White paper

Advantages of an open turbine control system

Integrating non-OEM controls with Pratt & Whitney FT8 turbines

There are several hundred peaking power plants in the US equipped with Pratt &
Whitney FT8 turbines. Operators of these plants face an aggravating inability to
diagnose and correct system issues due to the tightly closed architecture of the
original control system. Facility owners have long been interested in a more-open
system that would enable them to view live system data and quickly respond to
process issues.
Owners and operators of Pratt & Whitney
FT8 turbines are now facing the decision
of how best to upgrade their turbine control systems, and should realize they have
new options in the form of third party,
open systems. These solutions provide
the owner/operator with the tools and
data necessary to become a self-maintainer: troubleshooting, tuning, repairing
and improving independently.
In this white paper, we will discuss:
Limitations imposed on owners/operators by black-box (closed architecture) control systems

Reliability, availability, safety and

profitability benefits of an open
control system
Core competency advantages
of open system suppliers

it prevents end users from altering their

products, minimizes the risk of unauthorized modifications and ensures consistent
operation of the installed base
of equipment.

Black box limitations

Pratt & Whitney FT8 turbines come with
a proprietary black-box control system
that makes it impossible for their owner/
operator to troubleshoot, maintain or
improve the system by themselves. There
are some good reasons for a turbine
original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
to employ this closed-system approach:

However, by locking their control system

design and configuration inside the black
box, they put their customers at a significant disadvantage. It could be said that
they have created a captive customer
base, held hostage to the OEMs offering.

For the first time,

FT8 owners can
see live data
flowing across the
logic and use it to
make faster, betterinformed decisions
regarding turbine
operations.

Customers are forced to rely solely upon

the OEM for troubleshooting, service and
parts, regardless of time, cost or quality
issues. Its readily apparent that closed
control system benefits accrue almost
exclusively to the manufacturer and typically at great cost and inconvenience to
their customers.
For the equipment owner/operator,
the closed-system approach creates a
recurring set of roadblocks to improved
reliability and availability. They cannot
quickly diagnose or respond to problems
without open access to system data and
troubleshooting tools. Essentially, the
owner/operator is prevented from taking
full ownership of their turbine.
Specific to older FT8 turbines, HMI
hardware failures are an additional contributor to poor reliability and availability.
Because of the black box design and
OEM-customized computer components,
it is impossible to make computer repairs
quickly. The equipment typically has to
be returned to the OEM for service and
updates. While that server or client is
out for repair, the generating facility must
adjust by relocating one of the remaining
computers or changing their work flow.
In the meantime, they have the additional
risk of lost control system redundancy,
which further erodes reliability.
These computer issues can also create
safety risks. At the facility of one independent power producer, the client computer
in the control room failed and had to be
sent for repairs, which typically takes
four weeks. With the client unavailable,
the operator had to work from the HMI at
the server location near the turbine. This
put the operator within one foot of 480 V
distribution breakers, directly in front of
the 13.8 kV generator circuit breaker and
within an arc-flash zone.
Safety practices at this plant required the
operator to leave the arc-flash zone during certain events (e.g., generator breaker
open or close). This made troubleshooting more difficult, because it forced the
operator to exit the structure that housed
the equipment being investigated.
All of the above is made even more problematic by the fact that many FT8 tur-

