The Ohio State University Uses HART to Reduce Risk to Product

The Ohio State University’s McCracken power plant provides 85% of the campus’ steam-based energy. “Without HART, this plant wouldn’t operate,” says Jerry Lowery, control systems engineer. Better data visibility helped to ensure process consistency and instrument reliability for greater productivity and better maintenance.

PROJECT OBJECTIVES:

• Improved diagnostics through greater visibility of instrumentation and process.
• Improve consistency of process performance with more efficient maintenance.
• Speed troubleshooting and corrective maintenance for greater process consistency.
• Better manage instrument configurations to reduce risk.

SOLUTION:

• Installed approximately 250 HART-based devices, with automatic loading of tags and operating information by the HART-enabled Honeywell DCS.
• Integration with DCS Asset Management software.

RESULTS:

• Saved a potential $300,000 (USD) superheater replacement by using HART data to convince vendor to instead address faulty valve controls.
• Enhanced maintenance responsiveness with context-specific notifications such as “primary variable (PV) was out of sensor limits” or “bad: check measuring.”
• Protected process integrity by validating analog readings with digital HART data to trigger events and investigation of discrepancies.
• Broadened quality assurance through tracking of PV drift using PV validation (above).
• Enabled increased fault monitoring using automatic redundant formats.

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