APCS (Russian market)

Main article: APCS

• APCS - Systems and Design Catalog

2023

A native of Rosatom brought a new APCS to the Russian market, which will replace the Siemens and Schneider Electric systems

At the end of June 2023, it became known that the Russian company Laboratory of Automation Technologies had created a new automated process control system (APCS). A product called Lacerta is expected to become an alternative to the solutions of suppliers who have left the Russian Federation, such as Siemens, Schneider Electric, Honeywell, Yokogawa, etc. Read more here.

Formation of working group on development of domestic APCS

On June 5, 2023, it became known that in Russia, with the support of the Ministry of Industry and Trade, a working group was formed to create a domestic automated process control system (APCS) with open source code. Read more here.

2021: APCS market growth by 8%, to $541 million

The volume of the Russian market for automated process control systems (APCS) and production planning (MES) at the end of 2021 reached $541 million, an increase of 8% compared to 2020. Such data analysts J'son & Partners Consulting released on January 11, 2022.

In 2020, the growth rate was twice as high (+ 17%) in comparison with 2020, however, according to experts, such dynamics is not characteristic of the Russian APCS market - on average, it is growing and will grow by 8% per year.

The main growth driver of analysts is the rapid penetration of cloud platforms and applications in the field of industrial Internet things (), IIoT the contribution of which will consist both directly in the growth of consumption of cloud IIoT services and in the additional consumption of programmable logic controllers (PLCs), the driver for which is the increase in penetration of cloud IIoT platforms.

Cloud IIoT platforms and applications, as a key component of digitalization processes, are considered in two hypostases: as a replacement for part of the functionality of "traditional" I&C, and as their addition to new, primarily analytical functionality, as well as as a new monetization model - regular payments. Therefore, when calculating the total volume of the APCS market, intersections were taken into account, that is, which part of the cloud IIoT platform market will be a replacement for the functionality of "traditional" APCS, and which will be its expansion.

According to experts, IIoT is not an additional segment of the traditional SCADA/MES market, but a new market replacing the existing one, and at the same time covering new functional areas that are generally absent from traditional SCADA/MES. Therefore, the market for IIoT platforms and applications will grow both by adding new functionality and by absorbing the existing SCADA/MES market in terms of data mapping functions (HMI) and deterministic planning.

The penetration of IIoT into the means of production in 2021 was very active and has a pronounced stage. At the first stage, the implementation of IIoT is limited to the creation of an analytical "add-on" over existing PCS, which allows you to implement the functionality of optimization planning, but not autonomous management, that is, it covers only the stages of planning and execution control.

At the second stage, autonomous management of production facilities will be implemented, which will fully automate the control cycle and get the maximum economic effect from the implementation of automation tools.

If sales of cloud solutions grow, then the segment of hardware-dependent software AST UP, monetized according to the "traditional" model of selling eternal licenses, is reduced, the study said.

As in the global market, in Russia, the key driver of quantitative growth and qualitative development of the MES, APCS and PLC market can be the full-scale digitalization of the main sectors of the real sector of the economy. In the event of the implementation of such an optimistic scenario, the volume of consumption generated by digitalization of the NPP TP and MES of the new generation may reach $1.9 billion by 2030. But if the scenario of full-scale digitalization is not implemented, the Russian APCS and MES market in the period 2022-2025. expects sluggish growth, followed by a possible collapse in 2025-2030 due to the need to decommission the main share of production funds in the manufacturing industry due to their complete physical wear and tear, carried out in a situation where it is not possible to repay investment in their renewal/replacement, analysts say.^[1]

2020: APCS market volume reached 58.7 billion rubles

The volume of the Russian market for automated process control systems (APCS) in 2020 amounted to 58.7 billion rubles, analysts at J'son & Partners Consulting calculated. According to them, sales increased, but experts did not specify the dynamics.

The main drivers of the growth of the APCS market were:

• state efforts to increase the level of development of domestic industry through the implementation of national projects and technological initiatives;
• the need to increase labor productivity in conditions of limited human resources and increase the number of highly qualified jobs;
• protectionist measures of the state on import substitution and the provision of tax incentives that stimulate the development of the IT industry.

The Russian APCS market in 2020 reached 58.7 billion rubles

The study notes that digital transformation in the largest sectors of the economy, the emergence of new innovative solutions for the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence expand automation processes not only in traditional industrial production, but also in the areas of service delivery processes. According to analysts, the concept of "technological process" today needs to be expanded to the sphere of services and social activities.

By the end of 2020, at least 1,500 enterprises and organizations in Russia were involved in the use of automation of their activities, and more than 200 large companies and small and medium-sized businesses were involved in the development, design, implementation and provision of related services.

