Total plant automation system

New control products add functionalities and enhance connectivity to meet present and future distributed control needs of power plants and water networks

ABB has released several new products as part of its Symphony™ Plus total plant automation platform for the power generation and water industries.

The new products include a new high-performance process controller named Symphony Plus Control HPC800 and three interface modules that expand the connectivity of the controller to intelligent electronic devices using the PROFIBUS DP and HART communication protocols.

HPC800 joins existing Symphony Plus Rack controllers and is suitable for applications that require modular DIN rail packaging. It also features a fast ethernet-based plant network that makes it ideal for geographically distributed control applications in conventional or renewable power plants and water networks.

The new controller combined with PROFIBUS and HART enables integration of intelligent devices such as smart transmitters, actuators, motor control centers, flame scanners and other electronic products. By using the same function code algorithms as Symphony Plus, Harmony, and INFI 90, the HPC800 controller enables customers to effectively reuse their extensive library of ABB control solutions.

“These new products are designed to provide maximum system flexibility, reliability and efficiency” said Franz-Josef Mengede, head of ABB’s Power Generation business, a part of the company’s Power systems division. “The initiative supports ABB’s continued commitment to Symphony Plus and is part of our ‘evolution without obsolescence' approach of introducing new technology while protecting the long-term investment of customers by ensuring compatibility with preceding generations.”

The products add to ABB’s comprehensive suite of new functionalities and enhancements introduced in all areas of the Symphony Plus platform. These range from electrical integration and alarm management to engineering efficiency and cyber security.

Symphony Plus was launched as the latest generation of ABB’s highly successful Symphony family of control systems. With more than 6,000 systems installed over the past 30 years, many of them in the power generation and water sectors, this represents one of the largest installed bases of distributed control systems (DCS) in the world.