2 Advantages of an open turbine control system | ABB white paper

bines are located at a distance from the

main control room, or even in an entirely
different facility and unattended.
The freedom of open systems
Today, many third-party providers offer
open-access to their control systems. For
the first time, FT8 owners can see live
data flowing across the logic and use it
to make faster, better-informed decisions
regarding turbine operations. They are
able to instantly identify issues preventing
turbine starts and make repairs, adjustments or workarounds to rectify the issue
and resume power generation. Operators are also able to monitor and tune
their turbine control systems, identifying
potential turbine issues in advance and
taking corrective action proactively.
In the closed-system environment that
most FT8 owners work in, this type of
fast response is simply impossible. They
are forced to rely on remote telephone
support. The repair is delayed while the
appropriate support person is reached.
Once in contact with the support person,
there are additional delays as the plant
representative describes the issue. Since
the plant representative doesnt have live
data, they are frequently dispatched to
measure inputs at a device in the plant
and report back via a return phone call.
The open system approach also reduces
issues related to clients and servers. The
ability to use standard components that
can be repaired or upgraded locally, and
to easily update or patch software, makes
it possible to quickly repair or replace a
troublesome computer. This ensures that
the appropriate complement of HMIs will
be available at nearly all times. It also reduces or eliminates the need for operators
to ever have to work inside an arc-flash
zone or to remove themselves from the
area of the control system during crucial
operating and troubleshooting moments.
A more profitable approach
For power generators, the greater reliability
and availability enabled by open control
system architecture equate directly to
greater profitability.
At peaking power plants, operators of FT8
turbines are required to bring them online
as needed and at a moments notice. The

machine might only be required to run for

30 minutes and be online in 15 minutes.
In this scenario, starting reliability is of
paramount concern.
Independent power producers (IPPs) typically enter into agreements with some sort
of liquidated damages for failure to meet
requested demand, as well as possible
bonuses for having a high reliability/availability factor. With a solid, open control
system and the resulting improved reliability of the plant, IPPs can confidently
enter into more aggressive and, therefore,
more lucrative contracts. The higher
the reliability and availability the IPP can
guarantee, the greater the premium their
power commands.

Collaboration: OEMs offering only closed

systems can be less sensitive to the
specific needs of the owner/operator and
unwilling to innovate at that level. The
OEMs know they have a captive market
and can, therefore, offer only their own
standard solutions. Absent any competition, they have no pressure to offer their
solutions at a reasonable cost.
On the other hand, open system vendors
realize they must actively compete to
earn their customers business. They
understand the need to listen to individual
customers specific issues and respond
with targeted solutions. These third-party
suppliers appreciate the need to innovate
at such a level and are eager to demon-

For utilities and IPPs, the greater reliability

and availability enabled by open control
system architecture equates directly to
greater profitability.
Utilities have a different profitability picture.
Some rely on IPPs as a backup and pay
the premium just discussed. Others have
their own peaking generation assets. Given
the chance that the utilitys peaking FT8s
will not start when needed, its common to
have multiple turbines as backup. With the
greater reliability created by an open control system, utilities can confidently reduce
the redundant assets with considerable
savings or, conversely, have more peaking
power reliably available.
Furthermore, these units are often becoming more than peaking units, as natural
gas continues to become more attractive
versus other fuel sources. In short, these
units may now be scheduled to run far
more often and longer than originally expected, which makes their reliability and
availability that much more important to
the power generators profitability.
A long term partner
Beyond the reliability improvement and
resulting profitability enhancement, owners of FT8 turbines can realize a long
list of additional benefits by working
with a company that offers open control
systems as their core competency. The
major benefits include:

strate their ability to cure longstanding,

troublesome operational issues.
Independence: Open systems are designed to allow owners/operators to take
full responsibility and ownership of their
asset and to be self-maintainers of that
asset. This concept is at the core of the
open system suppliers value proposition,
so a full set of troubleshooting tools come
standard with the product.
Plant staff can observe high-resolution,
real-time and historical process trends,
enabling them to identify issues that can
be quickly investigated and, if necessary,
remedied independent of OEM support
and its inherent limitations. Moreover, this
data can form the basis of an improved
asset management program, enabling
more predictive and less routine or
reactive maintenance.
Customization: Owners/operators can
choose to customize the HMI in a variety
of ways, either during or after the upgrade. As one simple example, device
tags can be changed to names that are
more meaningful to the plant staff.

