Geo SCADA Makes the World a Smaller Place

Technology monitors and controls assets scattered across the landscape.

Whenever a wintry cold front whips through metropolitan Pittsburgh, employees at Equitable Gas Co. go into action quietly behind the scenes. They click a few buttons on their computer screens to start up the engines driving the reserve compressors that will force more gas through underground pipes into 275,000 homes and businesses in southwestern Pennsylvania and north central West Virginia.

Their response to such surges in demand for natural gas is immediate, thanks to a supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition (SCADA) system that lets them monitor and control the utility's assets throughout the city. The company installed the system a few years ago, thereby joining the growing ranks of utilities and other companies that are relying on SCADA for managing assets spread over large geographic landscapes.

Automating the compressor stations to give the operators remote control over the delivery apparatus is an important part of the utility's operating strategy. “We make money by pumping gas,” explains Wan Jani, director of compressor engineering. The company incurs an opportunity cost whenever its response lags behind demand... Read more

Get Required Information on a Budget

Wireless sensor networks had an easy and inexpensive installation for this refiner.

One day, the order came down. “We've got to install high-level alarm switches on the tanks in our remote tank farm.” In terms of megabytes of information, this was really a small data requirement. But the physical task of installation was daunting—not to mention the cost involved. Because the company standard for instrumentation wiring is to run it in conduit, running a wire from each switch back to the base station would be very expensive.

Eric Brown is the instrument and controls supervisor at the American Refining Group Inc. plant in Bradford, Pa., and was charged with finding a way to implement the system. This plant stretches over two miles along a small river, so finding better networking was essential. Now, a good story has conflict, intrigue, seemingly insurmountable challenges. This story, though, follows an engineer and some instrumentation technicians installing a cutting-edge technology in part of a day following a short training class... Read more

Improving Human Effectiveness

Born on May 25, 2007, the Center for Operator Performance (COP, www.operatorperformance.org), in Dayton, Ohio, provides a unique setting for operating companies and vendors to hold open discussions and focus on mutually beneficial research, states Duane Toavs, director of the Ease of Use Center of Excellence at process controls vendor Emerson Process Management (www.emersonprocess.com), in Austin, Texas.

Besides research, COP will provide continuing education and seminars on research topics, and also serve as a repository and clearinghouse for related data.

By design, operating companies outnumber vendors as COP members, Toavs notes. Though members have equal votes, the hope is that operating companies will drive the research in the direction that has the most impact on their businesses, he explains. ”End-users are ultimately the experts in how well overall projects go,“ he notes... Read more

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ANNOUNCEMENT

On-Demand Webcast- "Connecting and Managing Remote Devices with Wireless Technology"

In this Webcast from Automation World, experts discussed how digitally enabled devices can be read remotely and ultimately connected over the Internet using a variety of wireless topologies and IP-enabled gateways. Highlighting automatic tank level sensing as a typical example, our speakers address how to connect and manage process data from solids, liquids or gases in a wireless application. Register Now