Navigating Digital Control Upgrades in a Highly Regulated Industry

Instrumentation and Control (I&C) Systems act as the neurological pathway within the vastly complex functioning organism that is a nuclear power plant. Digital technologies unleash the "brain's" modern processing and data distribution power. However, most U.S. nuclear power plants lag decades behind the digital upgrade curve when compared to their Oil & Gas power plant counterparts – a definitive disadvantage on the highly competitive power grid. Modernizations, upgrades and ongoing support are vital to manage economic, long-term operation of nuclear power plants. In today's environment power plant managers continuously face new challenges and requirements. A short list includes the need for higher efficiency, lower emissions, greater fuel flexibility, higher availability, lower operating costs and a faster dispatch rate. To meet these challenges plant staff are continuously designing and installing equipment upgrades. Fortunately, these upgrades also create new opportunities for achieving performance and costsavings through advanced controls. In order to keep upgrade project costs down plant staff search for vendors who offer the most advantage. The vendor that can offer multi-faceted integration capability where each portion of an upgrade can be procured and installed under one purchase order affords efficiencies in production and therefore cost savings to the customer. Larger corporations sit at a distinct advantage in this regard.