OSIsoft helps facilitate aluminium smelter upgrade

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May 2010 IT in Manufacturing

“A 1,4 billion (Canadian dollar) project to increase the production capacity of the Aluminerie Alouette plant called for the plant’s automation technology

to be replaced. The challenge was to maintain all production controls while replacing and substantially increasing data processing capabilities. Thanks to the PI System provided by OSIsoft, we met this challenge without adversely affecting production. We maintained the capacity for processing a data stream of 70 000 items per second in real-time!” says Robert Pelletier, computer specialist, Automation & Production Systems, Aluminerie Alouette.

Ability to sustain 24/7 plant operation during upgrade

Since Alouette’s plant is running 24/7, it was (and is) essential that the process managing systems never stop. It is one of the elements of the OSIsoft vision that enormously appealed to Alouette’s executives.

Within the context of the plant expansion, Alouette’s automation and production systems department required a robust, dependable system capable of processing more than 70 000 data items per second.

Furthermore, the system had to be easy to install and capable of handling the company’s future needs. “Because our system runs non-stop, and must be capable of meeting our needs one, two, or three years down the road,” observed the manager, automation and production systems.

One of the most important criteria proposed by SNCLavalin Hatch officials was selecting a tool that was already well established worldwide. The PI System has been around for decades, and is used throughout the world.

Installing the PI system whilst maintaining production

From the outset, the automation and production systems team at Aluminerie Alouette had to process data that was output from the old databases (scada interface running VXL on VMS Alpha) in tandem with the new PI System to ensure continuity of production. At the same time, it integrated data from the new equipment, as it gradually came on line. The processing had to occur without production managers noticing changes.

“Installing the PI System went very smoothly,” says Pelletier. “We set up a temporary interface between the old systems and the new PI System. As the new systems were phased in, we redirected the data sources without any impact on production. This was clearly the stage at which problems were likely to arise. Even though everything did not work as expected right off the bat, on the whole, installation went smoothly and no data was lost.”

The PI system in operation

Today, all production data at the Aluminerie Alouette plant is integrated and processed by the PI System. The operating network includes:

* Four PI servers of 20 000 tags each.

* Seven data acquisition nodes.

* Data collection interfaces used: OPC, CSV file loader and MCN Health Monitor.

Readers wanting to find out more about this application can view the full article at http://instrumentation.co.za/+c13809a

For more information contact Nick Stead, OSIsoft, +27 (0)31 767 2111, [email protected], www.osisoft.com

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IT in Manufacturing

OSIsoft helps facilitate aluminium smelter upgrade

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