Commissioning of Process and Automation Systems

Commissioning strategy

To be able to solve the tasks set out in the main heading, it is first of all necessary to establish that the process technology system (the process) and the automation system should always be regarded as one entity. In this respect, the interaction between process (process technological system section) and the automation structure should always be taken into account as far as commissioning is concerned. Picture 1 therefore provides an overview of the main aspects of commissioning of process and automation systems, categorised into levels I and II. Here, it is of major importance, in which order (according to which commissioning strategy) the individual commissioning actions are carried out, thus determining the actual time period, costs arising and the success of system commissioning.

Picture 1: Main activities involved in the commissioning of technical process systems


A first evaluation of Picture 1 enables you to define the following main activities for commissioning:

Level I

Group 1 (step 1)

>> Connection of electrical (and pneumatic) auxiliary energy for processors and other automation equipment (with the exception of large electrical consuming devices).

>> Checking the operating mode – manual mode – for the existing closed control loops and binary control systems on the technical process system.

>> Basic test of binary control systems, e. g. for the switching on and off of pumps, open/closed valves, etc., structure variations of the system and the testing of monitoring equipment.

Group 2 (step 2)

>> Establishing the operational readiness of the process, e. g. availability of required media (basic materials) in the appropriate output containers, necessary filling of piping systems, etc., (all operating steps in manual operation).

Group 3 (step 3)

>> Testing of safety devices (as specified in VDI/VDE 2180), whereby safety device 1 (sensors, actuators and processor algorithms are to be tested first, followed by safety device 2.

>> Connection of electrical auxiliary energy for large consuming devices.

>> Approaching of the working points of the process technological system, i.e. the closed control loops are moved into the required working points in manual mode, whereby the controller structure and the controller parameters are programmed for each closed control loop.

Level II

Group 1

>> Establishing of operating mode – automatic mode – by means of a smooth transition, manual/automatic changeover (control signal-manual and control signal-automatic coincide).

>> Monitoring of steady-state initial start-up and testing of control and disturbance behaviour.