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ABB Upgrades HVC Alkmaar DCS for Cybersecurity

ABB upgrades HVC Alkmaar's waste-to-energy plant DCS to ABB Ability Symphony Plus, enhancing cybersecurity, improving system availability, and enabling new functionalities.

  global.abb
ABB Upgrades HVC Alkmaar DCS for Cybersecurity

In a project that was accomplished using a stepwise approach to minimize operational disturbances, the HVC plant control system has been upgraded to the latest ABB Ability™ Symphony® Plus distributed control system (DCS).

HVC is a public waste-to-energy company in the Netherlands comprised of 52 municipalities and 8 water boards. Since its founding in 1991, it has been supporting the affiliated municipalities and boards in their transition to become natural gas-free and reduce their quantities of residual waste.

At the HVC plant in Alkmaar, the Netherlands, ABB recently carried out a stepwise modernization of the control system to provide enhanced cybersecurity protection, improve overall system availability and allow for new functionalities as per latest release.

ABB, which has a strong history and solid relationship with HVC, therefore worked with HVC to upgrade the DCS to the Symphony Plus control system that supports the latest Windows features. The system’s hardware has been updated to the latest version of ABB Ability™ Symphony® Plus, enabling maximum plant availability. High availability is further ensured by a comprehensive ABB Care service contract, along with the ABB My Control System platform, providing 24/7 insight into the status and health of the equipment and process.

The contract was awarded by HVC in February 2024 and the upgrade was done in short phases, designed to minimize disturbance, reduce operational downtime, and ensure optimal availability of operations. The project was successfully handed over in early 2025.

Cyber security gets high priority
To mitigate cyber security risks, prior to execution there were in-depth discussions between HVC and ABB about OT cyber security compliance with regulations such as NIS2 and industrial standard ISA 62443 concerning zones and conduits. To meet the requirements, ABB used its ICS Cyber Security Reference Architecture as a foundational blueprint, which was then adapted through further discussions to align with both regulatory frameworks and HVC’s specific standards.

Alexander Gilles, Account Manager at ABB Energy Industries in Benelux, explains that by executing this upgrade HVC is prepared for the future in terms of automation technology. “By upgrading to the latest Symphony Plus technology platform that supports the newest features in Windows OS and requirements for OT Cyber Security infrastructure, the DCS at HVC Alkmaar is now well positioned to meet all current and future requirements.”

www.global.abb

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