UPGRADING FROM THE DICON WIRING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM TO INTEC AT THE GENTILLY 2 STATION
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CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
UPGRADING FROM THE DICON WIRING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
TO INTEC AT THE GENTILLY 2 STATION
by
Paul A. Theoret CA9800495
Hydro-Quebec
SUMMARY DICON is written in COBOL, initially ran on a main-
The General Electric DICON Wiring Management frame computer located in the United States and
system supplied to HQ during the construction of G2 accepted key-punched card input for batch treatment
is currently being replaced by the stand-alone version of the data. Even now, this system is still being rent-
of the IntEC software developed by AECL. The rea- ed by the different owners of CANDU 6, using more
sons for replacing DICON and choosing IntEC are dis- modern input stations emulating the card data format
cussed. The different aspects of the two year DICON and transmitting the data over modem links to the
data conversion project are presented with the prob- GE computer.
lems encountered and the means that were taken to In 1988 and 1989, CGE hinted that they may want to
resolve the problems. IntEC has shown our DICON opt out of providing the DICON in the future. All the
data to be considerably more deficient than we had DICON users then started evaluating different
thought. This has increased the cost and the duration options to replace it. CGE have since reassured the
of the conversion process. However, correcting the users that they will continue to support DICON for
errors during the conversion process provides us the time being and have offered their own options
with much more accurate data. This should be for replacing it with a more modern system.
viewed as an investment in configuration manage-
ment. Many potential causes of future errors and
potentially critical path delays have been removed. INTEC
During the CANDU 3 development, AECL decided to
We have chosen to document the detailed proce-
put money in modernizing their design tools. The
dures for the use of IntEC in our plant using a
design of the CANDU 3 plant and of a specialized
Windows Help File compiler. This also has been
Computed Aided Design and Drafting tools pro-
found to be extremely useful as a training tool as well
gressed in parallel. It included the automation of the
as providing on-line help.
cabling and connection data produced directly from
The DICON data conversion into IntEC will not be the three dimension plant layout drawings and the
completed until 1996. IntEC is not perfect. However, electrical circuit drawings. This part was called IntEC
from what we have up to now, we are satisfied with (Integrated Electrical and Control Software).
the conviviality and efficiency of IntEC and with
When the Wolsung 2 project was started, it was
AECL's diligence in constantly aspiring in making it a
intended to be a copy of the Wolsung 1 project with
better product.
minor changes. So the Wolsung 1 circuit drawings
and the existing DICON data for these circuits were
DICON to be used and edited rather than be redrawn from
DICON (Device Installation and CONnection soft- scratch. It was also decided that DICON should be
ware) was created by General Electric for their own replaced because of the prohibitive communication
use. It was first used on CANDU plants as part of the costs between South Korea and the United States
GE design package for the fuel handling systems. In based GE system. AECL proposed to trim IntEC
the early design stages of the first CANDU 6 plant down to a stand-alone system and convert the exist-
(Gentilly 2), AECL and Canatom decided to extend ing DICON data into the required format.
the use DICON to their own design packages for the The stand-alone version of IntEC suddenly became
Nuclear Steam Plant and for the Balance Of Plant. also a suitable option for replacing DICON in existing
DICON was used in the design of all CANDU 6 plants plants once it is shown that the DICON data can be
up to Wolsung 2. successfully be transferred to the new system.
157CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
The IntEC applications were designed by AECL to be DICON OBSOLESCENCE
run on an Intergraph server running in a UNIX envi- There has been much progress in computerized
ronment and using Informix as the database software. information management both in hardware and in
software. The cost/performance ratio of computers
USEFULNESS OF THE INFORMATION has been drastically reduced over the last 15 years.
CONTAINED IN DICON An Ethernet network was installed in our plant linking
DICON was chosen for the design of the CANDU 6 powerful servers. More and more information is
because it eliminated a large number of drawings being provided to users connected to the network
and lists. DICON data is therefore complementary to through terminals and personal computers. At the
electrical circuit drawings. These drawings are then same time, powerful new database software pack-
uncluttered and easy to read because much of the ages are now available such as Informix. Even in the
detailed wiring information is not shown on it. For absence of an actual threat that GE may terminate
example, the exact route a signal follows to get from their DICON service, the removal of the required
one point to another is not available using the circuit $100 000 yearly rental fee, in addition to the cost sav-
drawing alone. DICON contains a program that scans ings in reduced time to input changes when using
all the connections in the database to determine the more efficient software and interfacing, would justify
actual installed sequence of electrical conductors, the investment to replace DICON with an in-house
cables, junction box terminals and that produces the system.
