Development of plant specific strategic plans and guidelines

Management must authorize and support the development of plant specific strategic plans for I&C modernization, the development of plant specific guidelines and generic requirements to be followed by I&C modernization projects, and the establishment of plant specific processes to ensure that the I&C modernization projects are carried out in a manner consistent with these strategic plans and guidelines. These strategic plans, guidelines, and processes must all be consistent with the overall plant goals, objectives, and commitments described above. The development of these plant specific strategic plans (including feasibility studies) and guidelines requires substantial resources. Therefore, upper management must establish the need for them as well as the resources to develop them.

An important area for management guidance to the I&C modernization project is acceptable, consistent processes for determining both costs and benefits. Justification of a project is essential for getting approval to proceed. This is always a difficult activity, especially for the determination of the benefits. Guidance on what is an acceptable process to determine the benefits and the basis requirements to justify the proposed benefits would make it easier to determine them. The guidance would also help ensure consistency between projects so that it is easier for management to compare them and determine which to approve.

The strategic plans will establish what work needs to be done in the I&C modernization programme and the prioritization of the activities. The plant specific guidelines will establish how the work will be done. They can also be used for writing requirement specifications for I&C systems.

3.2.2. Infrastructure to support modernization

The infrastructure needed to support the modernization of I&C systems must be established so that it can support the plant goals, objectives, and commitments. This infrastructure consists of things to support the entire modernization programme over its expected life; such as the desired network configuration, amount and location of fiber optic cable, the types of computing platforms and process platforms that are acceptable to use, the acceptable set of protocols, and so on. This infrastructure should be designed such that the integration of systems is facilitated and it should put in place techniques to more easily support future modifications including those that may be required due to the faster life cycle of digital technology compared to that of older analog and relay technology.

Implementation of the appropriate infrastructure requires management guidance and backing since this is often a substantial cost effort, both in terms of determining the correct infrastructure and in implementing it, that needs to be part of the overall I&C modernization programme. This high level management perspective is often needed because it increases the cost of the first system implementation since the infrastructure has to be implemented as well as the system itself. However, having the infrastructure will allow future systems to be implemented more easily. It will also support system and information integration and remove islands of computation and information including unnecessary duplication of functionality and data.

3.2.3. Plant specific strategic plans and implementation guidance

An approach to reduce the cost and effort needed to develop plant specific strategic plans is to start with industry-accepted methodologies for these plans. Similarly, industry accepted guidelines, which in some cases may have been approved by the licensing authority, and regulatory generated guidelines can be used as a basis for the plant specific guidelines.

Plant specific strategic plans are needed in several areas such as long term life cycle management that results in a feasibility study type plan, long term maintenance plans for systems that do not need to be modernized, modernization evaluation plans to determine the best way to modernize systems that need to be modernized, and the long term infrastructure plan to determine the correct networking, computing platforms, process platforms etc. to support the long term modernization plans.

Examples of methodologies to support strategic planning in these areas are given in EPRI reports [15–19]. Guidelines and requirements to support I&C modernization are needed in several areas such as licensing of digital systems, the process for developing requirements specifications, V&V, EMC testing, abnormal conditions and events analysis, evaluation and acceptance of commercially available digital equipment (or Commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS)), requirements for the qualification of process platforms for safety applications, and requirements for workstation architectures and interfaces. Examples of guidelines and requirements supporting I&C modernization in these areas are given in the EPRI reports [20 – 32]. Obviously, these are only one set of approaches that can be used.

FIG. 4. Plant strategic planning relationships.

FIG. 5. Guideline and requirements relationships.

The relationship between the generic strategic planning methods, the plant specific plans, and the individual system maintenance plan or modernization evaluation report is shown in Figure 4. Figure 5 shows a similar relationship between generic guidelines and requirements, the plant specific guidelines and requirements, and the system requirements specification. Figure 6 shows the relationship between the generic evaluation methodology, the system specific evaluation report, and system specific requirements specification of system specific maintenance plan — whichever is the best approach for the system.

Even in the case where the utility provides only high level requirements and then sends out a request for bids, these plant specific guidelines and requirements are necessary. They are an integral part of the high level requirements since they define the acceptable way to do business in the plant. The supplier may take exception to some of them. However, it is then thoroughly understood by the plant and the supplier where these exceptions exist. It can be clearly determined if the proposed alternative is acceptable and should be used.

3.3. IDENTIFICATION OF ISSUES, NEEDS AND LIMITS WITH CURRENT I&C