ABB has been recognized by the ARC Advisory Group as the global leader in distributed control systems (DCS) and as the number one positioned supplier of DCS.
From the ARC DCS Worldwide Outlook annual study, ABB’s leadership position in the DCS market was fully demonstrated by consistently placing first in key global verticals - including energy and energy-intensive industries – and in the DCS service, hardware and software categories.
In particular, ABB Ability™ Symphony® Plus - the total plant automation platform for power and water industries - has kept expanding its footprint since its launch in 2011 leading to ABB’s ascension to the top position in power generation. The system’s flexible automation features, solid competence at integrating electric power infrastructure with automation products, and forward compatibility with previous generations of products are some winning factors in these markets.
While overcoming the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution, ABB is able to draw on its long-standing spirit of innovation that represents its roots to the future. Symphony Plus, a pioneer of true digital integration for over 35 years, is being integrated into the ABB Ability portfolio as ABB Ability™ Symphony® Plus. The ABB Ability™ difference is expertise—the kind of deeply relevant knowledge that only comes with experience.
Recently, Symphony Plus passed another milestone threshold. Since the introduction, Symphony Plus solutions have been or are being delivered to control 50,000 MW of additional power across all types of generation, included conventional thermal, combined cycle, hydro, solar and wind.
In addition to that, many more ABB installations around the world have chosen Symphony Plus for their existing system upgrades thanks to the 'Evolution without obsolescence' life cycle management policy that ensures any new generation is upward compatible with its predecessors. Through this strategy, Symphony Plus offers the simplest incremental enhancement of system technology and functionality for its large installed base without compromising previous investments.
In only the last year Symphony Plus has been installed on several landmark projects such as the first phase of the gigantic Wanzhou supercritical thermal plant in China, the Bangladeshi Bhola combined cycle, the Severnside waste-to-energy plant in the UK, Dubai’s desalination facility, the impressive photovoltaic plant in Kamuthi, India, and Morgan City's gas-fired plant in the US to name just a few.
Several new products have been recently added to the Symphony Plus family: SD Series DIN-rail mounted control and I/O products, Fast-Ethernet hierarchical plant architectures, device and system integration over a broad range of standard communication protocols, a unified engineering environment for efficient configuration and management of any system component, and many new HMI features supporting fast and effective decision making.
In all, there are nearly 6,800 systems Symphony DCS installations in operation all over the world, about 4,800 of which are in power and water applications.