These slides are part of CB Pacific's customer's Tacoma Power webinar with David Greenwalt of AutomationWorld.
Virtualization helped Tacoma Power reduce risk of their hydroelectric power plants as well as their fish hatcheries by testing operations before deployment.
To listen to the webinar, go here: http://bit.ly/1rfJwVT
2. Virtualization: Reducing Costs and Risk
Today’s Speakers
Ozan Ferrin
Presenter
Supervisor
Generation Automation Engineering
Tacoma Power – Generation
David Greenfield
Moderator
Editorial Director
Automation World
Gimmi Filice
Presenter
Product Manager
HMI/SCADA Software
GE Digital
4. What is a Virtual
Machine or VM?
“A Virtual Machine (VM) is
an operating system OS or
application environment
that is installed on
software, which imitates
dedicated hardware.”
4
5. Virtualization Trends
As of July 2015 “About 75% of x86
architecture workloads have been
virtualized on servers” with VMware and
Microsoft leading the way.
Source: Gartner Report 2015, includes a mix of IT systems & ICS
Less than 30% for automation/control!
Source: HMI/SCADA user interviews
5
6. Virtualization increases server productivity by a 10X factor!
6
Physical server utilization Virtual server utilization
Enables consolidation of workloads from underutilized servers onto a
single server to safely achieve higher utilization
7. Virtualization
Key Capabilities of Virtual Machines
7
Partitioning
Run multiple operating systems on one physical machine. Divide system
resources between virtual machines
Isolation
Fault and security isolation at the hardware level. Advanced resource controls
preserve performance
Encapsulation
Entire state of the virtual machine can be saved to files. Move and copy virtual
machines as easily as moving and copying files
Hardware Independence
Provision or migrate any virtual machine to any similar or different physical
server
9. TACOMA POWER – BY THE NUMBERS
• 160,000 electric utility customers
• 9 hydro facilities on 4 rivers
• 2,361 miles of transmission and distribution lines
• 4 switching stations
• 8 generation switchyards
• 4 hatcheries, 3 fish collection facilities
• Substations:
• 5 main / transmission substations
• 49 distribution substations
• 13 dedicated distribution substations
• Other utility substations
9
10. GENERATION AUTOMATION GROUP
RESPONSIBLE FOR INTEGRATION, MODERNIZATION &
MAINTENANCE OF ICS (INDUSTRIAL CONTROL SYSTEMS) FOR:
• Generation of 3 billion kilowatt hours of electricity each year
• 4 fish hatcheries to support wildlife conservation
• 3 fish collection facilities
• Generation controlled from central location
• 3 engineers and 2 engineering technicians
• Some facilities unmanned
10
11. HMI/SCADA AT TACOMA
GE IFIX USER FOR MORE THAN 10 YEARS
• Approximately 50,000 points
• Generation facilities monitoring and control:
– including dam lake levels, megawatt values, megavar values, kilovolts, amps, etc.
• Fisheries monitoring and control:
– flow, temperatures, pump status, fish counting, running gates, etc.
• Trending, troubleshooting, continuous optimization
• Data collection and management for regulatory reporting
• System calls out operators on their mobile - remote access for
appropriate action
11
13. TRADITIONAL THICK CLIENT ENVIRONMENT
ADVANTAGES
• Teams are most familiar with this setup
• Industry is still primarily using thick clients
Advantage
13
14. Disadvantage
TRADITIONAL THICK CLIENT ENVIRONMENT
DISADVANTAGES
• More prone to failure, unless industrial computers are used, which
doubles the cost of hardware
• Restoring or upgrading an entire system can take from several hours to
several weeks:
• Patches and other software updates make it unreliable
• Reinstalling the Operating System and HMI software may lead to unpredictable results
• A large development space is necessary as each node is a separate
piece of hardware with separate software installations
• More prone to cyber security threats with standard Windows OS
14
15. MIGRATING TO A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
ADVANTAGES (I OF II)
• Less reliant on physical hardware. Virtual environments can be duplicated/loaded onto any virtual
host system (independent of the physical box)
• Restoring a system for disaster recovery is as simple as loading the OS’s to a virtual host machine
• Development testing can be handled using snapshots or checkpoints – allows for testing of patches
or other software updates and can be reversed very easily to a previous state if the results are
undesirable
• Duplicating similar systems is as easy as copying and pasting the virtual disk and mounting it to a
new virtual system
• Enhanced support for legacy systems (i.e. a Windows XP virtual environment can be loaded onto any
virtual host)
• Reduced hardware costs and failures since thin clients
replace the thick clients, no re-imaging is necessary
Advantage
15
16. MIGRATING TO A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
ADVANTAGES (II OF II)
• One central location to manage all software and operating systems
• Upon a restart of the host server, all the virtual environments return to their previous state
• For ALL our facilities, the development lab is reduced to a single server which hosts all
OS’s. Only the necessary thin clients need to be installed during development
• Software keys can be used to activate software and moved between systems as needed
• Security updates, malware protections, and antivirus update controls are easier to
implement
• Additional virtual instances can be created easily if there is a need (i.e. a dedicated system
for biologists to remote into)
Advantage
16
17. Disadvantage
MIGRATING TO A VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT
DISADVANTAGES
• Learning curve for automation & controls engineers
• Requires additional knowledgebase for new hires
• More robust and expensive server setup required
• Software may not be fully vetted out
• Unable to migrate all systems (among various plants) to virtual
environments at the same time
17
20. MAKING THE BUSINESS CASE
• Management team review
• Justification through benefits:
• Small upfront investment with savings in the long run through
speed/uptime
• Significant risk reduction
• Secured approval and support
• Added to regular budget cycle
20
21. PHASED APPROACH
Completion across all Tacoma Power Generation automation within 5 years
1. Development lab –
Virtual machine development
• Created virtual machine and viewed on 2 screens
• Ensured visibility on terminal screen
2. Development lab – HMI/SCADA
• Installed GE iFIX
• Soft licensing
3. Pilot deployment at first plant
• Incorporated virtual deployment into regular plant
HW/SW upgrade schedule
4. Refine best practices for deployment • Standard Operating Procedures
5. Deploy across all plants as part of regular
plant HW/SW upgrade schedules
21
22. VIRTUALIZATION IN ACTION!
• Greater reliability: no more fan failures!
• Temporary view client
• Thin client failure: no loss of data
• Combine other applications
into virtual system
22
23. BEST PRACTICES / LEARNINGS
1. Virtualization is do-able and worth the effort
- Learn, explore, network for experienced information
2. Consider hiring an IT consultant for expert advice
3. Test, pilot, refine
4. Overcome the learning curve for controls & automation
engineers – develop SOPs for deployments
5. Deploy during regular upgrades
– no added downtime or cost!
23
24. FOR MORE INFORMATION…
• ISA TRAINING: ADVANCED
INDUSTRIAL NETWORKING AND
CYBERSECURITY (TS20)
• GE VIRTUALIZATION
DEPLOYMENT GUIDE
24
25. Virtualization: Reducing Costs and Risk
Questions
Ozan Ferrin
Presenter
Supervisor
Generation Automation Engineering
Tacoma Power – Generation
David Greenfield
Moderator
Editorial Director
Automation World
Gimmi Filice
Presenter
Product Manager
HMI/SCADA Software
GE Digital
