Philadelphia Electric Company's computer replacement lessons learned at Peach Bottom

The current regulatory climate continues to prod today's nuclear utilities toward safer and more reliable operation of their plants. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission guides NUREG-0660, NUREG-0696, and Supplement I to NUREG-0737 have all set forth increased requirements for plant monitoring. In response, the industry has looked at their existing plant computer systems as targets for enhancement or upgrade. This external pressure is nearly matched by the increasing demands made on existing computer systems by utility engineering and operations departments. The longer utilities postpone this evolution, the more likely they are to replace the entire system rather than upgrade the existing one. The older systems become harder to maintain and eventually are technically inferior to new systems, which have benefited from advances in computer technology in recent years. Enhancements become less economically advantageous than system replacements as the spread in technology widens. The object of this paper is to describe the Plant Process Computer Replacement Project at Philadelphia Electric Company's (PECo's) Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station. This paper explores (a) the impact on the plant, (b) the design and engineering services required, and (c) the planning and communication essential to a successful computer replacement project