The Perusahaan Listrik Negara (PLN) electric utility is a state-owned power company in Indonesia in charge of increasing the amount of electric power available to consumers. The company transmits and distributes electricity to more than 33.3 million residential, commercial, and industrial customers. Its 21,425 MW generating capacity comes from its own power plants, and is supplemented by independent power producers.
The Ombilin Steam Power Plant owned by PLN is located in Central Sumatra, and provides service to the West Sumatra regions. Recently, PLN devised a plan to upgrade the DCS of its power generators by designing a faster and more reliable communication network. The plant's DCS monitoring network is used for process control and analysis to optimize the power generation process. It uses a three-level DCS system:
- MTL MOST controllers collect output volume and environmental parameters such as temperature, pressure, and the status of water taps from I/Os.
- Redundant historical servers automatically poll, analyze, and save the collected data from the controller to optimize the process.
- Workers at on-site operator stations access the redundant historical servers to retrieve parameter settings and make adjustments manually.
By installing FTE (Fault Tolerant Ethernet) applications on each MOST controller and redundant HMI servers, the control network portion of the system is able to implement and benefit from the FTE features. However, considering the mission-critical nature of this control and monitoring network, network shut-downs and system crashes could be disastrous, and this condition should be avoided at all cost.
System Description
The monitoring and control network at the Ombilin Steam Power Plant serves as the communication backbone for the DCS, and is the most critical network in the entire plant. The system integrator decided that Moxa's EDS-726 industrial-grade Ethernet switches were the right choice to provide the needed level of reliability. All servers, work stations, and MTL MOST controllers were duplicated and connected to two independent communication networks formed by the EDS-726 Ethernet switches. There were four Ethernet ports on every MOST controller which were connected in pairs to two independent backbone networks for double redundancy.
The EDS-726 switches come with a 5-year warranty and high MTBF to ensure longterm, trouble-free operation in critical systems. One its biggest advantages is its media versatility and high port density design. The modular capability makes network planning easier since you can install up to 2 Gigabit ports and 24 Fast Ethernet (fiber or copper) ports in one switch. It meets the demands of any industrial application, and also leaves room for future expansion.
| Project Implementation |
| EDS-726 |
24+2G-Port Gigabit Modular Managed Ethernet Switch. |
Benefits
- Features specially designed to provide reliable operation in harsh, industrial settings
- High port count and greater media versatility for more flexible network planning
- Modular design that leaves room for future expansion
- 5-year warranty and long MTBF
- Industrial certifications such as CE, FCC, and UL
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