Identifying the Root Causes of Control System Failures

The Problem

It is inevitable that the control system will eventually be the cause of plant trips. Ideally, the cause of the trips should be identified, and corrective action taken. This is not always the case.

The Consequence

Plant trips caused by the control system can severely undermine confidence in the ability of the plant to deliver production quotas. When trips are frequent, the credibility of staff tasked with delivering the control system can also suffer, undermining confidence in any future initiatives to improve plant performance or efforts to seek investment to improve control-system performance and reliability.

The Cause

Why are the root causes of trips not always identified? Well, there are several reasons:

x Plant production pressures may make it impossible for control-system engineers to perform adequate analysis ahead of restarting the plant.

x There may not be a test rig to simulate plant conditions.

x Staff may lack the skills to know where to start looking.

x The error condition may be transient, e.g., a faulty piece of equipment that fails and then immediately recovers.

The Solution

The place to start is to use root causes analysis to try and identify root causes systematically.

Some techniques entail:

✓ The use of error traps to systematically identify and isolate the problems within applications.

✓ Reaching out to the system OEM to determine whether other users have experienced similar errors.

✓ Research on Internet forums to see what other users have to say.

✓ Engaging an experienced external team to systematically analyze your control system to check that:

• The system architecture is robust

• OEM recommendations have been followed when configuring the system

• Equipment within the system is compatible and has been set up correctly

• The system is free of system errors

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