Challenges, including rising production costs and increased maintenance requirements, are currently being experienced by refineries globally. A major refinery approached Yokogawa with its requirement for an asset management system to reduce loop checking time and integrate all field instrumentation information and parameters into a single database.
Yokogawa’s asset management system, Plant Resource Manager (PRM), is ideal for the field device configuration, maintenance, device parameter verification, updating and loop checking on projects. Yokogawa implemented PRM while replacing the client’s DCS and SIS systems with new Yokogawa Centum VP and ProSafe RS platforms. This resulted in a fully integrated control, safety and asset management system being delivered to the client. The PRM is currently configured to communicate with over 1500 devices using HART, and is also utilised in commissioning of the field devices and for loop checking purposes. The system interfaces to numerous popular instruments from various vendors.
The benefits
The benefits accrued from this upgrade project include a fully integrated and highly reliable control, safety and asset management system on a redundant network. The online and centralised automation asset management system assists both operators and maintenance personnel to prevent downtime and reduce maintenance costs. Determining which devices need maintenance checks is now easy with PRM, as the client is able to check the performance of the devices online and identify which maintenance tasks need to be performed. This preventative maintenance provides clients with a more reliable system and fewer suspect measurements. PRM’s diagnostic functions also detect early signs of performance deterioration such as valve sticking and impulse line blocking.
PRM also simplifies replacement of failed devices by reusing the stored set-up data to reduce configuration time and prevent mistakes. Running a partial stroke test (PST) on safety valves from different vendors is easy with PRM, as the PST scheduler runs under its control. The PST Scheduler allows the client to schedule the execution of a PST in manual, semi-automatic or automatic modes.
Additionally, the implementation of the PRM system will assist in overall system lifecycle improvement and a reduction of maintenance costs. This is achieved by monitoring field device health and process interface conditions online, reducing unnecessary trips to the field. Quick on-line diagnosis reduces the need for manual inspections, while condition-based maintenance minimises plant downtime, both planned and unplanned. As a result, plant uptime is maximised. The Maintenance Information function of PRM immediately notifies the right people (operators and/or maintenance personnel depending on the type and criticality) of the diagnostic data analysis. Necessary action can be taken timeously thereby maximising productivity.
Hot switchover with asset predictability
Yokogawa’s skilled and dedicated team situated on site at the refinery assisted with the commissioning and changeover of the systems on the running plant, without any production disruptions. The team ensured a single point of control and data capturing to ensure that high reliability and repeatability was maintained.
By helping curtail excessive preventative maintenance and enabling more predictive and proactive maintenance, PRM opens up the way to asset predictability.
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