Our plant is running on a legacy DCS (distributed control system) that’s overdue for an upgrade. The challenge is that we can’t a?ord to take the system o?line for extended periods. Has anyone successfully modernized their DCS without significant downtime?
We did a phased migration where we ran the old and new systems in parallel. It required extensive planning, but the risk was minimal. Focus on upgrading critical areas first, like your turbine control loops.
One key is redundancy—ensure your new system is fully commissioned and tested before decommissioning the old one. Also, keep a team on standby for immediate troubleshooting during the switchovers.
If your system allows, consider virtualization. We set up a virtual instance of the new DCS to test and validate configurations without touching the live system. It’s a game-changer for upgrades like this.