[ScooterMcGavin]

Due to an unfortunate incident which resulted in the plants cooling tower burning down, we now have a few months of downtime to work on the plant. It was built in the early 70's and is mostly controlled by pneumatic controllers and lots of relays. We are in the process of upgrading it to a new AB Controllogix system with a new HMI system. The plant was never intended to have a central control system so we are having to pretty much start from scratch.

Were gutting most of the equipment out of the control boards and moving everything to the system. We have been working on it for a couple of weeks now and here is some pics of our progress. The inside of the control board is tiny. I can barely fit my shoulders through there. Most of those exposed terminals you see have 130VDC or 120VAC on them. You have to be real careful what you lean against and yes that alligator clip has been in service for a number of years.

The new giant box is for all the new wiring that will be running from the PLC to the control board.

 

[Vintage Sounds]

Nice. What does this plant do?

 

[AZ86]

Nice! I wish I could help! I love doing control work! I can stand there all day wiring panel on terminals!

 

[ScooterMcGavin]

Nice. What does this plant do?

Its a geothermal power plant.

 

[lefleuron]

Thanks for the pictures.

Just looking at the controls, you can smell late 70s all over it.

I find the more years I work at this, I can just about tell a machines age within a few years at a glance.

I say late 76 to early 78.

But then again, I have never worked in that type of plant.:jester:

 

[ScooterMcGavin]

Thanks for the pictures.

Just looking at the controls, you can smell late 70s all over it.

I find the more years I work at this, I can just about tell a machines age within a few years at a glance.

I say late 76 to early 78.

But then again, I have never worked in that type of plant.:jester:

Pretty close. Actually it was '71 but they used that same design up until '77.

 

[sparky970]

Are you changing the instrumentation or do you plan on using a lot of I/P's and P/I's. Hopefully you're buying new instruments. If not, don't waste your money on cheap transducers. It'll cost more in the long run.

 

[ScooterMcGavin]

Are you changing the instrumentation or do you plan on using a lot of I/P's and P/I's. Hopefully you're buying new instruments. If not, don't waste your money on cheap transducers. It'll cost more in the long run.

All new rosemount transmitters, positioners, metering transducers, generator protection relays and a bunch of other stuff. Its a pretty epic undertaking. There's 3 different tech crews plus all the other mechanical work happening at the same time.

 

[Jlarson]

Only one clip lead? Some plants have more then a few of those temporary/permanent jumpers :laughing:

 

[ScooterMcGavin]

Here's from progress pics. Construction is pretty much complete and were starting commissioning. Been working six days a week and haven't had much time to post. All the IO surface stuff is hand fabricated using network rack panels.

 

[greenman]

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Here's from progress pics. Construction is pretty much complete and were starting commissioning. Been working six days a week and haven't had much time to post. All the IO surface stuff is hand fabricated using network rack panels.

cool

 

[lefleuron]

Some cash was spent on the upgrade, better than the half hearted ones I see around here.

I guess you can throw "white to white and black to black" out the window.

 

[JRaef]

Excellent work!

Nice looking products too