Fundamentals of DCS and SCADA Systems

As you have previously learned, a SCADA system is a collection of both software and hardware components that allow supervision and control of plants, both locally and remotely.

A DCS is also a collection of components used for the same purpose.

These similarities may lead you to ask then: Are they essentially the same?

To answer that question let’s look back to the fundamentals of both systems.

You may recall that a SCADA system is used to gather and present data to operators, make decisions about processes with the aid of operator input, and control plant functions based on those decisions.

The DCS’s role in plant automation is the same as the SCADA system.

Since we already know that the role of the SCADA and DCS systems are essentially the same, let’s try to compare and contrast the mechanisms used to handle those tasks versus the operations themselves.