DCS were initially developed to support large process industries such as refineries and chemical plants. The DCS controllers are distributed throughout the plant; hence the name distributed control system. They are typically deployed at site facilities over the plant or control area.
DCS are different from a centralized control system where a single controller handles the control functions from a central location. DCS has each machine or group of machines controlled by a dedicated controller. These distributed individual automatic controllers are connected to the field devices.
The biggest advantage of DCS is its ability to have multiple controllers dividing tasks, because DCS is best suited for large-scale processing or manufacturing plants where a large number of continuous control loops need to be monitored and controlled. The biggest advantage to multiple controllers dividing the control tasks, because if any part of DCS fails, the plant can continue to operate irrespective of the failed area. Click the button for some common uses of DCS.
Copyright: Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)