Berry Cogen 42

DCS Upgrade

Project Summary

Berry Cogen 42, located in Santa Clarita, LA County, is a two unit cogeneration site using GE LM 2500 turbines to generate electricity. Waste heat is used to make steam for enhanced oil recovery at the Berry oil field. The plant is operated and maintained by Solar Asset Management Services. In August of 2003, CSE Engineering, Inc, received a purchase order to completely replace the existing Westinghouse WDPF control system with a new one using Siemens/Moore APACS+ hardware and CSE's IBECS HMI software.

One of the main reasons for the project was a need to increase reliability and maintainability of the project. The WDPF system had been in service for more than 15 years and was reaching the end of its useful life. Replacement parts were expensive, and the system was difficult to modify to meet site needs.

The project required that the transfer from the old system to the new one be done within a one week plant outage. As a result, the system was assembled and fully tested at the CSE office. The equipment was then shipped to the job site, installed, and powered up prior to the shut-down to ensure that everything was ready.

Transferring to the new system required over 500 field instrument cables to be moved from the old system to the new system. In addition, data links between the two GE Mark IV control panels, a water treatment system PLC and an off-site data link to CAISO DPG were also included in the new system. The project met its goals. The transfer from the old to the new system was accomplished within the allotted time. A close working relationship with the site supervisor ensured that the system would meet the operating requirements for the project. The customer was very pleased with the speed and quality of the workmanship. Operator acceptance of the new system has been very positive.