Growing Base of World-Class Process Manufacturers Contributes to Summer 2016 Release
July 28, 2016 – Control Station today announced general availability of the Summer 2016 release of its PlantESP™ control loop performance monitoring (CLPM) platform. The new release further distinguishes PlantESP as the process industry’s most intuitive and powerful solution for plant-wide PID controller diagnostics and optimization.
The latest release of PlantESP includes functional enhancements that simplify the identification of control loop performance issues and architectural improvements that speed PlantESP’s processing. Its new analytical capabilities include both PriorityVue™ and TableVue™. These tools provide at-a-glance assessments of loop performance within a unit operation. With the touch of a button, PriorityVue illustrates loop performance on the basis of individual PlantESP KPIs and it clearly highlights areas of need. TableVue enables PlantESP users to assess loop performance across multiple KPIs. These tools enable users to quickly identify problem PID control loops for further analysis and corrective action.
The PlantESP KPI library has been expanded and refined. In particular, more thorough assessments of operator intervention have been simplified through the addition of the Set Point Changes metric. The metric calculates the number of changes performed on a daily basis, and it complements other KPIs that focus on a given control loop’s mode. Refinements to PlantESP’s analytical capabilities include linking of the solution’s advanced forensic utilities. Users can now toggle easily between PlantESP’s Power Spectrum and Cross-Correlation utilities, viewing both the frequency and lead-lag relationships between each of the PID loops selected.
Architectural improvements to PlantESP double the solution’s processing speed to provide users with faster loop analysis and reporting. The Summer 2016 release replaces the previous processing framework based on multithreaded calculations with one that leverages the more efficient Task Parallel Library. KPI calculations within this new release were benchmarked at speeds three times faster than previous releases. Model calculations associated with PlantESP’s TuneVue™ feature were recorded at rates that were six times faster.
“This release includes numerous enhancements and it highlights the close working relationship that we establish with our customers,” shared Bob Rice, Control Station’s Vice President of Engineering. “With the direct input of our PlantESP customers we’ve successfully augmented the technology’s core capabilities and amplified its value.”
PlantESP has quickly become established as the leading, most intuitive CLPM platform. Since its original release in 2010 PlantESP has grown steadily and is now deployed on five continents. As a technology for optimizing a production facility’s regulatory control systems, PlantESP is enabling manufacturers from across the process industries to proactively identify and resolve performance issues. Significant gains in performance from improved production quality and throughput to decreased energy consumption and unplanned downtime have been documented.
PlantESP leverages process information that is stored within a production facility’s existing data historian. As such it readily complements both regulatory and supervisory control solutions from other automation suppliers such as ABB, Emerson, Honeywell, Rockwell Automation, Schneider Electric, Siemens, and Yokogawa. Through the application of advanced analytics, PlantESP identifies negative trends related to control loop performance. In particular, PlantESP simplifies the identification of common mechanical issues such as Stiction and reoccurring loop interaction and PID controller tuning challenges.
Widely noted for its intuitive design and ease-of-use PlantESP simplifies the optimization of controller performance on a plant-wide basis. Unique capabilities within PlantESP such as TuneVue enable process manufacturers to optimize PID control loop performance using everyday Set Point changes. TuneVue is based on Control Station’s proprietary NSS Modeling Innovation that eliminates the need for a steady-state condition when modeling oscillatory and noisy process data, making it ideal for use in plant-wide control loop monitoring. The Summer 2016 release has been made available to Control Station’s growing base of process manufacturers.
About Control Station
Control Station empowers process manufacturers to increase production efficiency and throughput. The company’s software-based solutions actively monitor and optimize plant-wide control loop performance.
The company’s products are both highly innovative and award-winning. PlantESP™ is the leading CLPM solution for identifying and isolating issues that negatively affect control loop performance. Control Station’s portfolio of LOOP-PRO™ products is recognized as the process industry’s leading solution for PID controller tuning. It is the only controller tuning software that accurately models oscillatory and noisy process data.
Control Station’s solutions are licensed to leading process manufacturers worldwide and they are available direct from Control Station and through its network of distribution partners. The company is headquartered in the United States.
