Control loop performance monitoring – ABB’s experience over two decades

When process control systems do not perform as they should, plant personnel will not obtain positive results and may even give up using some control loops entirely. To increase productivity and efficiency it must be ensured that the control system is used effectively. The best way to do this is to turn the automatic control on and to tune it correctly. This paper describes the expertise in control loop performance monitoring gathered by ABB’s control experts. With more automated production processes and fewer experts, control loop performance monitoring (LPM) needs to be able to evaluate one hundred loops at a time instead of loop-by-loop analysis. This cannot be done with training or manual tools. In this paper, ABB’s perspective on loop performance monitoring as well as several novel features is described. Finally, further research directions are highlighted.