According to analysts, more and more software and technical solutions are entering the market, the task of which is to increase the efficiency, productivity and competitiveness of production, which finds demand among domestic enterprises focused on long-term work in the market.^[2]

2019: APCS market growth by 22%, to 45 billion rubles

Since the introduction of anti-Russian sanctions, the market, APCS after the recession in 2015, has adapted to new conditions and in recent years has grown by 22%, reaching, if we proceed from the information of the "" system, in Kontur. Snacks 2019 a volume of approximately ₽45 billion. Almost two-thirds of the market accounts for (nuclear industry 66.2%), followed by the oil and gas industry (21.7%), and power (9%). At the same time, investments in the APCS oilgas industry as a whole have been declining over the past five years (back in 2016, the share of oil and gas was almost 70%) due to sectoral sanctions. The growth of investments is hampered by another wave of crisis, reducing the availability of solutions from foreign suppliers. The share is also falling (power engineering specialists from 21% in 2014). But for several years in a row, the implementation of APCS projects in the nuclear industry has been growing. Having experienced a sharp drop in 2015, it increased both the market share and the volume of purchases - from ₽2,8 billion in 2015 to ₽29,7 billion in 2019^[3]

After 4 years of growth in 2019, the volume of the APCS market decreased compared to 2018, and the events of the beginning of the year do not give grounds for optimism.

The attraction of small and medium-sized businesses has decreased in recent years and in 2019 returned to the level of 2015 - about 2.5% of the total. The number of companies representing small and medium-sized businesses on the APCS market is also decreasing, and is currently just over 20%.

The decline in the involvement of small and medium-sized businesses in the market can be explained by uncertainty in the further development of the economic situation and, as a result, the desire of customers to invest in infrastructure solutions offered by large suppliers.

In the coming years, we can hardly expect an increase in the market share occupied by small companies due to a reduction in customer budgets. In addition, increased competition among SMB companies can lead to lower prices for their proposed solutions, and, as a result, the share of the small and medium-sized businesses market will decrease even more in monetary terms.

Import substitution is in the details

Despite calls for import substitution, the APCS market has not formed in Russia, filled with domestic developments that can close the needs of customers in these systems. During 2015-2019, the market share (in monetary terms) occupied by domestic APCS suppliers (whose products would meet the criteria of the Ministry of Industry and Trade set forth in the Resolution "On Confirmation of Industrial Production in the Russian Federation," adopted in July 2015) averaged 0.1% in 2014-2019. Key suppliers of APCS solutions, including critical infrastructure facilities, including subsidiaries of state corporations, work with foreign products (implement solutions built on the component basis of foreign manufacturers). That is, in fact, the task of import substitution in APCS over the past five years has not been solved.

The highest indicators of the market share of domestic suppliers (in the region of 0.15% in monetary terms), according to Kontur. Snack, fall on 2015-2017, when oilmen were in the lead in the market of APCS customers. The fall in the volume of their orders in 2018-2019. led to a reduction in the share of domestic suppliers in the APCS market. Despite the fact that a renaissance in the oil and gas industry is not expected in the coming years, the reason for optimism is that the number of domestic solutions in the field of APCS as a whole is growing, and in 2019 it reached almost 3%. Traditionally, a strong examination of Russia in the nuclear industry and in the power as a whole can become a driver for the formation of the APCS market, filled with domestic solutions. When setting the appropriate priorities, of course.

Protect the market and infrastructure through independence and independence One of the reasons for the current situation with import substitution is the lack of independent and independent standardization practice in Russia, which ensures the development of standards in the field of APCS. For example, the fundamental standard that defines the architecture of corporate solutions using APCS is the American ISA-95 standard, known here as GOST R IEC 62264-2-2016. However, the regulation of certain levels of the production architecture (sensors, controllers, SCADA, MES) is still covered by GOST 24 and 34 series, which are outdated and not integrated with the standards defining the architecture of production systems.

That is, the problem is twofold - on the one hand, our "advanced" GOSTs are tracing paper from previously developed American and European standards (AS/IEC) and until the corresponding standards appear "with them," they will not appear with us. On the other hand, "own" standards do not meet the requirements of time. This lag is especially significant for projects in the energy industry and the oil and gas sector, the infrastructure of which, according to Russian law, is critical.

The situation is similar with domestic security standards - they are also tracing paper from foreign analogues. And when they are adopted as standards, they do not take into account the fact of the monopoly of foreign decisions on the Russian APCS market.

With the transition to Industry 4.0, in which production processes will be more "independent," less dependent on human decisions during routine operations, the need for domestic solutions and standards (in other words, to the extent of technology control) will increase. Large-scale projects that can "pull" investments in the development of domestic solutions can be used as growth points for the market of domestic APCS solutions. In the meantime, taking into account the critical mass of solutions of foreign suppliers used at critical infrastructure facilities, it is necessary to pay special attention to ensuring the safety of key facilities in the energy and oil and gas sectors. In particular, it is necessary to develop by Russian regulators and legislative bodies requirements for ensuring the information security of critical infrastructure, taking into account the fact that in the foreseeable future most of the solutions implemented will be foreign.

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