Power April 2022 - 32

INSTRUMENTATION & CONTROL
Experiencing the Power
of Virtualization
While virtualization has been a trend in the information technology sector for
some time, it is also becoming increasingly attractive for operational technology. An
Austrian steel producer therefore decided to rely on a virtualized control system
while modernizing its power plant controls and is enthusiastic about the numerous
advantages of the technology.
Timo Belfiore
A
s one of Europe's leading steel producers,
voestalpine Stahl GmbH, a
subsidiary of voestalpine AG, operates
a state-of-the-art fully integrated
steel mill in Linz, Austria. The plant processes
several tons of steel strip and
heavy plate every year (Figure 1). To do
this, it needs much power and heat,
which is partly provided by a 35-MW gas
turbine. High-performance power plant
control technology is essential for ensuring
the turbine's targeted and efficient
operation and convenient operability.
When the existing control technology
became obsolete, the company decided
early in 2021 to carry out a complete
control system modernization.
Constantly Shortening Lifecycles
When selecting the right operational
technology, power plant operators today
face the challenge that the lifecycles
of hardware and software are
becoming ever shorter. Whereas, in the
1990s, it was still possible to plan for
lifecycles longer than 10 years, today
they have been reduced to just a few
2. voestalpine AG in Linz, Austria. Courtesy: voestalpine Stahl GmbH
years, and even faster development
cycles are expected. As a result, enormous
reinvestments may become necessary
over time.
Another challenge is that customers
must keep spare parts on hand for
the various hardware components, and
many components must be patched
and tested individually on a regular basis.
This ties up capital and human resources
and has a negative impact on
cash flow and operating costs. This is
prompting operators to rethink their
hardware and software strategies. One
solution that offers a remedy for all
these issues is to virtualize a plant's operations
and control technology.
Aware of ever-shortening lifecycles,
voestalpine Stahl decided from the
outset that a virtualized power plant
control system should be part of the
instrumentation and control (I&C) system
modernization. On the one hand,
the company reckoned that the maintenance
and servicing of the various
hardware platforms needed to ensure
system availability would lead
to
increasingly high costs for asset
1. Steel production at voestalpine. Courtesy:
voestalpine Stahl GmbH
32
and spare parts management. On the
other hand, more frequent updates
or upgrades to the system software,
which could become necessary due
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to increasingly complex cybersecurity
requirements, for example, would be
much easier and less costly to implement.
Moreover, the company already
had a data center at its Linz site for its
in-house information technology and
parts of the operating technology for
steel production, providing ideal conditions
for using a virtualization solution
for the gas turbine's control technology.
" Converting to virtualized control
technology for our gas turbine was absolutely
the logical step for our stateof-the-art
steel plant, " said Harald
Rehberger, group coordinator EMSR
Power Plant at voestalpine Stahl (Figure
2). " It was clear to us that this solution
would not only save us costs in the long
term but would also considerably simplify
many things in the future. "
Implementation of a virtualized version
of the Siemens Energy control
system in voestalpine Stahl's existing
virtualization infrastructure was the
ideal solution for the company. The solution
is based on innovative virtualization
techniques in collaboration with
VMware, the world market leader in
virtualization. A modern, virtual hardware
environment is created by using
virtualization software installed in the
data center.
POWER | April 2022
http://www.powermag.com
Power April 2022

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