In June last year, Siemens launched SPPA-T3000 Cue as the latest release of their instrumentation and control system for power generation. Dr. Dirk Lumma, head of product management for Power Generation Control Systems, explained to Gas to Power Journal that this latest release has evolved under an operator-centric approach.
The system is designed to monitor vital processes throughout power plants and improve efficiency and downtime. With fifteen months having passed since the market introduction, Lumma now talked about the roll-out process and the response from customers.
“The roll-out was very successful. The new release of SPPA-T3000 has already been sold to a three-digit number of medium- and large-size power stations all over the world within these few months. There were no technical challenges. Roll-out took place as planned,” he said.
Minimizing unplanned outage
One of the key advantages of SPPA-T3000 Cue is its ability to provide the right information, at the right time and for the right people within a plant, while minimizing information overload. By utilizing an improved Human-Machine Interface (HMI) the software provides context-based and targeted information for control room personnel, thus reducing the error rate and promoting smooth operation and high availability.
The result of this in the early adopter facilities has been a drastic reduction in false alarms and a resultant increase in up-time for the plants. With a plant shutdown potentially costing operators hundreds of thousands of Euros, this can quickly equate to significant savings.
“Customers confirmed that the main levers of cost savings achievable with SPPA-T3000 Cue are avoidance of unplanned trips and outages, measurable reduction in number of alarms, thus increasing labor efficiency, and minimum effort of familiarization for operators and engineers, especially for those who are completely new to SPPA-T3000,” Lumma explained.
Shortening the time to reach benefits
While the initial roll-out of the system went ahead as planned, Lumma explains, a challenge for customers was the time between installing the new release and achieving the full potential of the plant in terms of operator effectiveness and efficiency.
To tackle this challenge, Siemens has worked closely with customers to establish suitable processes and procedures and to become fully acquainted with the whole range of opportunities offered by the system.
“During the pre-project, project and optimization phases Siemens contributes its strength in power plant process know-how and project execution to ensure maximum benefits. Fortunately, we find that our customers’ operators are quickly learning how to use the new features after only a few days of informal on-site training, as a result of the ease and intuitiveness of the upgraded controls,” Lumma said.
First Service Pack for SPPA-T3000 Cue
Following the successful worldwide launch, development has continued, with Siemens collecting customer feedback through a structured and documented product lifecycle management process.
“We see our core hypothesis for its design as being fully confirmed: while aspects such as alarm management, electronic shift logs, and equipment modeling technologies already exist, by integrating them into a single control system, they have never been more user-friendly or readily available to the operator on demand,” Lumma said.
In line with this strategy Siemens has released the first update for SPPA-T3000 Cue – Service Pack 1. This service pack includes the next steps in the evolutionary process of improving customer value based on the control system: new features supporting cyber security, an integrated Engineering Test Simulator or a page designer to optimize easy-going customization and individualization on multi-screen workstations.