In 2001, Devon Energy Corp., Oklahoma City, Okla., installed a Suite Voyager system from Wonderware, an Invensys company based in Lake Forest, Calif.. With Suite Voyager, Devon personnel can use Web-browser software to monitor production information in the company’s natural gas, propane and methane manufacturing plant. The system also tracks the delivery points of those gasses across pipelines spanning Louisiana, Texas and Oklahoma.
Devon Energy uses Web-based monitoring to let executives and foremen across all three states see what gas is being produced and distributed at any given moment. “The Suite Voyager system provides visual representations of plant delivery points,” says Kathy Carrizales, data systems coordinator at Devon Energy. “Users can see pressure, volumes, any number of things. Some of our foremen and managers are 100 miles away from the delivery point.” Previously, these people received information by paper report, facsimile or e-mail.
For security reasons, Devon only allows the system to read information, even though the system is capable of reading and writing. “The system can alter the sensors, but we decided not to use that,” notes Carrizales. “We don’t want people all over the system changing pressures through Suite Voyager.”
Carrizales notes that the system was a simple installation, and that little training was needed for those in the field. “The implementation was amazingly easy,” says Carrizales. “I don’t have a background in Web Services, but I was able to follow the directions and publish Web pages.” She also notes that it was easy for users to adapt. “It’s simple to install on the user side. There’s no change management,” says Carrizales. “Users just click on whatever screens they want and they’re seeing browser screens that are familiar.”
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