications and audit schedules. Plant use of this Application ensures that many past problems encountered by Journeymen are evaded. Past record keeping problems will be avoided because personnel are required to update the data in the application before any plant work can be completed. When prints are updated, they become available to the field immediately, increasing safety and decreasing troubleshooting time. The application provides a foundation to continuously improve upon the quality and availability of I & C operational data.

INSTRUMENT INDEX
Prior to the development of the Instrument Index section of the Power Generation Instrument & Control Application (Instrument Index), SRP used hard copy (instrument) index cards. This index card file contained information about every instrument in the plant in numerical order. Approximately 30,000 instruments were manually recorded and kept in 17 large (instrument) index card files. The issue with this method was that the critical data recorded on the cards could be easily modified by anyone, filed out of order, not kept up to date or could have even been missing. Through the instrument number, the Technicians task was to locate enough information (prints, documents, manuals, etc.) to resolve problems and perform research. Instrument technicians had to rely on this catalog of instrument cards as the primary instrument record keeping tool. This proved to be inefficient, and time consuming. The data that is contained in the Instrument Index (see Figures 1 & 2) includes; equipment numbers, special instructions (see Figure 3), instrument calibration records, Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

drawing numbers, etc. The Application allows secured documentation to be updated and available for the field much faster than before. This application also shares information with other databases. FIG. 1 & FIG. 2 - NEW, ELECTRONIC, INSTRUMENT INDEX APPLICATION

The NGS Instrument Index main screen opens and the user selects Instruments to gain access to the Filter & Search (tabbed) form interface. The user can select or type values into one or all of the Filter dropdowns and click Apply Filter to narrow down their Search for a record.

FIG. 3 - INSTRUMENT FORM

Instrument tab displays information for the user. Users can easily add new field-installed instrumentation to the Application thru this interface.

INSTRUMENT CHALLENGES Instrumentation obsolescence due to changing technology is an unavoidable issue. Instruments are aging and the companies that manufacture them either stop making the instrument, stop making Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

replacement parts for the instrument, stop supporting the instrument, or the companies are bought by other companies or simply go out of business. The Instrument Index captures all of the instrument data (such as equipment number, plant location and calibration data) and supporting information (such manufacturer, serial number and vendor). One of the reasons that the new Application was designed is to allow users to update the information more easily, such as adding special instructions or maintenance procedures. A time saving feature for users is the link to Maximo. It is included in the Application so that all work orders and basic data for the selected piece of equipment are visible without having to search for them. Linking to Maximo is also a great time saving tool that eliminates having to build queries to manually search for work orders in the system (see Figure 4). Users have found the Instrument Index application to be very easy to use to find an instrument and the corresponding work orders with the Instrument Index working as a search engine. FIG. 4 - EQUIPMENT FORM

Equipment tabs displays information for the user. The Equipment tab also includes a window to view Maximo data, by work order (WO) number, and a link to log in to Maximo. There is a button to the right of each equipment number to click to query Maximo data for the corresponding WO number, status, date and description.

Next, the simple vendor information tab displays data that is used for purchasing additional and repairing existing equipment. (see Figure 5 & 6)

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 5 AND FIG. 6 - VENDOR AND ADD VENDOR FORMS

Displays vendor information. New vendors can be added easily a the click of the Add button.

Another feature of the Instrument Index is the link provided to drawings and documents in Cimage (see Figure 7 & 8). Users have found the Instrument Index application to be very easy use as a search engine to find an instrument and the corresponding drawings. In some cases, it was very difficult & occasionally nearly impossible to find a hard copy drawing using Cimage alone. FIG. 7 AND FIG. 8 - DRAWING AND CIMAGE LOGIN FORMS

Displays drawing information. Each drawing has a link to Cimage. Upon clicking the link, a Cimage login screen is launched for the user to sign in. Cimage opens to the selected drawing number (see Figure 9), with search folder on the left, and the drawing and details on the right.

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 9 - CIMAGE INTERFACE

Display of Cimage document search folder, document preview and detail tabs.

The link to Cimage is a factor in safety (making documents readily available to personnel) and a great time saver. For example, before the Instrument Index application was built, Operations called an electrician because a pulverizer did not have a lube oil permissive to start. The electrician with 30 years experience found a drawing he had saved and determined that one of eight pressure switches was not made up and tried to install a temporary jumper in the control cabinet. The jumper did not give the permissive to start so the electrician assumed the pressure switch was not the problem. After struggling with this problem for four hours, he asked for assistance. We entered the compound and block in the search field which gave us access to the correct prints and switch settings in the instrument index, we found the pressure was 1/2 PSI low. Operations increased the temperature, which increased the pressure enough to make up the pressure switch. The wasted trouble shooting time, without the use of the application, cost $24,000. Another example, from the most recent maintenance outage, a electrician needed to troubleshoot a problem on the Feed Water Valve but could not find the prints in Cimage. The prints were found but it took two men searching Cimage for 10 hours. (Not all plant data was available at the time of the data being loaded to the Instrument Index. It is being recorded as it is found.) These prints were entered into the Instrument Index and are now available for the next person within minutes. Instrument Calibration data is stored in the Instrument Index (see Figure 10) for quick access to accurate instrument range, output, calibration and data information. A link to Beamex for Calibration Certificates will be included in the near future.

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 10 - CALIBRATION FORM

Calibration history is displayed in a list format, with easy access to details at the click of a button. New calibration detail is entered in this form, and secured (locked) so that no changes can be made.

Reports are readily available for personnel to take out to the field. If a Technician would like to print the complete information for the selected instrument, including data from all forms in the application, the report is available by clicking the print button at the upper right of the form. (see Figure 11) FIG. 11 - REPORT OF ALL DATA FOR SELECTED INSTRUMENT

The Instrument Index is designed to easily allow other custom reports (see Figure 12 & 13) be developed and produce based on the vast amount of data that is stored in the application. Instrument Overhaul Calibration List reports (IOCLs) will be added in the future.

