Maintenance Management Assistance (MMAC)

for Wafa Desert Plant & Pipelines

Technical Report

10920-EC-001
Investigation of frequent failure of HOT
STANDBY UNIT

Document No:

2016-MMAC-TR-XXX/IAS
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. EQUIPMENT DESCRIPTION.......................................................................................3
2. HISTORICAL DATA....................................................................................................3
3. FAILURE DESCRIPTION.............................................................................................3
4. ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - BASIC CONTROL PHYLOSOPHY.....................3
5. ECS PLC CONFIGURATION IN MCR............................................................................6
6. HOT STANDBY SYSTEM BRIEF DESCRIPTION............................................................7
7. ACTION TAKEN.........................................................................................................7
8. RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................9
9. References..................................................................................................................9

Rev. Comments Prepared by Checked by Approved by Date

01 Issued for information Isidor Danon MEM MEM
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1. Equipment Description
Tag Number : 10920EC001
Functional Unit : 10920 - Main Electric Power Distribution <1000VAC Unit
Area : Main Control Room
Equipment Description : ECS PLC CUBICLE IN MCR
Serial number : 140CHS110 00 HOT STANDBY UNIT

2. Historical Data
Not available in MAXIMO system.

3. Failure Description
Frequent ECS alarms with description: PLC battery fault in RACK 01 B, different
PLC cards faults... has been reported by Power plant operator.
Checking status on PLC in RACK 01 B, in ECS PLC cubicle in MCR, it was found
HOT STANDBY UNIT 140CHS110 00 in failure SHOWING ON DISPLAY ComErr.

4. ELECTRICAL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM - BASIC CONTROL

PHYLOSOPHY

In normal operation, the control of the electrical distribution system will be

performed from ECS operator station located in the main control room. Control
from substations can also be performed from ECS operator station in that
substation provided that this has been authorized by the operator in the main
control room. The control operations from substation are however limited to
equipment within that substation. All ECS operator stations are interconnected
via a dual redundant fiber optic communication network which allows ECS
operators anywhere in facility to be able to monitor the status of entire electrical
distribution system.

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It is also possible to control portions of the electrical distribution system from

ECDs (Electrical Control Desk). The main ECD is located in the control room
provides control for the GTGs and monitoring of Main EDGs. The local ECDs
located in the substations provide control for incoming bus-ties of the 6.6 kV and
LV PCs located in substation. From the local ECDs, it is possible to adjust speed
and voltage of the main EDGs for synchronizing with GTGs for restoration to
normal operating conditions, and in SS1 for load test of one MEDG at 10-920-EH-
013.
The main ECD is connected to the ECS PLC located in the main control room. The
local ECDs are connected to the ECS in the same substation. The only electrical
connection between local ECDs and main ECD is for speed and voltage control of
MEDGs. This means that operations carried out from local ECSs require verbal
confirmation from the operators in the main control room. Electrical interlocking
is provided on each SS switchboard; in order that MEDG and GTG incoming
breaker shall not remain simultaneously closed (Momentary parallel is authorized
for restoring power). A MEDG shall be able to supply several SS, but not in
parallel with GTG. MEDG and GTG incoming breaker can be simultaneously closed
in SS1 only, in test mode, with authorization given by ECS.

5. GTG control

Each GTG has several control points as follows:

- LCP located close to GTG
- UCP located in electrical control room
- GEP located in SS1
- GCPP located in SS1
- Main ECD located in electrical control room
- Main ECS work station located in electrical control room

Control of each GTG is determined by the position of "local-remote" selector

switches located in the LCP, UCP, GEP, GCPP, and "ECD-ECS" selector switch for
each GTG on the main ECD.

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Control priority is shown in the following diagram.

State of DO (digital outputs) of the PLC in main control room in the moment of
writing this report (GTA A and GTG B in service, GTG C ready to start) are as on
following figure:

All outputs regarding stop (or start) turbines are in state 0, which means that in
case of losing power for whole PLC, mentioned outputs will stay in same state
and therefore will not affect current state of GTG, ie. all relays K1 to K20 will stay
de energized. After losing PLC in MCR power generating system can be controlled
through other control point mentioned in above list.

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In case of failure of both PLCs in MCR, communication with DCS will be stopped
and data from ECS system will not be shown on operator panels.

Figure 1. ECS architecture

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6. ECS PLC configuration in MCR

This PLC is located in electrical control room ECS cabinet and shown on Figure 2.
bellow.
The specifics cards are:
 CPU Modbus port 1 to communicate with the DCS system
 1 extended rack 16 slots on remote I/O coaxial network
 4 Discrete input (140 DDI 353 00) cards
 4 analogue input (140 AVI 030 00) cards
 1 Discrete output (140 DDO 853 00) card
 CPU Modbus Plus port to communicate with the OWS workstations

Figure 2. PLC configuration in MCR

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7. HOT STANDBY SYSTEM BRIEF DESCRIPTION

Hot Stand-By (HSBY) system is based on two identically configured
Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC) linked to each other and to the same
Remote I/O (RIO) network. If one controller fails, the other assumes control of
the I/O system.

Each controller is paired with a 140 CHS 110 00 Hot Standby module. The
module monitors its own controller and communicates with the other Hot
Standby module. The system monitors itself continuously. If the Primary
controller fails, the Hot Standby module switches control to the Standby, which
then becomes the Primary controller. If the Standby controller fails, the Primary
continues to operate without a backup.

 Main PLC is executing application software and controlling process.

 HSBY modules are autonomously exchanging data (system and process

variables and statuses) and updating Stand-By PLC.

 Stand-By PLC is in Hot Stand-By mode waiting to take over the control of
the process.

8. ACTION TAKEN
Investigation about Communication Failure on HOT STANDBY card in Standby
Rack 01 B, for PLC in MCR has been performed. During investigation same failure
is generated by interrupting fibre optic link from Primary transmit to Standby
receive. Conclusion is that in HOT STANDBY card in standby Rack 01 B, periodical
failure of the optical receiver produce interruption of communication and
therefore communication error, since this error disappear after resetting whole
PLC Rack B.

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Figure 3. HMI Graphic symbol, HMI Alarm and Cause of failure

HOT STANDBY CARD, 140CHS11000 in both racks has been changed with new
ones withdrawn from warehouse, since firmware version of the cards is different
in installed card (V01.03) and cards in warehouse (V01.04). For proper work,
hardware and software components used in Primary and Standby PLC should be
exactly same.

The following description shows the replacement procedure.

Step Action
1. Power down the backplane.
2. Disconnect the fiber optic cable from the module and remove it from
the backplane.
3. Install the new module, put the designation slide switch on A or B
position and reconnect the fiber optic cable.
4. Restore power to the backplane.
5. Check the PLC fault disappears on OWS system main view
Note: During PLC maintenance operation, the ECS PLC can be power
off (QF3/QF4) and substations operate from LECD (note from document
SEE-J-51-M-E-0802-00 Operation and Maintenance Manual Part 2, Chapter 8.
Page 64/110)

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Figure 4. View of the PLC Cubicle in MCR

9. Recommendations
During ordering/reordering spare cards, care should be taken to order card in
even increment, because new cards has different firmware version than ones
already installed and should be changed in pairs.

10. References

- SEE-J-51-DE-0101-00 ECS 10-920-EC-001 Control room PLC Cubicle Drawing

2955661
- SEE-J-51-M-E-0802-00 F3 Operation and Maintenance Manual Part 2
- SEE-J-51-S-E-418-F1 Wafa Desert Site General Operation Philosophy

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