Control System World

Schneider Electric, the global specialist in energy management, is first to introduce a unified supply chain management solution for the hydrocarbon processing industry. Built on its ground-breaking Spiral Suite platform, the new offering closes the value gaps left by poorly integrated legacy tools. By improving collaboration across the refinery, Spiral Suite software helps traders, planners and schedulers make reliable decisions, manage risks and ultimately increase profitability.

“Spiral Suite promises to transform the refinery business environment from being a place where hundreds of people work in isolation—not seeing or understanding how their bits of individual work contribute to the whole—to a place where workers first see and understand how their decisions impact others and then cooperate to collectively unlock the maximum value of their economic forecasts,” said Ravi Gopinath, Ph.D., executive vice president, Schneider Electric Global Solutions, Software Business.

“The latest advances to our Spiral Suite toolset achieve, above and beyond, what many refiners and vendors have tried and failed to do with legacy solutions: It improves understanding and cooperation between traders, planners and schedulers and replaces several disjointed point solutions with a single, easy-to-use application. In short, it increases transparency and collaboration across different business groups, enabling our customers to make the best overall decisions for safety and profitability while taking better advantage of new opportunities presented by the market. It’s a great example of the new, game-changing technology Schneider Electric will continue to introduce to help our customers plan and manage their future.”

Spiral Suite users can contribute to and add value to one another’s decision making without the risk of overwriting data or causing downstream processing issues at the plant. Combined with powerful, intuitive visualizations, everyone is able to view, understand and respond to incidents. All refinery activities are supported within a single, highly intuitive environment, and accurate, up-to-date information is available across the business. Planners can see future scheduling constraints; schedulers can assess their decisions against commercial impact and operational feasibility. Users from different disciplines and locations are now able to work together effectively to create the most flexible, optimal plan for any set of circumstances, unlocking potential cost savings and margin improvements that could total millions of dollars each year.

“With Spiral Suite, even novice planners can be up and running within a week, rather than after a year of training it would normally take with heritage products,” said Peter Reynolds, senior consultant with ARC Advisory Group. “In an industry where challenges are coming from every direction, companies risk losing out if they continue to apply outdated work processes that rely on experts. In some cases, optimized production planning is only achieved through knowledge held by a small number of people and naturally collaborative working relationships. As these experts retire, more companies are looking to invest in a sustainable solution that supports the younger, more mobile workforce. Spiral Suite offers exceptional ease-of-use, meaning users can perform all the necessary analytics and backcasting to make profitable, risk-adjusted feedstock purchasing and refinery planning decisions within weeks of licensing.”

Spiral Suite’s SaaS deployment model, off-the-shelf integration and exceptional ease of use mean the application can be learned within days. Legacy point solutions can be replaced quickly and simply, without incurring the high cost of implementing or maintaining data transfer. Inadequate, unsupported integration bridges are removed, as is the need for application experts and extensive training courses, which lowers total cost of ownership. Data from in-house and external systems can be made available automatically within workflows, and people from across the business can work in parallel to build the supply chain model within weeks, without needing to know matrix math.

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Yokogawa Meters & Instruments Corporation announces that it has developed the AQ7280 series of optical time domain reflectometers (OTDRs) for the installation and maintenance of fiber-optic cables, and will release a total of nine models for this product series on September 29.

The AQ7280 is a high-performance instrument that is used to measure fiber-optic cable distances and losses and to identify failure locations. The AQ7280 succeeds the high-end AQ7275 OTDR, which has been used for the installation and maintenance of a wide range of network systems, including core, metro, and access networks. For improved efficiency and measurement quality, the AQ7280 has a capacitive touchscreen with the same easy-to-use multi-touch functionality that can be found in smartphones and other handheld devices.

Driven by factors such as the widespread use of smartphones and the increase in video-related Internet traffic, there is a rising need around the world for the installation of fiber-optic cable that is capable of the high-speed transmission of large volumes of data. An ever increasing amount of fiber-optic cable is being installed for core network systems between cities, metro network systems within cities, and access network systems that connect central offices to subscribers. As OTDRs are used to evaluate installation and maintenance work, it is important to make these devices easy and intuitive to operate so that even operators who are less familiar with fiber optic cable measurement techniques can produce high quality measurements in less time. In addition, there is an increasing need particularly in emerging countries for the ability to measure the very long cable lengths that are typical with core network systems. Also, due to the variety of fiber-optic cables that are in use and the existence of multiple network communications standards, there is a need for OTDR units that are capable of measuring different wavelengths. To meet such needs, Yokogawa has developed the AQ7280.

