Product Overview
The Alarms and Events plug-in for KEPServerEX can help reduce costs and improve performance. OPC AE clients can receive and monitor process alarms, operator actions, informational messages and tracking/auditing messages directly from the Alarms and Events plug-in. Monitor areas of a process that may require operator attention when defined thresholds are met, including safety limits of equipment, event detection, and abnormal situations. The Alarms and Events plug-in can also be used to help identify faulty equipment, create maintenance work orders, and improve on operator's effectiveness. Furthermore, the plug-in can be used to collect and record alarm and event information for audits or used in correlation with other historical data.
Alarms and Events is a plug-in module to our industry leading communications platform, KEPServerEX, and works in conjunction with the platform's free OPC AE Client interface. Creating an alarm is as simple as browsing the existing tags within KEPServerEX and selecting the item that will be used as the alarm. Once an item is chosen, a condition and sub condition need to be set for the item. A trigger is then set comparing the current data value and the threshold. When the condition's trigger is met, an alarm will be sent to the corresponding Alarms and Events Client application providing the user with unique alarm input, output, and acknowledgement messages.
Features
ITEM BROWSING AND IMPORTING
Browse KEPServerEX and the available tags and import the items to be tested. Tags can represent specific areas and equipment on the plant floor. To make 3rd party OPC DA and OPC UA Servers available for use with the Alarm and Event plug-in you will need to use and configure the OPC DA and/or OPC UA Client drivers.
FULL OPC AE CLIENT SEVERITY SUPPORT
The severity value is an indication of the urgency of the sub-condition. This is also commonly called "priority", especially in relation to process alarms. Values range from 1 to 1000, with 1 being the lowest severity and 1000 being the highest. Typically, a severity of 1 would indicate an event which is informational in nature, while a value of 1000 would indicate a disastrous event.
EXTENSIVE ALARMS AND EVENTS CONDITION SUPPORT
KEPServerEX supports nine OPC AE standard conditions providing flexibility in how Alarms and Events Conditions are calculated and prioritized. Each condition has a unique name and unique set of sub-conditions.
MULTI_LEVEL
The multilevel condition supports multiple sub-conditions. This condition is used if the source has multiple states of interest and there is a need to know the transition between the condition states. For example, if you have a temperature tag with multiple temperatures of interest, use this condition. The HIGH_HIGH sub-condition has the highest priority and the LOW_LOW sub-condition has the lowest.
HIGH_HIGH, HIGH, LOW, LOW_LOW
These are single level conditions with a sub-condition that matches the condition name. These conditions are used if a single state of a source is of interest. For example, if you have a temperature tag with a single temperature of interest, use this condition. Note: use HIGH_HIGH for higher priority states and LOW_LOW for lower priority states.
ROC_HIGH, ROC_LOW
The Rate of Change (ROC) condition compares the source data to a static or dynamic ROC. For example, if you have a source tag that represents production output and you want to trigger the condition if the output falls below 100 units a minute, use this condition. Note: use ROC_HIGH for high priority conditions and ROC_LOW for low.
DEV_HIGH, DEV_LOW
The Deviation conditions are used to monitor the deviation of the source data. The condition is triggered if the condition of the source is outside the limits set. The limits can be either a percentage or a static value. For example if you have a source that monitors power consumption and you want to trigger the condition if the power consumption is outside of 100W ±20%, use a deviation condition.
A plug-in is an advanced option that extends the capabilities of the KEPServerEX communications platform. It increases the usefulness of data by transforming it beyond raw data in a device register.
Plug-ins may be licensed individually or in suites. Additional plug-ins can be licensed on demand as connectivity needs evolve.