ABB Extends Control System Life for Combustion Turbine at Tasley Energy Center


ABB's life cycle policy of "evolution without obsolescence" simplifies the DCS upgrade.

Las Vegas, Nevada, December 13, 2011 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, announced today that they recently extended the DCS life for the combustion turbine at the Tasley Energy Center in Tasley, Virginia. The upgrade project extended the life of the ABB control system installed in 1990 to the latest control system offering by leveraging the economical advantages of seamless evolution enabled by ABB's unique life cycle policy of "evolution without obsolescence."

Over a five-day outage, the existing control system cabinets were rearranged, including new MMUs, controllers, I/O modules and power systems. The Allen-Bradley HMI, RS View that was installed years ago to replace the originally supplied PCView, was replaced with an ABB Symphony Plus console. Also included in the project were the addition of OPC connectivity for the RTU, the Allen-Bradley PLC and the interface to the historian. An ABB TAS module for auto synchronization will be supplied in the future.

The same controller configuration provided over 20 years ago in the Network 90 DCS platform is still used today as ABB's Network 90 DCS has evolved to Infi90, Symphony Harmony and today's latest offering, Symphony Plus. While I/O modules were replaced, termination units remained intact so field wiring was not disturbed, further simplifying the commissioning process.

As part of the 1990 controls retrofit project, the originally supplied Westinghouse P51 operator console was replaced with a computer-based PCView operator console that enhanced operational effectiveness by providing process graphics, control/monitor graphics and alarm help screens. These graphics were the basis for the new operator console installed as part of the recent upgrade.

This announcement was made at the Power-Gen International 2011 conference and exhibition in Las Vegas, NV. ABB is exhibiting in booth #4416 in the Las Vegas Convention Center.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 130,000 people. The company's North American operations, headquartered in Cary, North Carolina, employ about 20,000 people in multiple manufacturing, service and other major facilities.

For more information, please contact:

Bill Rose

Media Relations Manager

ABB Inc.

Power Products & Power Systems North America

919.807.5743 - office

919.244.4879 - mobile

bill.rose@us.abb.com

www.abb.us

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