What does the next generation of SCADA have to offer?

Thirty years ago industry pundits were predicting the death of SCADA as a technology, saying it would have no place in the plants and factories of the future. But contrary to this the technology has constantly evolved in line with user requirements, and indeed continues to evolve. Paul Hurst, MD of Products4Automation (P4A) vendors of…

SCADA helps prove viability of thermodynamic solar production

Thermodynamic solar power is being considered for multiple sites around the world following a successful trial of the technology outside Seville in Spain. The plant reliably produces 400MWh of clean energy per day regardless of weather conditions, thanks in part to a Movicon 11 SCADA control system. Solar panels have been a dependable energy source…

New SCADA platform offers verifiable energy savings

The demand for businesses to adopt an energy policy that increases efficiency has grown exponentially over the last few decades. New legislation, rising fuel prices and changing industry standards all require companies to monitor and control their energy consumption with higher accuracy. This can not only help to achieve more sustainable operations, but also allows…

Pick your database option – modern SCADA must support multiple formats

It is hard to imagine a current automation system working without the capacity to use some sort of database technology. The process data needed for effective control and analysis in order to improve productivity is becoming extensive. The result is that SCADA systems are needed not simply to perform their traditional supervisory control and monitoring…

Pick your database option – Modern SCADA must support multiple formats

It is hard to imagine a current automation system working without the capacity to use some sort of database technology. The process data needed for effective control and analysis in order to improve productivity is becoming extensive. The result is that SCADA systems are needed not simply to perform their traditional supervisory control and monitoring…

SCADA developer celebrates 25th birthday with new innovation

Progea, one of the world’s leading innovators in software for industrial supervisory control and visualisation, is celebrating the 25th anniversary of its founding. The company has used the occasion to mark the release of NExT, a completely new SCADA product designed from a clean sheet to address the needs of SCADA applications of the next…

Easily adaptable SCADA graphics keep users engaged and futureproof systems

Attractive pre-set graphics that are easy to drag and drop during the design process, and which are easy to link to standard inputs, all help to make great looking SCADA screens. But they also need to be easily adaptable to custom requirements to keep users engaged. Paul Hurst of Products4Automation examines key trends in SCADA…

Smartphones changing the face of industrial control

Being able to control and monitor critical plant from a smartphone or tablet computer is proving to highly beneficial to plant production, management and maintenance personnel alike. SCADA systems are now able to support this current advance in industrial control, as Paul Hurst of Products4Automation (P4A) explores. Smartphones, tablet computers and other similar mobile devices…

SCADA in the next 30 years

Paul Hurst, MD independent UK SCADA and HMI vendor Products4Automation (P4A). Industrial SCADA is undergoing a step change right now, with the move from proprietary code to next generation technologies such as compatibility with SQL Databases and Cloud Computing .NET, OPC UA and HTML5. This is part of moving towards a more connected world and…

Automation Platform.NExT delivers support for industry 4.0

Industry 4.0 is a concept that has shaped automation dramatically since its conception at the 2011 Hannover Fair. Attaining a ‘smart factory’ requires total interoperability and the utmost transparency of information between devices – which means SCADA software is required to be more versatile than ever before. These requirements have been carefully considered by Progea,…