Emerson has released DeltaV Analyze V2.0 software to help process automation operators manage alarm system performance to new industry standards. Concurrently, the company announced an alliance with automation safety certification and consulting firm exida whose alarm rationalization software can optimize Emerson’s DeltaV process automation system alarms.
Nuisance alarms are a common problem in industrial plants since the application of digital computers to process control in the 1980’s, Emerson notes. The ease with which alarms can be implemented has led to alarm overload, alarm floods, and incorrectly prioritized alarms, all of which diminish control room operators’ effectiveness.
Emerson’s DeltaV Analyze V2.0 software provides out-of-the-box reports that measure alarm system performance as prescribed by the new standards, such as peak and average incoming alarm rate and priority distribution. Reports contain top 2” lists of nuisance alarms of various types, such as the sources of the most frequent occurring alarms and those that remain active for the longest time.