"end to end" wiring report. This DICON report is
used in conjunction with the circuit drawing in many
situations, for modifications to the circuits, for open- SIZE OF THE DICON DATABASE
ing or jumpering circuits during tests or maintenance, There are three separate DICON files for our plant,
for connecting troubleshooting equipment, etc... If GE, AECL and Canatom each providing their own file
the DICON data is not kept up to date, we would for the part of the plant that they designed. Together
become blind to the details of most of the plant's these files hold staggering numbers of devices,
electrical circuits, including the heavily instrumented cables, raceways and even a more staggering
safety system wiring. In Wolsung 1 where the amount of electrical connections. As the actual data
DICON data was not kept up to date because of the is stored in a distant computer without a user-friend-
prohibitive communication costs, it was basically ly interface, for most users at our station, access to
unusable to be copied for Wolsung 2. It was less the information is from printed reports. There are
expensive for AECL to use drawings from another three copies of all the reports, each copy containing
CANDU 6 plant that had up to date DICON data over 150,000 pages of data. The instrumentation and
instead of trying to enter all the handwritten changes electrical maintenance shop has one copy, engineer-
the Koreans made to the initial DICON reports. ing has the second copy and the third copy is distrib-
Turning reports into drawings is extremely tedious. uted per system to the different system engineers.
Much information is redundant in the reports, pre- Managing such a huge amount of paper is another
senting the same data in different ways. Integrating difficulty. As design changes are made, only the parts
changes to the reports without the help of the of the systems that are revised are printed out and
DICON program is difficult and leads to omissions included in the modification packages. Once the
and to errors. changes have been implemented, these reports can-
The DICON data must be considered as an integral not readily be integrated to the full reports because
part of the design documentation that must be kept of the discontinuities in the data. The cost of produc-
accurate over the life of the plant. Not only for con- ing full reports was such that they could only be done
figuration control, but also for day to day 0 & M work gradually over a two year period. Therefore the data
and for accurate and cost effective design of modifi- shown in these reports is on average a year old. The
cations. In the design area, much of the initial cabling copy in the maintenance shops contains many red-
done during the construction of the plant was trunk printed handwritten additions that were picked up
cabling from large local junction boxes to the main during day to day maintenance work. It is difficult to
control areas. A significant amount of spare cable feed this information back to the system engineer
conductors preconnected to spare terminals were and from him to engineering so that it may be
provided and included in the DICON data. Using entered into DICON. When the new print-outs
these spares allows a great number of modifications arrived from engineering, each page had to be exam-
to be implemented without having to go to the ined to see if any red-printed information was miss-
expense of installing new cables. ing and had to be transferred to the new copies.
158CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
DESIGN PROCESS UNDER DICON 2. Sub-contract a software firm to develop an emu-
At Gentilly, DICON was a significant part of the lation of DICON using a modern database plat-
detailed design process in electrical, instrumentation form. This would also guarantee compatibility of
and control changes. On average, at least 50% of the the data but would take a long time to specify,
time to produce the detailed design package was develop and test without any guarantee that the
taken up to input the changes to DICON, correct the data could not somehow be corrupted or that
errors reported and obtain the reports. there would be no escalation of the costs from
the original estimates.
The designer would write down the new data on dif-
ferent forms, submit on average several hundred 3. Identify a recent software package already in ser-
pages of these forms to a clerk that would transfer vice providing functionality similar or better than
the data to a computer terminal. The data would then DICON. The software used by Ontario-Hydro was
be sent by a modem link to the GE computer. DICON not considered at that time because we believed
would process the data and produce an error report. they were using DICON. A software package
The designer would fill in more forms to correct the used by Hydro-Quebec for all power plants com-
errors and request the reports required to be includ- munication systems was discarded as requiring
ed with the engineering change notice and the to many changes to be upgraded to the require-
revised drawings. Unless there was an identified ments of a nuclear power plant. Other packages
rush, the time between submitting forms and getting would require fundamentally different architec-
the reports back took at least a week and sometimes ture for the data so that the all the data would
for low priority work could take months. somehow have to be reentered in a different
manner, a tremendous undertaking.
