Yokogawa Electric Corporation has been selected by Exxonmobil to be the Open Process Automation (OPA) system integrator responsible for establishing the company‘s OPA Test Bed. Exxonmobil will use the Test Bed to evaluate candidate components and standards and provide the basis for moving OPA technology into initial industrial field trials. Yokogawa‘s development office for the Test Bed will be located near Exxonmobil‘s Houston Campus in Spring, Texas, and the initial stage is planned to be operational in the fourth quarter of 2019.
Exxonmobil and Yokogawa both are members of The Open Group Open Process Automation Forum (OPAF), an international forum of end users, system integrators, suppliers, academia, and standards organisations who are working together to develop the specifications for utilising OPA technology in next generation process control systems. An OPA-based control system is designed to support integration of best-in-class components and provide both configuration and application portability across components from different suppliers.
The Exxonmobil OPA Test Bed will leverage the existing OPA development work and technological expertise of Yokogawa‘s US Technology Center. Exxonmobil intends to share the results of systems tests using the Test Bed with their collaboration partners and OPAF. Exxonmobil will also encourage their collaboration partners to utilise the Test Bed to evaluate additional components that will be used in their independent field trials.