Owners/operators can also choose to

customize the HMI graphics, either during or after the upgrade. In most cases,
control room personnel manage multiple systems, each with its own graphic
standards or conventions. With an open
system, the owner/operator can specify
that the new control system graphics
match existing systems graphics. This
simplifies the unit operators job, enables
faster training and operator response,
and reduces operator errors.
Third-party providers also ensure that
NERC-CIP requirements can be met,
and offer services that help owners/
operators implement a comprehensive
security program. These issues can be
considered and addressed during the
upgrade project or process.
Lifecycle management: OEMs do not
typically offer an elegant, cost-effective
migration path for their control systems.
Their core competency and area of primary focus is the turbine itself, not the
control system. Rip-and-replace is their
typical approach to keeping the control
system current.
Many third-party providers follow a lifecycle approach instead. They provide a stepwise evolutionary path for control system
upgrades. This allows the owner/operator
to maintain a state-of-the-art system over
the entire turbine lifecycle, while minimizing the cost and risk to the unit that might
be associated with upgrades.
Owners/operators are not locked into
buying upgrades or add-ons from the
OEM. New technology that could add a
desired capability can be readily interfaced with the existing control system
(e.g., optimization software, new and
improved field devices, etc.).
More responsive service: Some OEMs
are clearly focused on the sale and installation of the original equipment. Lifecycle
services are an afterthought, especially
when it comes to the control system. As
described earlier, some FT8 owners/

ABB white paper | Advantages of an open turbine control system 3

operators are well-acquainted with the

painfully slow and aggravating telephonetag style of remote service. Onsite service
is typically provided by a Pratt & Whitney
authorized service representative. For
both phone and on-site service, it is common to have different service representatives with each call. Lacking familiarity
with the specific facility and turbine, the
service representative has to be brought
up to speed on the equipment, adding
time to each service call and delaying
critical repairs.
Open-system providers are more serviceoriented and have organized their support resources to better meet customer
needs. They have technicians on-call and
located throughout the service region in
order to respond more quickly and in person when the situation requires. Many are
willing to dedicate individuals to a specific
plant. Simply put, third-party control
system providers realize that they need to
earn their business every day. This mindset is evident in their control systems
evolution programs, comprehensive set of
service offerings and overall responsiveness to customer needs.
While the above service advantages are
very real, they become much less critical
when turbines are equipped with an open
system. Given access to live operational
data, and provided with capable troubleshooting tools operators are usually able
to troubleshoot and resolve issues by
themselves, thereby providing a critical
operational advantage.
New opportunities for FT8 owners
Many FT8 operators have a pressing need
to replace OEM control systems due to
the obsolescence of the HMI clients and
servers. They face long delays as these
items are repaired, and are at greater
operational and safety risk while these
assets are unavailable.
The reduced reliability of their generation
assets prevents IPPs from bidding on
more lucrative contracts and increases
their chances of paying penalties for
failing to meet contract requirements.
Utilities may be forced to carry additional

overhead and operating expense for redundant assets in order to ensure having
sufficient generation capacity when one
or more turbines fail to start.
Even operators with recently installed
units, who have not yet experienced the
pain of unreliable equipment, are still seeking out third-party, open-architecture control systems. They are frustrated at being
held captive by the turbine manufacturer.
They are eager to have access to live
data, respond on their own to issues and
take true ownership of their turbine and
its control system.
Open system upgrades have been fieldproven to increase availability, reliability,
safety and profitability versus the OEM and
other black box solutions, because the
owner/operator is provided with the tools
and data necessary to become a self-maintainer: troubleshooting, tuning, repairing
and improving independently of the OEM.
Regardless of the reason for upgrading
the control system, FT8 turbine operators
can benefit greatly by considering the
many advantages of relying on a thirdparty open control system.

ABB Inc.
Power Generation
Wickliffe, Ohio, USA
Phone: +1 440 585 3087
E-Mail: pspmarketing@us.abb.com
www.abb.com

3BUS09002

FT8 turbine
operators can
benefit greatly by
considering the
many advantages
of relying on a
third-party open
control system.