Power industry domestic DCS has a significant competitive advantage

At present, there is no significant difference in the overall performance of domestic DCS systems that have been put into operation compared with imported products. All types of fully enclosed design modules have maintenance-free performance, and the total number of I/O points has reached more than 15,000 points; the software is all on the WINDOWS platform. Operation, friendly interface, convenient configuration modification, full Chinese environment, easy understanding and mastery, application functions basically include all the needs of the power plant. This shows that DCS design and manufacturing, performance parameters can meet the current thermal power plant construction design specification requirements. "Based on our survey data, we have seen that after years of continuous efforts to digest and absorb imported DCS systems, as well as their own R&D and efforts, domestic distributed control systems have made considerable progress and development, especially in several major power generation groups. With support, the performance, function and quality reliability of domestic DCS have been rapidly improved,” said Zhu Beiheng, deputy chief engineer of power research at Zhejiang Electric Power Company.

Compared to imported DCS, domestic DCS is easier to integrate. For example, the successful application of Guodian Zhishen EDPF-NT system in Zhuanghe Power Plant represents that the domestic DCS industry has broken the monopoly of foreign products in the high-end areas of domestic automation control, and has successfully implemented integrated DCS including main and auxiliary control, reducing the number of different systems. Data communication and exchange have the advantages of uniform and convenient production and maintenance. In terms of price, domestic DCS broke the monopoly of imported DCS to the market and reduced the investment cost. “According to the market situation, the investment in domestic control system equipment construction is still about 50% lower than that of imported equipment,” said Sun Changsheng, deputy secretary-general of the power industry automation technology committee.

From the perspective of the after-sales service of DCS manufacturers, imported DCS products adopt a strategy of significantly increasing spare parts prices and after-sales service costs to recoup the reduction in profits brought about by the reduction of project tender prices. The service attitude and timeliness of domestic DCS manufacturers are obviously higher than that of imported DCS, and the service cost is also much lower than that of imported DCS. In terms of spare parts, spare parts supply cycle, on-site service waiting time, annual average equipment replacement costs, and quality assurance service fees, it has obvious geographical advantage and price advantage compared with imported brands. The overall operation and maintenance costs are about 1/3 of foreign brands.

The application on the host is not the main force

Although the domestic DCS has a price advantage, is easy to expand and has low expansion costs, it can achieve reductions in efficiency, and it can help replace imported DCS. However, the current DCS of 600,000 kilowatt or more units is still basically the mainstream of imported products. According to Sun Changsheng's research and statistics, the application of the host computer, the proportion of imported products and domestic products is approximately: 3:1 for 300,000 kilowatts, and 14:1 for 1 million kilowatts and above. 9:1.

As of the beginning of last year, with the exception of the Guodian Zhishen EDPF system, six 1 million-kilowatt ultra-supercritical units and 30 sets of 600,000-kilowatt supercritical units, and Hollysys HOLLYSYS system applied two 1 million-kilowatt ultra-supercritical, 12 sets of 600,000 kilowatts. With a certain percentage of critical chillers, the Guodian South from TCS3000 system, Shandong Luneng LN2000 system, Xi'an Thermal Power Institute FCS165 system has also entered the 600,000 kilowatt application, Nanjing Keyuan NT6000 system, Zhejiang University in control ECS system and Shanghai Xinhua in XDPS The XDC800 system developed on the basis of the -400 and Shanghai Automation Instrumentation SUPMAX800 have also been applied to auxiliary control systems for 300,000 kilowatts and 600,000 kilowatts. The hard and software operating conditions of the system have eliminated the original concerns of the people. The automatic control of the thermal efficiency of the unit and the protection investment rate and the correct rate of operation have reached the same level as the imported control system.

Discussion on the Development of DCS Localization

Some experts have appealed that major power groups should comprehensively consider the factors such as the promptness of after-sales service, the convenience of system expansion, the dependability of long-term safe operation of the unit and other factors, and do not set the threshold for unfavorable domestic DCS bids through key technologies. By means of project research and other means, we actively support the research and development of new technologies of domestic DCS companies and improve the market competitiveness of domestic DCS companies.

The contract should not meet the requirements of the increase in indicators, or more than a few years of DCS failure caused the unit to trip the fine and the terms of the contract with the price of fishing, breach of contract should be notified through the case or reputation issues, excluding their products involved in bidding and other punishment. At the same time, the immediacy of on-site service, follow-up spare parts prices, and on-site service fees are quantified in the bidding contract so as to avoid follow-up requests.

The assessment of the unit tripping should also be relaxed at the power company level, which is conducive to finding out the cause of the failure in a practical and realistic manner and adopting corresponding technical measures to improve the reliability of the control system. The domestic DCS manufacturers need to further improve product quality and attach importance to the research and development of new technologies. The joint power plant, based on the improvement of traditional functions, actively develops advanced optimization technologies, integrated technologies for protection and safety systems, and fieldbus technologies to further enhance its own Market Competitiveness.