Alarm Management System (AMS) is
a new software application from 7T which displays an overview of alarms from
numerous plants with
different SCADA systems. The number of on-duty personnel can be reduced
and replacement investment in identical SCADA systems
can be postponed resulting in a significant savings potential.
- Gives you an overview of all alarms for all your
plants
- Allows you to choose specific alarms for forwarding to
specific on-duty personnel
- Collects and displays the alarms in one complete
list
- Any alarm can be forwarded by SMS or e-mail
- Reduces the need for on-duty personnel outside normal
working hours
- Duty calendar makes sure the right alarm is sent out to the
right duty operator
- Prints out duty calendars for validating duty
schedules
- Makes quick response possible to adverse plant conditions
- Easy setup - online in minutes
An organization running plants at various locations, each
equipped with a different SCADA system, can now create a secure solution for
alarm handling with AMS. No SCADA systems need be replaced nor reconfigured, and
expensive engineering costs for development of a special alarm interface are
avoided. AMS is the single collection point for all alarms. And
installing a new AMS system is simple - it can be set up and running within a
very short time.
If you're not using an IGSS SCADA system, then you send your
alarms as SMS messages to AMS. During normal working hours alarms can be
acknowledged directly at the AMS console. Outside normal working hours,
AMS forwards alarms to operators with mobile phones, who then take over
monitoring and alarm acknowledgment. AMS can also forward incoming alarms
as e-mails. Organizing and setting up alarm monitoring routines are easily done
by creating duty calendars and operator profiles.
An example of a typical AMS solution is seen in the
illustration below where diverse SCADA systems "feed" their SMS alarm messages
into the AMS server via a GSM modem. (Notice that the IGSS SCADA system
communicates directly with AMS via a TCP/IP connection.)
AMS installation with mobile phone alarm
acknowledgemen
The Duty Planner
settings
The
Duty Planner tab is in many ways the heart of the
AMS application because it's here that duty calendars are set up and operator
profiles are created. These are brought together in duty plans visible on the
calendar intrerface. In the illustration below we have two plants with identical
duty plans, Plant 1 and Plant_WS, but with different operator teams responsible
for each.
Two
separate duty plans in AMS
Setting up the individual duty
plans is simple and intuitive. At the top of the tab, the required name is keyed
in in the Name field and then the name appears on the Duty
Calendar itself. By dragging edges of the graphic upwards or downwards, the
total time interval for the plan is adjusted to its correct length, including
start time and end time. The next step might be to create operator profiles with
operator name, mobile telephone number, e-mail address if applicable, etc. Using
right- click menus on the Duty Calendar, operator names are then added to
their respective duty plan time blocks including the role chosen for each.
The Recurrence
function
A big help in setting up duty plans
is the so-called
Recurrence function. On the illustration above we can
see a small symbol with two circular arrows
at the bottom
right hand corner of the two duty plans . This symbol indicates that the duty
plan has been set up to repeat itself for weeks, months, years - or even
decades. It's a work time-saver and ensures consistency throughout the lifetime
of the duty calendar. Because there will always be certain days in the course of
a longer period when the duty plan has to be temporarily modified, the
Recurrence function has a so-called exception day setting. This permits
the duty supervisor to override the duty plan and replace it with another over a
shorter time period and then return to the original duty plan designated by
Recurrence.
Alarm filtering
AMS'
alarm filtering avoids alarm "spamming" of operators and ensures that they only
receive alarms relevant to their area of responsibility is. By defining a filter
which sets up specific conditions under which alarms are to be passed on or
blocked, alarm handling becomes more effective, and unnecessary alarm traffic is
avoided. Alarm filters can not only be applied to operators, but to the
individual SCADA servers present in the AMS system as well as to the AMS server
itself.
Real
time system overview
When AMS
is up and running, the
AMS Overview tab gives you a current picture of
what's happening in your system. Operators and servers that are active are shown
with a green background, disabled servers with a dark green color and servers
that AMS cannot connect to with a red background; the yellow rectangles
represent the filters being used. In addition, statistics are displayed in the
window to the left of the graphical overview with important information on
errors, first connection date, number of alarms monitored, etc. The statistics
content varies according to which element on the graphic has been selected with
the mouse.
Graphical overview of AMS up-and-running
Alarm
list with issuing server name
Alarms
collected by AMS are displayed on the
Alarm View tab, which gives the
supervisor an up-to-date status on all incoming alarms and which servers have
issued the alarms. These are organized on three tabs:
IGSS Alarms,
SMS
Alarms and
OPC Alarms. During normal working hours, these alarms can
be acknowledged directly in AMS. Otherwise, they are forwarded to SMS operators
offsite. Active alarms not yet acknowledged are present with red text,
acknowledged alarms are presented with black text.
IGSS alarms displayed in Alarm View
Every time a new alarm is delivered
to AMS, a small pop-up message appears on the lower right hand corner of the AMS
server screen to draw attention to the new, incoming alarms.
Validation of system status with
event log
Yet
another feature contributing to reliable overview and control of alarm
monitoring in AMS is the Event Log tab. Here AMS registers all events
that relate to system startup, GSM modem status, alarm delivery recipients and
alarm delivery failures. Discovering and correcting errors becomes a very easy
troubleshooting task with the information displayed in the log, which is also
stored in the AMS event log file on the server hard disk.
Event logging shows current status