Economic calculations in a process control system
First Claim
1. A system for use in a process plant having a controller coupled to a plurality of field devices, comprising:
- a data source device including economic data related to the operation of the process plant;
a diagnostic application stored on a first electronic device and communicatively connected to the controller, wherein the diagnostic application is adapted to collect diagnostic data related to abnormal operating conditions of the operation of the process plant during operation of the process plant;
an economic model incorporating both economic and diagnostic variables stored on a second electronic device and coupled to the data source and to the diagnostic application to receive and use the diagnostic data and the economic data to develop an economic parameter with respect to the operation of the process plant; and
a control application stored on a third electronic device and adapted to use the economic parameter to perform a control activity within the process plant.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A process control system includes economic models disposed in communication with process control modules, as well as with sources of economic data such as cost, throughput and profit data, and uses the economic models to determine useful economic parameters or information associated with the actual operation of the process plant at the time the plant is operating. The economic models can be used to provide financial statistics such as profitability, cost of manufactured product, etc. in real time based on the actual current operating state of the process and the business data associated with the finished product, raw materials, etc. These financial statistics can be used to drive alarms and alerts within the process network and be used as inputs to process plant optimizers, etc. to provide for better or more optimal control of the process and to provide a better understanding of the conditions which lead to maximum profitability of the plant.
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Citations
41 Claims
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1. A system for use in a process plant having a controller coupled to a plurality of field devices, comprising:
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a data source device including economic data related to the operation of the process plant; a diagnostic application stored on a first electronic device and communicatively connected to the controller, wherein the diagnostic application is adapted to collect diagnostic data related to abnormal operating conditions of the operation of the process plant during operation of the process plant; an economic model incorporating both economic and diagnostic variables stored on a second electronic device and coupled to the data source and to the diagnostic application to receive and use the diagnostic data and the economic data to develop an economic parameter with respect to the operation of the process plant; and a control application stored on a third electronic device and adapted to use the economic parameter to perform a control activity within the process plant. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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16. A method of assisting performing process plant control, comprising:
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collecting, on a regular basis at a service provider site, economic data related to economic factors associated with the operation of a process plant during operation of the process plant using a first data source device; collecting, on a regular basis at a service provider site, process control data related to abnormal operating conditions of control operations within the process plant during operation of the process plant using a second data source device and wherein the process control data is time-correlated to the collected economic data; running a computer model at the service provider site that models the operation of the process plant using the economic data and the process control data to produce a model output; using the model output at the service provider site to determine one or more actions to be performed with respect to the operation of the process plant during operation of the process plant and providing an indication of the one or more actions from the service provider site to the process plant for use in controlling the operation of the process plant. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41)
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Specification