ICONICS, a Microsoft® Gold Application Development Partner, 2014 Microsoft Public Sector CityNext Partner of the Year award winner and provider of Web-enabled, OPC-based Visualization and Renewable Energy software solutions for Microsoft Windows® operating systems, announces new features for Hyper Historian™ including support for the cloud via Microsoft Azure™.

Hyper Historian is a high speed, reliable and robust industrial plant historian solution designed for mission critical applications. ICONICS’ exciting new cloud-enabled technology makes Hyper Historian one of the first industrial plant historians available on the cloud. It is now more scalable than ever, as clients can leverage Microsoft’s public or private cloud application platform to access their Big Data from any desktop, Web browser or mobile device. This feature reduces IT costs with simple setup and minimal maintenance requirements, allowing customers to infinitely grow their application based on the changing needs of their business. Customers experience increased collaboration while maintaining the security that they have come to expect from ICONICS products.

Another feature in its new release is Hyper to Hyper technology, which enables users to aggregate and merge data from any plant historian server. Hyper Historian servers can now exchange data hierarchically with other Hyper Historian servers or with third-party historians as well. These data exchanges can be triggered on a schedule or manually on demand, regardless of whether the server is located on premises or in the cloud. This enables remote access to the most critical information with maximum flexibility and control.

Taking full advantage of the latest 64-bit .NET-based computing technologies and numerous performance features, including full utilization of multi-core hardware, Hyper Historian is the first plant historian to be compatible with Microsoft Windows 8, Certified for Microsoft Windows Server 2012, and to integrate with SQL Server 2014 and Microsoft Azure. The software also fully leverages OPC UA communication standards, as well as a wide variety of other protocols for connecting to existing infrastructure.

“Due to the highly variable nature of wind power, owner-operators need powerful historians to enable their analysis and understanding of both individual unit and aggregate wind farm performance," said Harry Forbes, Senior Analyst at ARC Advisory Group. "A tool such as Hyper Historian is critical for identifying trends and deviations in unit behavior and diagnosing their root causes.”

The above enhancements add to Hyper Historian's already extensive capabilities that include:

• Extensive Redundancy – Supports redundancy at all levels, including the use of remote distributed data collectors, multiple distributed loggers and multiple OPC classic and OPC UA interfaces.

• Intelligent Asset Technology – Hyper Historian can now be integrated with AssetWorX™, the ISA-95-compliant Asset Modeling tool available with the GENESIS64™ HMI/SCADA system. Any analysis derived by Hyper Historian can be included as a property of any asset.

• Third-party OPC HDA Compliance – Assures interoperability with hundreds of applications and integrates automatic failover to active loggers.

• Powerful Performance Calculations – The extensive performance calculation capabilities can now be configured to execute on redundant platforms.

Hyper Historian is being used today for plant historian applications in industrial and utility applications throughout the world, including wind asset independent performance verification and generation plant monitoring and analysis.

Technip has been awarded by The Bahrain Petroleum Company (BAPCO) a significant contract on a reimbursable basis to develop the Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) of the refinery located in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The FEED contract covers four main work packages that include units aimed at processing the “bottom of the barrel” components to high value products, and all associated offsites and utilities to provide seamless integration with existing refinery facilities earmarked for retention post this major modernization.

The project aims at enhancing the refinery configuration, by increasing the throughput from 267,000 to 360,000 barrel per day as well as improving the product slate and profitability.

Technip’s operating center in Rome, Italy, in cooperation with Technip’s operating center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, will execute the contract, scheduled to be completed at the end of 2015.

Tank overfilling is a common problem that can have dangerous consequences, particularly for oil and natural gas installations. Fuel, oil or other items going past safe levels in a container can create extremely hazardous conditions. Learn how to use functional safety products to prevent dangerous tank overfilling problems by attending a webinar hosted by Moore Industries on Sept. 30 at 9 a.m. Pacific (12 p.m. Eastern).

The "Logic Solver for Tank Overfill Protection" webinar, presented by Moore Industries Director of Engineering Tina Lockhart, will guide safety engineers through the steps needed to determine the right logic solver for their needs.

While many people assume that a logic solver for a tank overfill protection system must be a safety PLC, in many cases a discrete logic device in the safety loop is sufficient. This avoids the complications and expense associated with a complex programmable solution.

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FANUC CORPORATION, the world’s largest company in CNC, Robot and ROBOMACHINEs, and Rockwell Automation, Inc., the world’s largest company dedicated to industrial automation and information solutions, announce today an advanced global collaboration to provide customers a more seamless and integrated manufacturing solution. The two companies have expanded their initial collaboration, started four years ago, in the CNC and Logix programmable automation controller (Logix PAC) environments with further integration of robotics, ROBOMACHINEs and enterprise software products. The effort will have an initial impact on applications in the automotive industry, where customers can experience benefits of a preferred integration plug-and-play automation and information solution.

