INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 05, MAY 2016 ISSN 2277-8616
New Concept For Alarm Structure And
Management In Dcs Systems
Mohammed Hegazy
ABSTRACT: The objective of this paper is to set new standard for good design and best practice to applied when any DCS Manufactures/Suppliers
configure process alarm system in any oil refining, oil and gas production, gas-handling facilities, gasification plant or any chemical processing plant and
thereby to optimize/minimize unnecessary alarms from reporting to operator workstations CAD (Control Alarm Display). These views based on the
experience acquired and implemented during involvement with the commissioning and startup of two DCS projects in Mina Al-Ahmadi Refinery, Kuwait.
Keywords: DCS, CAD, Shell DEP, IMAC
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1. BACKGROUND 3. PRECISE DEFINITIONS
All DCSs have a sophisticated alarm and HMI system for Alarm – Type of notification generated by alarm
operators to monitor and control plant status. These are system to notify operators of the exceedance of
powerful platforms for users to design and configure any defined critical, standard or target limit.
effective alarm systems. The DCS alarm system can be a Management of Change – A method of reviewing
vital, productive tool for managing industrial process control proposed changes and includes a review process
plants, and can configured to identify and notify personnel by appropriate personnel and obtaining
of a wide variety of abnormal conditions in a manufacturing concurrence before the change implemented.
process. Abnormal situation – The exceedance of any
defined critical, standard or target limit
2. INTRODUCTION Configuration – The setting of parameters of
Operator continuously monitors and control the process defined application to implement the alarm system
back to operating targets to prevent the occurrence of functionality.
abnormal situations. All modern process control systems Dead band – The difference between the limit and
provide alarm systems to assist process operators in the value of the process parameter at which the
managing abnormal situations, defined critical standard, notification is de-activated. The notification de-
target limits or the condition when the process is not activated when the process parameter has moved
behaving as expected or when other threats have impact into the safe direction further than the value of the
operations. These notifications / alarms based on plant dead band.
operating limits obtained from equipment and process Display – What is seen on visual display console
constraints, commonly referred to as the plant-operating Notification state –The state of an alarm e.g.
window. Console operators are empowered to use the enabled /disabled or inhibited.
alarm system as an essential tool to monitor and manage CAD – Control Alarm Display
abnormal situations through actions that stabilize, control, Workstation – User’s workplace with an HMI within
slow down or shutdown the process. the control room. A console typically consists of
several workstations.
IMAC – Alarm Management Solution.
4. OPERATING LIMIT DEFINITION
Within the engineering constraints of the equipment, the
following limits defined:
Critical limits – immediate action required.
Standard limits – action required to mitigate slow,
cumulative degradation.
Target limits – related to optimization
It is imperative that all aspects of limits and constraints
identified.
Limits may be from mechanical, process, quality or
operation constraints. This requires a multidisciplinary
approach.
_____________________________
Mohammed Hegazy
Specialist, Process Control -Technical Services
Department - MAA
Kuwait National Petroleum Company
Ahmadi, KUWAIT
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 05, MAY 2016 ISSN 2277-8616
5. CURRENT ALARM DISPLAY (CAD) 7. BLOCKS BANDED TO REPORT TO CAD
WINDOW DISPLAY
DCS operator, can pick the ―PROCESS‖ button on the The following blocks banded to report to CAD display
HMI screen to call process Current Alarm Displays because of its visible changes in graphics displays:
(CAD) as per the following graphic displays (Figure-1). MOV Limit Switches Feedback.
XV Limit switches Feedback.
Motors State Alarms.
Process Pumps State Alarms.
Button Third Party Alarms (Metering Skids).
8. EXEMPTIONS
Some exceptions for third party alarms, XV, MOV Limit
switches Motors and pumps state upgraded to priority 1
and 2 based on criticality of the third party alarm and state
alarm.
9. SORTING ALARMS
The Current Alarm Display (CAD) sort alarms as per the
following order:
Unacknowledged alarms.
Figure-1 Acknowledged alarms.
This display is a dynamic, multi-page listing the These two groups are both display on the CAD and sorted
following: by alarm priority and then by time of occurrence, i.e. the
Active process alarms. most recent, unacknowledged, and highest priority alarm
Active but acknowledged process alarms will show on top of the CAD display.
Inactive and unacknowledged process alarms.
10. DATABASE STRUCTURE IN LPG-4 DCS
For the inactive alarms that acknowledged will not SY
displayed. All active and acknowledged alarms, as well
as inactive and unacknowledged alarms will remain in
CAD (Figure-2), however values and statuses are STATION
BLOCK
dynamically updated in Graphic Display.