REQUIREMENTS FOR A SYSTEM 4. The IntEC software whose development was in a
TO REPLACE DICON significantly advanced stage and would be proven
by use on the Wolsung 2 project. This included
• Allow instantaneous access to up to date data
from any terminal, personal computer or work software tools to convert the DICON data into the
station on our plant network. format required by IntEC. IntEC was developed to
fully implement the modem design rules for the
• Maintain means to keep separate the actual in CANDU 3. It is a significant upgrade from DICON
service plant data from the future data for each in the manner it validates data as it is entered. As
change until it has been implemented and turned it was recognized by all that IntEC needed refine-
over to operations.
ment to address the differences between an in
• Provide a more effective interface for the editing service plant and a new project, the software was
of the data and providing new input. offered to HQ at a lower price in return for our
• Maintain at least the same amount of functionali- help in the development.
ty and of data validation that DICON provided.
• Provide means to report errors in a more timely DECISION TO CHOOSE INTEC
fashion.
Looking at the total cost of the different alternatives,
• Produce reports in a format similar to those of they ranged from $500 000 to $1 000 000 when tak-
DICON to limit the need to retrain the people ing into account all the factors. The total project cost
using the DICON reports to implement the to replace DICON with IntEC was initially estimated
changes in the plant. at $650 000. However, IntEC more than surpassed
the requirements in that it already had demonstrated
OPTIONS CONSIDERED functionality way beyond the minimum require-
TO REPLACE DICON ments. As compared to less expensive but less
1. Purchase from GE the COBOL source program, advanced systems, IntEC would pay for itself by
develop the upgrades required to allow its use on reducing significantly engineering costs of electrical
a server in our network environment. This had the design changes as well as reducing the number of
advantage of guaranteed compatibility with the errors. We were attracted also to the fact that we
data format (no transfer costs) but could not eas- could influence further enhancements by participat-
ily provide the functionality of modern database ing in the final development of IntEC for use on
software. Programming changes would be more Wolsung 2.
expensive. Gentilly had available on its network a SUN server
159CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
that would provide more speed than the AECL Two young engineers hired on a temporary basis
Intergraph server. We agreed to purchase the IntEC work on the snags and help in the production of
software license if AECL could demonstrate that procedures.
there was no problem in getting it running on our
SUN computer. AECL compiled the software on a
DATA CONVERSION
SUN computer in Chalk River and, after ironing out
some bugs, got it running successfully. See figure 1.
The conversion process is divided in three major
parts which are repeated sequentially for each one of
SYSTEM MANAGEMENT
the three DICON files:
A system analyst was assigned to the project. When
1. Review of the conversion rules, preparation of
DICON is discontinued, a clerk will no longer be
the reference tables and obtention of a full copy
required. So basically, when IntEC is in service the
of the DICON data on a magnetic tape. AECL pro-
analyst is merely replacing the clerk. In November
duce an estimation of their effort and a contract is
1992, this analyst and our DICON coordinator both
signed based on this estimation (average
attended a training course on Informix On-line and on
$100 000 per file).
UNIX. They were both assigned to AECL Sheridan
Park for participation on the final development work 2. AECL transfer the DICON data to Informix pre-
on IntEC that was being put in use for Wolsung 2. liminary tables, run programs to check the data,
to normalize certain formats, to transfer gradually
the data to IntEC tables and to run further checks.
PROJECT TEAM Omissions, discrepancies and incoherences are
In the spring of 1994, a project team was put in place submitted in reports to the Hydro-Quebec team
to support the transfer of the DICON data to IntEC. for resolution.
AECL has the mandate to process the data but they 3. The IntEC data is transferred to Hydro-Quebec
have to be supported during the process by a num- with a list of non-resolved problems. We then
ber of people at site to respond to omissions, dis- check the IntEC data for conversion errors and
crepancies and incoherences found in the DICON work on the resolution of the problems having the
data that made the data unacceptable or unusable by highest priority.
IntEC. The team also has to verify and validate the
data under IntEC, make decisions on the way IntEC
is configurated, write procedures and provide train- CONVERSION PLANNING
ing for the users. See figure 1.
