General
Q: What industry (eg mining, food and beverage, automotive, etc) is the scada being applied in?
A: Electricity network monitoring and control.
Q: Describe the application briefly, giving a description of any existing control systems, any previous scada system that was in place, etc. If relevant, describe the switchover from the previous system.
A: The application was to upgrade Ceres Municipality's existing electricity network monitoring and control system with the NetControl - Netelek's Electricity Network Monitoring and Control suite of products.
The System Master Station and Substations are equipped with CP6000 Remote Terminal Units (RTUs), using RS485 to RS323 Modbus RTU communication, connected to a radio network which forms the basis of the information delivery infrastructure. The System Master Station is configured to interrogate the substation CP6000 RTUs, which updates the system continuously and provides alarm, event and trending information and management reports for the effective control of the network. Previously, the existing system was essentially a manual system.
Q: Who did the system integration?
A: Netelek Engineering Team, headed by Mr P. du Toit.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the integration take?
A: Netelek's time for integration of the system was approximately four weeks.
Q: How is the after-sales support handled (eg remote-dial-up, e-mail, Internet access, etc)?
Remote dial-up is available - and Netelek also offered a maintenance agreement for the lifetime of the plant.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular system? Does one licence cover all modules, or can the user only buy those modules that he wishes to use?
A: One software licence covers all modules in the system. This cost was included in the purchase price.
System architecture
How many tag points / I/O does the installation have? Analog? Digital? Maximum possible?
* 400 digital tag points (expansion is not limited).
* 300 analog tag points (expansion is not limited).
* The system is scalable from 0 to 64 000 I/O points.
Q: What operating system is the scada running on (eg Windows NT, Unix, etc)?
A: Windows 2000 Professional operating system.
Q: What impressed you most about the architecture? Open standards, wide range of drivers, the ability to upgrade, etc? Please elaborate.
* All configuration and graphics were carried out by Netelek, exactly to our requirements, as part of the service.
* It is a reliable system, under variable conditions.
* The communication media (Modbus RTU) is stable.
* The system is easily expandable, in the future, with minimum costs.
Q: Is the system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet? If so, does the configuration allow simple remote monitoring, or is it configured to allow full remote control? If not, what level of intranet/Internet control does the scada allow for future use?
* The system is integrated on our intranet with a dial-up facility which includes 'security password protection walls' to obtain full remote control of the network, and maintenance of the system.
* The system has the facility to upgrade to the Internet, in the future.
Q: What sort of redundancy is built into the system?
A: System back-up is built into the communications system via radio or telephone and all data is logged and time stamped so, if all communications media crashes, the data is recoverable.
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process - eg did you use standard library images, or did you have to draw images from scratch?
A: All images were developed by Netelek for us, as part of the service.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: This was not a requirement, as Netelek provide a full after sales upgrade service.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images (eg embedded video clips, photographs, 3D images, etc)?
A: No special images were required.
Compatibility
Q: Did you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software? Describe.
A: The NetControl-Scada System was entirely of Netelek design and development, the other application software was NetView - used for bill verification. The system can run with any third party Modbus RTU protocol.
Q: Does the scada allow for the user to create scripts to perform specific tasks? Describe any specific scripts that were written for this project.
A: None were required, as Netelek provided this service free of charge.
Management reporting
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: Trending and historical data reporting is included as standard functions and Netelek also provided Tariff Analysis, Different Tariffs, Reconciliations and Time Of Use reporting.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: Yes, reports are generated via the intranet.
Q: Is the system integrated into a manufacturing execution system?
A: The system is designed for electrical network monitoring and control.
Q: Is the scada system integrated into a management reporting or control system (eg SAP, Baan)?
A: The system data can be exported to SQL database.
Q: Who integrated the scada into the MES and/or ERP?
A: This is not a requirement at this stage.
Conclusion
Q: What impressed you the most about the system?
* The price.
* The system is simple, reliable and user friendly.
* Ease of operation.
* Simple graphics and realtime information.
* Excellent support.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another (ie ease of use, support from the vendor, upgrade path, redundancy features, etc)?
A: It is a low-cost solution, which facilitates network optimisation.
Q: Have you found the system to be user friendly?
A: Extremely so - it is simple, user friendly and reliable.
Q: Do you believe the system has paid for itself?
A: In efficiency of time, man-hours and effective use of the Network, the system has paid for itself several times over.
Q: Would you purchase this system again?
A: Most certainly.
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