Enhancements improve network-based control

A Yokogawa Europe - Industrial Automation product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Aug 30, 2006

An upgraded version of the Stardom network-based control system provides a number of functional enhancements.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation has released an upgraded version of its Stardom network-based control system that provides a number of functional enhancements.

The newly added enhancements improve Stardom's competitiveness in the oil, natural gas, petrochemical, and other booming energy and raw material markets.

Key features of the enhancements are an improved communication function for controlling widely distributed production facilities and the capability to enhance control system reliability by using Stardom in combination with other control devices in a large plant.

Stardom is an open network-based control system comprised of function-specific control, operation, and monitoring components that can be interconnected flexibly and on a scalable basis using networking technology.

The system features the high reliability and supportability of a distributed control system (DCS) while having the openness, versatility, and cost-effectiveness of systems that combine PCs and programmable logic controllers (PLCs).

As crude oil prices and energy demand continue to rise, investment remains active in oil and natural gas extraction, pipeline, and other upstream process facilities.

As these facilities are spread out over a wide area, users demand highly reliable control systems that are compatible with a number of communication protocols.

As Stardom is highly effective in controlling shared-use plant facilities, there is an increasing need to integrate it with Yokogawa's flagship Centum series integrated production control system, which is designed for main process control.

When Centum is used in combination with Stardom, the overall efficiency of oil refinery and petrochemical plants is significantly increased.

Stardom's recent functional enhancements address these users' requirements.

The DNP3 communication protocol is being increasingly employed in control systems for oil and natural gas extraction, pipelines, and other facilities that are dispersed over wide areas.

In the previous revision to Stardom, serial interfaces such as RS232C were prepared for DNP3.

With the latest upgrade, an Ethernet interface is provided.

DNP3 (Distributed Network Protocol 3), is a communication protocol that was originally developed for the electric utility industry in Europe.

This protocol has recently been introduced in the wide-area distributed control of oil and gas drilling sites, pipelines, and water supply and sewerage systems.

When Stardom is combined with other control devices to form a large-scale integrated control system, dual redundancy in the control network can be achieved.

For instance, the integrated use of the Centum series control system for oil refinery facilities and Stardom for shared-use facilities such as product storage tanks results in a more reliable control system.

Major target markets for the upgraded Stardom include: the development of oilfields, gas fields, and other widely distributed facilities including water supply and sewerage systems; and small to medium-scale process plants, including oil, chemical, iron and steel, and pulp and paper plants.

Applications include the overall operation, monitoring, and control of facilities, as well as the remote control of production facilities.