6. GOALS OF NEW CONCEPT STUDY
The main goal of this pilot study is: COMPOUND -1 BLOCK- 1
Minimize the alarms in CAD. (231-GD001) (XV001)
Barring unnecessary blocks from reporting to CAD
workstations. BLOCK- 2
Grouping alarms based on priority. COMPOUND -2
Directing unnecessary alarms to IMAC and (231-GD002)
BLOCK-xx
historian. BLOCK- 1
Alarm
LC001
Alarm Priority 1 to 5
Message
BLOCK- 2
COMPOUND -xx
CURRENT ALARM DISPLAY (CAD) (231-GDxxx)
BLOCK-xx
BLOCK- 1
FC001
BLOCK- 2
BLOCK-xx
11. ALARM PRIORITIES, GROUPS &
DEVICES
Each block has the following parameters:
Alarm Priority number (Block Parameter).
Figure-2 Alarm Group number (Block Parameter).
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 05, MAY 2016 ISSN 2277-8616
Each ―Alarm Group‖ can have a number of devices 14. PROPOSED ALARMS SETTING FOR DCS
assigned to it. SYS.
When an alarm occurs, the alarm message is sent
to the assigned alarm group, then according to
Alarm Priority Group
group number, it will routed to all devices assigned Priority Alarm Type Assigned Devices
Classification Number
to this group.
Groups 1-3 are part of parameters in compound
Block.
Groups 4-8 are part of Station block. HH, LL, ESD
ALL Workstations,
Alarm Assigned Devices (Station and Compound 1 Trips, I/O Bad, Critical 4
IMAC, Historian
Blocks Parameter). Fault
12. PREVIOUS ALARMS SETTING FOR LPG- 2
H, L , Mismatch,
High 4
ALL Workstations,
Deviation IMAC, Historian
4 DCS SYSTEM
Different priority numbers assigned as per following table: Third Party ALL Workstations,
3 Low 3
(Metering) IMAC, Historian
Alarm Priority Group
Priority Alarm Type Assigned Devices MOV & XV Limit
Classification Number
switches ALL Workstations,
5 Very Low 3
Feedback, Motors IMAC, Historian
and Pumps State
HH, LL, ESD
ALL Workstations,
1 Trips, I/O Bad, Critical 4 Different priority numbers assigned as per following table:
IMAC, Historian
Fault Alarms with priority 1 & 2 assigned to Group 4.
STATION Block technic used for Devices
H, L ,
ALL Workstations, assignment for Group 4.
2 Mismatch, High 4
IMAC, Historian Alarms with priority 3 & 5 assigned to Group 3.
Deviation COMPOUND Block technic used for Devices
assignment for Group 3.
Third Party ALL Workstations,
3 Low 4
(Metering) IMAC, Historian
15. PROPOSED CONFIGURATION
MOV & XV
Limit switches
ALL Workstations,
5 Feedback, Very Low 4
IMAC, Historian
Motors and
Pumps State
13. PREVIOUS CONFIGURATION
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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH VOLUME 5, ISSUE 05, MAY 2016 ISSN 2277-8616
16. BLOCK ALARM SUMMARY PAGE
PROCESS TYPE DEAD BAND % OF SPAN
FLOW 5%
IOBAD alarm will report
to all Workstations, IMAC ―STATE‖
and Historian only alarm will
because it is group 4 report to LEVEL 5%
IMAC and
Historian only
because it is
LIQUID PRESSURE 5%
group 3
GAS PRESSURE 2%
TEMPERATURE 1 % OR 2°C whichever is less
STATION Block technic used for Devices
assignment for Group 4.
Alarms with priority 3 & 5 assigned to Group 3.
COMPOUND Block technic used for Devices
What does this save for us? assignment for Group 3.
As per Shell Dep, alarms per console operator:
It eliminates 14638 Blocks from
Number of alarms that can effectively handle per hour.
reporting to CAD in workstations
Unacceptable: > 6
Current: 4-6
Target: < 2
17. ALARMS’ RATE BEFORE The following CAD display (Figure-3) shows the number
IMPLEMENTING THE NEW CONCEPT of alarms per console after implementing the new concept
in LPG-4 plant as per SHELL DEP standard:
No. of No. of
Date Period
Alarms/Day Alarms/Hour
24 hours
21/5/2015 48350 2015
from 00:00
24 hours
19/6/2015 57780 2408
from 00:00
24 hours
20/6/2015 44612 1859
from 00:00
18. ALARMS’ RATE AFTER IMPLEMENTING
THE NEW CONCEPT
No. of No. of
Date Period
Alarms/Day Alarms/Hour
24 hours
13/7/2015 123 5
from 00:00
24 hours Figure-3
147/2015 75 3
from 00:00
24 hours Current Alarm Display (CAD) After Implementing New
16/7/2015 75 3
from 00:00
Concept.
19. SHELL DEP (Design and Engineering References
Practice) STANDARD ([Link]-Gen. [1] ―Why is Alarm Management Required in Modern
February 2011) Plants‖ Stan DeVries
Blocks with alarm priority 1 & 2 reconfigured to follow
Shell DEP as Following: [2] ―Setting a new standard in alarm management‖
Siemens.
[3] ―Alarm Management‖ Emerson
[4] ―A Path Forward for DCS Alarm Management‖ Pierre
Grosdidier; Patrik Connor.
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