Turbomachinery Control Solutions & Services

Turbomachinery Control Solutions

S&C turbomachinery control solutions are OEM neutral, meaning that they operate on all leading third-party hardware and software control platforms compliant with IEC 61131, including

ABB
GE Fanuc
Honeywell
Rockwell Automation
Siemens
Toshiba
Yokogawa
RTP Corp.

Our turbomachinery control solutions have been implemented across the globe in numerous industry sectors, including power utility, onshore and offshore oil production, oil refining, gas transportation, and chemical plants.

Capacity Control

The Capacity Control Solution controls and maintains a primary process variable with up to two limiting PIDs to provide more stable and reliable process control.

Primary process variables may include power, suction or discharge pressure, flow rate, etc. Limiting variables can be most any variable, including motor current, suction or discharge pressure, flow, etc.

Compressor Group Station Control

Maintain your main station variables at appropriate set points and balance load among operating units with the Compressor Group Station Control Solution. This solution is available for units working in parallel, in series, or in series-parallel and includes motor-driven, reciprocating engine-driven, and turbine-driven compressors.

Gas Turbine Control

The Gas Turbine Control Solution maintains the required turbine rotational speed and control fuel valves as well as guide vanes and nozzles (when present). This solution, which is available for new or retrofitted turbines, is typically integrated into the total train control system.

Master Control

For stations with groups of turbomachinery units—whether in series, parallel, or a combination—and for groups of stations, the Master Control Solution is used to control and distribute load at the unit and station levels. This solution has two primary functions: load sharing and load balancing.

Load sharing efficiently distributes load across units and stations and determines the best operating scenarios for both control levels.

Load balancing, which is separate from load sharing, is an optimization strategy that balances load across all units and stations based on specific balancing criteria.

OptiRamp® Critical Archive (ORCA)

The OptiRamp Critical Archive (ORCA) is an OEM-neutral critical archive that enables fast archiving (in milliseconds) for key data before and after a control event (a critical event). ORCA’s storage and parsing capacity allows this dynamic feature to store greater quantities of critical event data and to analyze what specific parameter caused the shutdown as well as how other parameters reacted to the change.

ORCA is

An embedded application that does not require an operating system, patches, etc.
Easy to configure
Built into the low-level controller
Designed to provide valuable insight into high-speed process conditions and events

Power Management Control for Active & Reactive Power

The Power Management Control Solution for Active and Reactive Power provides multiple layers of control to balance active and reactive power among all operating units and transformers, provide precise control active and reactive power exchange with the power grid, and to conserve energy through load sharing.

Active Power/Frequency Control (P/F)

Limits active power exchange with the grid
Ensures proportional load (MW) sharing among generators
Controls frequency in islanded conditions

Reactive Power/Voltage Control (Q/V)

Regulates bus bar voltage
Ensures proportional reactive power (MVAR) sharing among generators and transformers
Limits reactive power exchange with the grid

S&C Steam Turbine and Extraction Control Solutions

Steam Turbine & Extraction Control

The Steam Turbine & Extraction Control Solution helps you operate your steam turbine closer to control limits to increase production and efficiency as well as minimize overspeed events. It is available for steam turbines with and without extraction.

This solution includes patented technology for Exlar actuators that provides redundancy to the steam turbine.

Surge Prevention Control

The main goal of the Surge Prevention Control Solution is to prevent compressor damage and process disturbances by controlling the gas flow through a compressor, maintaining energy efficiency and system capacity at the same time. When the application detects the compressor operating point is approaching surge conditions, the recycle control valve opens enough to recycle the gas, preventing the compressor from surge.

S&C's solution is unique in that it uses enhanced action, which is always closed-loop control. When the operation point reaches the Enhanced Action Line, we apply more aggressive PID control and only open the recycle valve as needed to prevent surge. This method provides a more stable process.

Turbomachinery Control Services

S&C provides numerous turbomachinery control services, including but not limited to,

Retrofitting the actuation of existing steam control valves and old hydraulic control systems with Exlar actuators
Replacing black boxes
Providing project management
Writing and customizing documentation
Providing field services and testing (factory acceptance test—FAT, site acceptance test—SAT, commissioning, start-up, etc.)