Alarm management: Electric utility consolidates with one system

By Control Engineering Staff March 7, 2007

Ameren Corporation, a St. Louis based electric utility with more than 30 generating facilities, has chosen one vendor to support their enterprise-wide alarm management initiative. PAS ‘ Alarm Management Optimization—Real-Time (AMO-Rt) software will be the new platform at all facilities, replacing a mixed bag of systems throughout their network.

The AMO-Rt license includes modules for Alarm & Event Analysis, Documentation & Rationalization, Audit & Enforce, and State-Based Alarm Handling. Many of these functions were not previously available to Ameren. Deployment of the AMO-Rt software will follow the strategy outlined in PAS’ text, The Alarm Management Handbook—A Comprehensive Guide .

“One of Ameren’s Key Strategies for Success is to protect resources,” says Robert L. Powers, VP of Ameren Services and president of Electric Energy Inc. “To that end, we pledge to protect the health and safety of everyone working at Ameren companies’ generating plants as well as plant equipment through sound operating and maintenance practices. The selection of the AMO-Rt software is a key component to meeting these goals.”

Dan Perschbacher, manager, generation training and performance assessment, adds, “Prior to making a decision for a new standard of alarm management, Ameren conducted a thorough evaluation of numerous alarm management solutions available in the marketplace today. The fact that AMO-Rt was significantly more advanced than competing solutions, with a strong installed base and proven methodologies, made that decision easy—even as we move from our current solution.”

Click here to visit PAS’ Website and buy a copy of the book.

For more information on alarm management, click here read “Managing Alarms” from the February Control Engineering .

— Control Engineering daily news desk Peter Welander , process industries editor