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 12 & FIG. 13 - REPORT MENU

From the report menu, users can access critical data reports, such as the Fire Systems and State Certified Transmitter Audit Reports that can be made available for auditors at their request. They have a similar look as the Report of Individual Instrument Data.

Instrument Index tracks Critical Electrical Trip and Control Circuits for easy visibility. (see Figure 14) FIG. 14 - CRITICAL TRIP CIRCUIT REPORT

Critical Electrical Trip Circuit is indicated on all forms, and shown on the report.

Another important factor that SRP is able to address with the Application is the aging workforce. It is estimated that 45% of the technicians will retire within the next five years. This Application serves as a common place to capture their knowledge about the instruments and supporting information such as special instructions and maintenance procedures learned over the years, in a common location. For example, many Preventative Maintenance (PM) tasks and other routine work have been eliminated due to this staffing decrease. Time and breakdown maintenance has shown that this work still needs to be done and should be added back to the workload, but there are roughly half the people to do the same amount of work. (Use of the Instrument Index will help to add these functions back into the work plan Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

by scheduling to send out automatic reminders that are set up in the application, so that work is performed on schedule.) As a direct result of the success of the Instrument Index, other Salt River Project generation sites have expressed interest in using this application. The end goal is convert data for every site to the Instrument Index format, so that resources can be shared between sites without losing efficiency.

DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM (DCS)

The goal for the Distributed Control System portion (not the DCS itself) of the Power Generation Instrument & Control Application (DCS) information database is to combine and secure the inaccurate and incomplete data from several databases to one location so that users could correct, verify and enhance the data. To put all of the data together, each unique database, with its specific table structure, was reformatted and validated against the Foxboro Intelligent Automation (IA) data, then imported to the new SQL Server database table structure. Information from the DCS database is used to troubleshoot Foxboro IA field devices. The data that is contained in the DCS portion of the application includes wiring information, routing information, drawing numbers and Scrubber DCS data. Use of this coordinated information facilitates and expedites the troubleshooting process. The DCS portion contains critical information and shares information with other NGS information databases. Development of the DCS (see Figure 15 & 16) met the need of SRP instrument technicians, electricians, engineers and managers as a way to reduce the time-consuming research and validating data before and while troubleshooting. The inability to resolve problems quickly resulted in tedious delays and may have lengthened the time it took to return an SRP unit to production. (Current estimated SRP unit production loss averages $750k to $1.5m per day.) Use of the DCS portion features proves that better safety can be achieved when more information about equipment and systems is readily available to each employee in an easy to access and understand format.

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 15 & FIG. 16 - DISTRIBUTED CONTROL SYSTEM PORTION

The NGS Distributed Control System main screen opens and the user selects DCS to gain access to the Filter & Search (tabbed) form interface. The user can select or type values into one or all of the Filter dropdowns and click Apply Filter to narrow down their Search for a record. Details can be viewed on the Loop form. (see Figure 17)

FIG. 17 - DCS LOOP FORM

Loop data is displayed here, arranged for ease of use. Links to Circuit Raceway Schedule, Instrument Index and Cimage.

The data in the Application is validated against the Foxboro IA data, which is displayed in the CAE View form. (see Figure 18) Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 18 - DCS CAE FORM

The DCS portion of the application reports real I/O against the Foxboro IA. It incorporates a built in validation process to ensure that data in the application is kept up to date.

If a user would like to print the complete information for the selected loop, the report is available by clicking the print button at the upper right of the form. (see Figure 19) FIG. 19 - REPORT OF ALL DATA FOR SELECTED DCS

The reporting feature of the DCS portion of the application will provide detail of each loop.

Other custom reports can easily be developed and produced based on the vast amount of data that is stored in the DCS. For example, reports have been designed to show what data has been changed, deleted, added or even missing. (see Figure 20 & 21)

Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org

FIG. 20 & FIG. 21 - DCS REPORT FORMS

Selecting Report from the Main Menu will display a form with access to saved, formatted reports. From the report menu, users can access critical data reports, such as the CAE Comparison Reports that can be produced at any time to validate the data.

The DCS portion of the application is designed to easily allow other custom reports be developed (and produced) based on the vast amount of data that is stored in and linked to the application. As a direct result of the success of the DCS application, another Salt River Project generation site has expressed interest in using this application. Our goal is to assist this site, and others, in converting their data to the DCS format so that, eventually, resources can be shared without losing efficiency.

CONCLUSIONS
In closing, the Power Generation Instrument & Control Application discussed in this paper is a great troubleshooting and research application that helps employees get the job done in a safer and more timely manner. This application: - Improves safety through accurate and up-to-date I&C data, drawings and documents - Contributes to high quality standardized I&C data that is secure and readily accessible - Improved productivity due to reduced research time in determining outage root cause; resulting in reduced revenue loss from plant outages and reduced down time on plant equipment - Ability to effectively capture, track and compare common standardized I&C data between plants for improvement opportunities - Improves the security and management of I&C data (system data, documents, drawings, etc.) - Improved equipment reliability due to improved calibration of equipment device records - Reduced training though standardization of the structure and management of I & C data As a result of the success of the Power Generation Instrument and Control Application, an improved exchange of information within the Instrument departments of SRP has been initiated, which will utilize the knowledge and experience of all of the I & C employees to better help all areas of the company to perform accurate & safe work. Copyright 2007 by ISA The Instrumentation, Systems & Automation Society. Presented at The 17th Annual Joint ISA POWID/EPRI Control and Instrumentation Conference, 50th Annual ISA POWID Symposium, http://www.isa.org