SCADA, PLC Automation System

SCADA stands for supervisory Control & Data Acquisition but it is term often used for data collection & presentation. Scada is normally a software package designed to display information, log data & show alarms. This can be graphical and tabular and can involve words and pictures. The software would normally be installed on a computer and all the various signals would be worked back to the central point (CPU).

Features

SCADA can be used to monitor and control plant or equipment. The control may be automatic, or initiated by operator commands. The data acquisition is accomplished firstly by the RTU’s (remote terminal units). The central host will scan the RTU’s will report in data can be of three main types:

Analogue data (ex – real numbers) will be trended (ex – placed in graphs)

Digital Data (On/Off) may have alarms attached to one state or the other state

Pulse data (ex- counting revolutions of a meter)