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Orbital Energy provides both custom designed/manufactured control systems and it's Vecs 9000 Controls Framework based on leading Industry components that have all been proven to work together seamlessly.

Our control systems can be used with new installations or can be integrated into existing systems to replace obsolete or unreliable equipment.

All of our systems are fully documented and designed to ISO 9001:2000 standards.

Custom made SIL 2 and SIL 3 solutions are also available upon request.

As standard our control systems include both plc based and hardwired protection circuits, allowing operators to override the plc and manually stop the turbine. A watchdog timer protects the system against PLC failure, again stopping the gas turbine in the event of component failure.

The Vecs 9000 framework uses mainly off the shelf components which we have tested in integration with each other, so that we can provide the customer with a variety of choices and the assurance that they will all work together.

The diagram on the left shows the full extent of a Vecs 9000 framework control system. The customer can specify which of these components they require or an Orbital Energy representative can provide a recommended configuration.

Orbital Energy uses the highest quality industry standard components to avoid the customer from being locked into proprietary upgrade paths. All Vecs 9000 components come with fully documented interfaces to allow third parties to integrate with the purchased control system. 

Fuel Skid
Orbital Energy custom builds fuel skids based on each projects requirements. Gas, liquid or duel fuel skids are available, with either valve or pump driven control interfaces. All the interfaces can be designed to work with either the standard Vecs 9000 framework or to fit in with an existing control system.

Instrument Probes
Most equipment is supplied with various industry standard probes to monitor vibration and temperature. The Vecs 9000 framework is designed to interface with these. If the control system is replacing an older control system on existing equipment then damaged/obsolete probes can be replaced with comparable items.

Physical Instrumentation
In many cases customers may require physical gauges and switches to control the engine. Our custom fabrication workshop can either copy the ergonomics of existing control panels or design and build new units.

PLC - Central Control Computer
Our Central Control Computer solution is an unmodified Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 5550/5560 PLC, running Orbital Energy control software. We have used this PLC in a wide variety of gas turbine control systems and it has impressed both ourselves and our customers with it's reliability and response speed. 

Protection Systems
If separate hardwired protection systems are required, then both VibroMeter and Bently Nevada provide excellent solutions which can easily be integrated into the rest of the Vecs 9000 framework.

Control HMI
Orbital Energy uses both Allan Bradley RSView and Microsoft Visual Studio based HMI systems. These can be configured to work with existing control systems or integrated into a new Vecs 9000 system. HMI's are tailored to suit each project's individual requirements. Popular options are extreme weather casings, touch-panel displays and control room mounted displays. 

Monitor HMI
This is usually the same as the control HMI, except without any control over the unit (with the exception of an optional emergency stop function).

Data Analysis Station
Orbital Energy can provide either a computer or software installation of the Orbital Energy Data Analysis software that allows either long term analysis of engine performance or short term analysis for fault finding and problem identification.

In the case of the data logging of the engine, a programming API is available to allow customer analysts to interface with the internal database and extract information.