“FANUC had already been offering flexible open interfaces to complementary automation systems globally. However, FANUC and Rockwell Automation together agree that our globally shared customer base wants a completely integrated automation solution. So, I am proud to announce this advanced global collaboration with Rockwell Automation that allows us to offer a preferred integration solution to our customers around the world,” states Dr. Eng. Yoshiharu Inaba, President and CEO of FANUC CORPORATION.

Rockwell Automation chairman and CEO Keith D. Nosbusch stated, “The global collaboration between Rockwell Automation and FANUC is a direct response to our customers’ needs for more effective integration across manufacturing disciplines. Integrating FANUC CNC, robot and ROBOMACHINE portfolios with our integrated control and information solutions will result in better manufacturing agility, to help customers achieve a secure connected enterprise.”

The two industry leaders will demonstrate the collaborative solutions at IMTS 2014 in the FANUC Booth #S-8919 and Rockwell Automation Booth #E-4979. System integrators, end-users and machine tool builders can see firsthand the benefits these solutions bring including; simplified architectures, faster startups, improved synchronization between platforms, lower maintenance, improved productivity and transparent data access across the entire connected manufacturing enterprise. Demonstrations include:

• A fully integrated automotive machining cell – showcasing FANUC ROBODRILLs, powered by FANUC CNCs, integrated with a Rockwell Automation Logix PAC, showing automotive machining with a FANUC robot loading/unloading FANUC ROBODRILLs.
• An ability to use a Rockwell Automation HMI to operate a FANUC robot – allowing attendees to use a Rockwell Automation industrial computer which supports FANUC 4D graphics to operate a FANUC robot in an interactive kiosk.
• A fenceless robot cell in action – demonstrating a fenceless FANUC robot system using Rockwell Automation safety sensors.
• Live access to machining data from multiple sources using traditional HMI and commercial mobile devices – Rockwell Automation Logix PAC and FactoryTalk View and VantagePoint software gather machining data from FANUC CNCs in 4 different locations: a remote fabrication factory at FANUC in Japan, the automotive cell in the FANUC IMTS Booth, a 5-axis demo of 2 machines in the FANUC IMTS Booth, and the Rockwell Automation automotive powertrain demo in the Rockwell Automation IMTS Booth.
• Component assembly demo – the Rockwell Automation iTRAK Intelligent Track System integrated with a FANUC robot showcases independent control of multiple pallets for component assembly system demo in the Rockwell Automation IMTS Booth.

Case Study: In response to new emissions targets established by the EU in 2008 that call for an up to 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 20% reduction in energy consumption, and the generation of 20% of all power demand from renewable energy sources by 2020, HERA commissioned the construction of a highly efficient combined cycle power plant (CCPP) in Imola, Italy.

Since coming online in 2009, this CCPP has generated a total of 80 MW of electric power for the grid, meeting both baseload and peakload demand. In addition, the power station provides a steady supply of hot water for the local municipality. Powered by methane gas from the national distribution network, this highly efficient power station generates power using two 30 MW gas turbines, two heat recovery steam generators (HRSGs), and a 20 MW steam turbine.

To automate all operations at this plant, Yokogawa Italy installed the Yokogawa CENTUM CS3000 production control system (PCS), Exaquantum process information management system (PIMS), and Plant Resource Manager (PRM) asset management package as well as FOUNDATION™ fieldbus enabled transmitters. The PCS is fully integrated with the power station’s gas and steam turbine systems, an emission monitoring system (EMS), and other subsystems.

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AMEC, the international engineering and project management company, today announces that the Clough AMEC joint venture has been awarded a AU$70 million front end engineering design (FEED) contract for Arrow Energy’s proposed Bowen Gas Project in central Queensland. The contract involves front end engineering to support the next phase of Arrow’s work to develop and commercialise its significant Bowen Basin gas reserves. The FEED scope includes engineering, procurement and contracts award for the early works.

The FEED contract will commence on 6 October 2014 and is expected to continue for up to 12 months. The work will provide employment opportunities for local engineering, technical and professional personnel.

“Australia is an important region for AMEC and we are delighted to be working closely with Arrow Energy and Clough on this significant coal seam gas project for Queensland’s economy,” said Malcolm Brown, AMEC Executive Vice President, Asia Pacific. “We will draw on our considerable engineering expertise in the Australian CSG industry to help Arrow achieve their long-term objectives, safely and sustainably.”

Arrow’s Bowen Gas Project involves a major, staged expansion of Arrow's existing domestic CSG production in the Bowen Basin, to supply gas to the domestic market and for the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).