Reviewer details
Details withheld at respondent's request
Product details
Vendor: Citect
Product name and version: Citect v6.1 SP1 and Ampla v3.1
Telephone: +27 (0)11 699 6600
E-mail: niconette.dutoit@citect.com
URL: www.citect.com
Application
Industry: Power and utilities
Server operating system: Windows XP Pro
Client operating system: Windows XP Pro
Front end: N/A
Tag count: 5000 I/O licence
General
Q: Briefly describe the application including information on any pre-existing system that was in place.
A: The plant had an existing Citect scada system. The project was to enhance the scada and to install an Ampla system to allow operators to enter manual data at the scada for inclusion in Ampla reports, minimising paperwork and increasing productivity.
Q: Who performed the scada configuration?
A: Citect Professional Services.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the scada configuration take?
A: 1400 man-hours.
Q: Was a structured process followed to determine expected performance under full load and during abnormal failure conditions?
A: Failure conditions tested included network interruptions and controller malfunctions.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement applies to this particular system?
A: Tag-count I/O licences and PSDirect driver licences for the servers, dongle licences for each control node and a floating manager client licence for view-only use.
Q: What upgrade agreements are in place? Are patches and version upgrades free, covered under annual maintenance or managed in some other way?
A: A Citect Gold Support agreement is in place. This includes support via telephone, fax, e-mail and web portal. It also provides access to support tools, driver updates, patches and service packs.
Q: How is after-sales support handled?
A: Through a toll-free phone number and e-mail.
System architecture
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
A: The Client-Server architecture and Open PSDirect I/O driver using a standard Ethernet NIC.
Q: What are the key physical communication layers and communication protocols employed in the system?
A: The PLC – scada communication is over Industrial Ethernet and the communication between the scada and the Ampla reports server is over Ethernet.
Q: Is the scada system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, what level of remote monitoring and control is configured?
A: The system allows remote viewing (no control) of the process plant within the intranet.
Q: Does the application utilise web services?
A: The operators use Citect’s WebServices interface to insert manual data into Ampla. Manager nodes use web services to remotely log on to the report server.
Q: What redundancy is incorporated in this scada application?
A: CitectScada IO/ART (alarm report trend) redundancy.
Graphics
Q: Could you describe the graphics development process?
A: Standard images available in the project library were used for this project.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: Basic, functional images.
Q: What human factors were taken into consideration in the HMI design process?
A: Ease of use, individual operator performance monitoring and validation of manual input data integrity. The project maintained the look and feel of the existing scada to minimise operator training.
Q: Did you use any ‘special’ images?
A: No.
Compatibility
Q: Do you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software?
A: No.
Q: Was any custom code or scada scripting written for this project?
A: Scada Cicode functions, SQL stored procedures and custom assemblies were developed to support the following model: Scada dialog > Cicode functions > SQL stored procedures > Custom assemblies > Ampla WebServices interface.
Management reporting and integration
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included?
A: CitectScada reports, which are engineered using Microsoft’s Reporting Services.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: Ampla is used for production reporting, providing identified KPIs to management for realtime decision making.
Q: Is the system integrated with an MES/ERP or other management reporting or control system?
A: The scada connects to the Ampla MES to provide production and down-time information for periodic and quality reports.
Q: Who performed this integration?
A: Citect Professional Services.
Q: Was any additional software development needed?
A: Microsoft Reporting Services and SQL Server 2005 stored procedures were used for the development of reports.
Q: Are any production benchmarking tools configured as part of the scada system?
A: No.
System safety, security and data protection
Q: What alarm management standards or best practices were adopted in configuring the scada system?
A: Existing system unchanged.
Q: How were the potential consequences of abnormal process conditions taken into consideration during the HMI design process?
A: Existing system unchanged.
Q: Does the design make provision for a DMZ and firewall segregation of process network and business networks?
A: The Ampla Server sits on the same control network as the scada servers. The operators and managers reside on the business network. These two networks are interlinked through a firewall.
Q: What intrusion detection is incorporated on the plant network(s) on which this scada system exists?
A: None.
Q: What configuration backup and archive backup methodologies have been adopted?
A: A manual backup system is in place.
Conclusion
Q: What was the predominant feature(s) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another?
A: The Citect scada was already in place. Ampla was chosen for its ability to easily integrate with Citect.
Q: What impresses you the most about the system?
A: The solution integrates well with existing systems. It facilitates process modelling of KPIs and provides information in realtime to distributed clients. This allows users at various levels in the organisation to analyse the process from different perspectives. The system was also flexible enough to incorporate site-specific user requirements.
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