The team is made up of seven people, four from our The first file converted was the 66A. Much was
permanent staff, two temporary and one contractual. learned from this first conversion which helped us
The DICON technical coordinator and the analyst better prepare for the next file.
were the first chosen as they will remain after the We put more effort in preparing software tools and
project is finished. Their main focus is on learning the DICON data for the 66C file. Although this file is
everything there is to know on IntEC, verifying and about 40% larger than the 66A file, the conversion
validating the data, and putting in place the operating cost was basically the same.
procedures. We are currently in the process of the conversion of
We borrowed from our planning department a for- the 066 file (Fuel Handling). This is a much smaller
mer electrical designer who had more than ten years file but CGE used DICON somewhat differently than
experience with the use of DICON at Gentilly. And AECL and Canatom. For example they did not use
we hired a designer from Canatom. He was respon- subject indexes in the identification of their devices
sible for implementation of DICON in Canatom when and wire numbers. IntEC has been modified to
the decision was taken in 1973 to use this tool on the accept their unique formats for the data and the con-
Gentilly project. These two are the prime answer version rules have had to be adjusted in conse-
guys for all the problems encountered during the quence. At this writing, we expect the conversion of
conversion. this file to cost less than each of the other two files.
A senior Instrumentation and Control engineer is a We are also considering merging the AECL and
part time member coordinating the effort and helping Canatom files in IntEC. The reference tables for the
in resolving the more difficult problems. 066 file have significant differences that make full
160CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
merging of the three files not very practical. But SNAGS
merging the two main files would simplify things by This project has highlighted many errors that have
doing away with most of the interfacing problems. accumulated in the DICON data over the last 20
And users would not have to have prior knowledge years.
of which parts of the plant were designed by AECL
and which were designed by Canatom. Some come from typing errors during the input of
information to DICON. For example, a wrongly
entered identification might create a duplicate
TRAINING device, or connect a wire to the wrong terminal or to
IntEC's instant data validation, compulsory fields the wrong device. In this case, the data is wrong as
requirements and complexity of structure can be compared to the reality in the plant.
viewed as significant obstacles for the people who A worse problem is the presence of accurate data
are used to inputting data into DICON. The order in but representing a transgression of CANDU design
which the data must be entered also is important. rules. For example, there are a number of cables that
Designers must receive detailed and specific training cross-over from a channel A (Odd) tray to a channel
before being authorized to make changes to the data. C (Even) tray. This is fundamentally wrong because a
A full copy of the 66A file was made to do commis- fire in the odd cable tray can now propagate to the
sioning tests and to develop the procedures. This even tray by following this cable at the cross-over.
test file is now being used for training. The training is This type of problem should be corrected by physi-
largely based on the use of the procedures that were cally rerouting the cable.
developed during commissioning. After about a One now has to wrestle with how to deal with these
week of training on the test file, the designers are problems. If we had not chosen IntEC, most of these
allowed access to the real data files. errors could have gone unnoticed for the rest of the
Data entered into DICON past the date the copy of plant's life. But now that IntEC has put them in evi-
the file was sent to AECL for conversion is not in the dence, some action has to be taken. It is unfair to
IntEC file delivered to us. The new trainees first IntEC to charge the cost of the corrective actions to
assignment is to enter the data that they put into be taken to the conversion project, but this had to be
DICON after the tape was made. We can then com- done for the corrections that had to be made in order
pare the IntEC reports with the DICON reports as a for IntEC to work.
verification of their ability. During the conversion process from existing DICON
The training of the general users that do not have files, the data is entered through a back door. If the
editing privileges takes about two days. They learn same data was entered through the normal IntEC
the structure of the data, how to make queries and interfaces, the checking routines would not allow
how to produce reports. most of these errors to occur. We have classified the
errors into three categories:
ON LINE HELP 1. Data that has to be corrected immediately other-
It was decided at the beginning of commissioning of wise it would cause IntEC to crash. Also in this
the 66A file to write procedures in parallel with the category, data that does not have a suitable for-
testing. Different options were considered and a mat so that it cannot be entered into IntEC.
decision was taken to produce the procedures using Resolution of most of these errors occurs during
a Windows Help File compiler. This allows the pro- the second phase of the conversion process
cedure to be written in a check list fashion for a when AECL are massaging the data and our per-
designer experienced with IntEC, but with hypertext sonnel find corrections by searching the drawings
links to more detailed information as required for and sometimes looking at the actual installation in
each step for those who have less experience or the plant. The rest is omitted from the IntEC data
have not used this particular procedure for a long file delivered at the beginning of the third phase
time. IntEC menus and messages are all in English. of the conversion process but listed in AECL
The procedures are written in French. Hypertext links reports of data that could not be converted for dif-
to translations are available for the designers that ferent reasons.
