Doug Ivey, a Durango-based automation specialist for BP p.l.c., says he’s glad that the company takes pride in preventing environmental upsets before they actually happen. In fact, it’s the primary reason BP implemented a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system.
BP is using the ArchestrA Industrial Automation Server (IAS) with a SCADA host at a natural gas production facility with about 1,000 remote terminal units (RTUs) at individual wellheads. They monitor things such as gas flowing from the wells, environmental alarms, tubing pressures and other such process variables. Data from the RTUs are sent to the central host via radio network. From there, scripting capabilities built into the IAS are used to move the data into a Microsoft SQL Server table. This database enables access through the business network via Web pages providing operation and alarm information to everyone who needs it.
The ArchestrA feature that most piqued Ivey’s interest was the template function. Templates allow the programmer to configure information for one RTU, which can then be propagated to all similar RTUs. These can be downloaded live to the system. Previously, a comma-separated variable file was constructed. It had to be manipulated and imported into the system. It could not be loaded into the system live, so the system had to be shut down at this point. But, the system really needs to be up 24 hours per day in order to assure prompt response to alarms. Thus, two real benefits are savings on engineering time and ability to keep the system up at all times.
Ivey must also share some information with third-party systems from pipeline companies. The ability to add SQL tables to human-machine interface (HMI) screens will potentially save millions of dollars.
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