Earlier this year, attendees at OSIsoft’s 2011 User Conference in San Francisco heard how Enbridge Pipeline has deployed Rockwell Automation’s Factory Talk Historian Machine Edition (ME), described as a ‘PI Server that fits in the palm of your hand,’ acts as a high speed data collection engine for the backplane. Data is consolidated from multiple ME modules to the plant PI Server historian. The system is used across Enbridge’s remote pump stations in nine states. The ‘distributed historian’ approach stores up to 14 hours of data on a 2GB internal memory when data links go down. The system also manages the various versions of the ‘story’ stored on local recorders and remote PI servers. The system also provides visibility of highly granular information on temperature, amps, volts and vibration data. Such high volume data has helped tuning exception/compression settings to optimize performance. Enbridge managed to avoid a pump motor rebuild by comparing anomalous data with historical temperature data. Rockwell notes that ME is ‘not OPC,’ rather a true real time system, ‘50ms is 50ms.’ ME talks direct to PI and all data is available for Data Link, ProcessBook and WebPartsPI/SDK applications. More from 1106_6.
Shale gas-driven growth in NiSource’s natural gas pipeline system is forcing a more ‘dynamic’ approach to its management. New production sources are creating directional flow modifications and capacity constraints that stress system reliability. Enter NiSource’s program for operations and maintenance defect elimination using a ‘repairable component modeling’ (RCM), ‘failure modes and effects criticality analysis’ (FEMCA) and IBM’s Maximo as the enterprise computerized maintenance management system. RCM compares risk exposure with mitigation options to identify an ‘economic balance.’ The current state of NiSource’s real time architecture is ‘fractured and proprietary.’ NiSource is moving to a framework of OSIsoft PI System tools and Microsoft SharePoint as a ‘central hub of actionable knowledge.’ PI System will be used for online condition monitoring at six compression stations.
Hungarian Oil and Gas, a.k.a. MOL Group is undergoing a paradigm shift as it consolidates its operations and maintenance from a local approach, seeking to optimize operations at each refinery, to enterprise-wide optimization of its entire fleet. To achieve this, MOL is ‘closing the gap’ between process control and business governance. This is being achieved with a fleet and refinery-wide real time infrastructure and a unified data model of all refineries in the group. PI System process feeds into various refining decision support systems built with PI SDK, PI DataLink and other PI tools. The result is ‘visible and controllable operations’ throughout MOL’s plants, better situational awareness and a new focus on timely corrective actions. Many PI SDK-developed applications have been rolled out, for example ‘Nice,’ a multi language app for movements, sample and inventory management and ‘Semafor’ for operational KPI/reporting, using Business Objects XI atop the PI database. More from www.oilit.com/links/1106_7.
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