may not understand some of the English terms. 2. Data that would not cause IntEC to crash, but that
Designers can in a Windows environment on a PC IntEC will not allow to be kept when it is encoun-
have open simultaneously a window with the IntEC tered. When IntEC is confronted with a field that
interface and a window with the procedure. contains unacceptable data in an edit mode, even
161CANDU MAINTENANCE CONFERENCE 1 9 9 5
if another field is actually being edited, IntEC will We had underestimated the cost of dealing with the
not allow the user to save the edited information resolution of DICON errors and omissions during the
without correcting the non-valid data. These conversion process. The present estimation of the
errors are identified mainly during the third stage total DICON replacement project cost is $1 000 000
of the conversion process when the data is being (This includes money for merging the 66A and 66C
verified and validated. files that we may decide not to do). But you must
3. Data that is wrong, but has no effect on IntEC remember that the process has significantly upgrad-
performance. Some of these errors are identified ed the quality of the data. Our plant is nearing the
during the third stage but many will go undetect- mid-point of its life. We also have a plant life exten-
ed. However we anticipate that IntEC facilities for sion project in the works. So this data will be used
filtering and sorting the data will allow users to during perhaps another 20 or 30 years. The added
identify many more when IntEC becomes fully quality to the data must be viewed as an investment
operational. in easing future modifications or upgrades, in reduc-
ing future engineering and maintenance errors possi-
We have also identified priorities for the resolution of
bly and reduce lost time on a critical path engineering
these problems:
modifications.
Priority 1, anything that would cause IntEC to crash
and that we cannot do without. Missing data on a
special safety system or in an unaccessible area CONCLUSION
would require priority one resolution. We are very satisfied with the functionality of IntEC
Priority 2, anything that would significantly increase and the higher quality of the data.
the time to do future engineering changes with IntEC However, IntEC is not perfect. From an ergonomic
if they are not resolved up front. Also, anything that point of view, the current version still has shortcom-
has the potential to cause a plant outage or signifi- ings beyond not being available in a French version.
cantly decreases safety. Commands given to IntEC in different contexts do
Priority 3, anything that requires resolution when not have always the same effect. From screen to
encountered during an engineering change or that screen, some common fields are presented in differ-
could lead to engineering errors. Also, anything that ent locations and under not quite the same names.
has the potential to cause maintenance or opera- There are some spelling mistakes. It lacks the pol-
tional errors. ished look and feel of most commercial software
Priority 4, all other errors. packages.
All priority 1 and most priority 2 errors must be dealt On the other hand, every three or four months, we
with before we declare the IntEC data in service are provided with an upgraded version where some
using the task force put in place for the the conver- shortcomings are corrected and new improvements
sion project. have been added. AECL have been very good at lis-
Some priority 2 as well as the priority 3 and 4 prob- tening to our comments, discussing their impact and
lems will remain after the project team is disband- integrating fixes into new versions.
ed. They will be integrated by priority with the other Finally, the use of detailed procedures helps to com-
priorities of our normal staff for resolution when pensate for certain things that would be too expensive
appropriate. Some may never be addressed. to correct.
162Onto: 95J06.CB
REPLACEMENT OF DICON BY INTEC USI60810 PFDJECT NUMBER 92 SESOO9
PREPARED BY:C.DUPUIS OHB5KBY:P.A.THBORET APPROVAL BY: P. IAFRENIERE
HYDRO-QUEBEC - GENTILLY2 PAGE 1 0 F 1
Parti Part2, Part3 In service
DICON 66A Database
Augatttet
65A 1996
IntEC
ape Dab
IntEC 66A in Service
Revise Conversion
CoiWBrsion Rubs
Rx Other g-6)
Snags
Ref. Tables Users Usere
DICON 66C Database
Decembrist Nxemberiat
1994 IMS Disc.
PICON Terminate
Input DCON6GO
Commission Tfhl Prukti (\\ ln£C6SCIn3eivto
FfcOther
Snags
Tables Piocadures
DICON 066 Database
SiftMntorist OdctariSft Fabuayict
1985, 199E 066 1M6, Disc.
InlEC DICON Termlnaft
IntEC 066 in Service
ft
Converstan Input D O O N Snags Snags Snag*
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