Shell upgrades its Island View facility

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IBG - SA Instrumentation & Control Buyers' Guide

November 2002 News

Shell's Durban-based Island View substation is the bulk distribution point for 12 million litres of total product per day. When Shell decided to upgrade its technology, the installation of new scada and PLC systems was inevitable to ensure increased control and improved response time for trouble shooting at its depot.

The Island View depot is a bulk fuel distribution point and has no tankage on site. Instead the depot draws Shell's diverse product range that includes petrol, diesel, jet fuel, Avgas, low emission diesel and heavy furnace fuel from the refinery pipeline.

The facility is equipped with Momentum I/O to handle loading by rail and truck critical to the business, which moves volumes as large as 30 to 40 kilolitres of bulk product at a time, to multiple distribution stations. An Adroit scada system was installed for the purposes of monitoring and management of the operations, while the entire depot is run on an electrical control system that manages the fuel registers control and monitoring of this type of bulk distribution for Shell.

Greg Helm, engineering manager: coastal region for Shell Southern Africa says, "Adroit was in the right place at the right time, the system is fit for purpose, and we were impressed by their cross-country marketing strategy and national backing." Helm also states, "The Adroit architecture is simple, it is well designed and uncomplicated. Information is easily accessible and the graphics have all the trimmings without any of the complications."

Greg Helm, engineering manager, coastal region, Shell Southern Africa

The gantry's continual innovation necessitated changing the number of pumps and motors as well as other depot equipment. Shell chose the Adroit scada system as a tool to fully integrate the system, draw process mimics, and set-up alarm displays.

The Adroit system is used to monitor pump usage and availability as well as operator efficiencies. When a pump trips, an alarm on the scada system is triggered to notify operators of the event for action. Adroit's structured alarm configuring allow for intelligent alarming practices which prevent over-alarming and the activation of unnecessary peripheral alarms.

The new Momentum PLC interfaces with Adroit via an Ethernet network, while all PLCs are controlled from a centralised control room within the Island View site. System integrators, Streamworks, used digital I/O to affect the control of the pumps and the monitoring of alarms.

The gantry and Shell's various critical product deliveries, such as those to Johannesburg International Airport could not be stopped, this meant that work was only possible during tight windows of downtime, which were dictated by plant operation. The Streamworks team made efficient and effective use of these windows, and successfully completed the installation. Streamworks is also to provide comprehensive Adroit system training for the four new Island View technical floor personnel.

For more information contact Dave Wibberley, MD, Adroit Technologies, 011 781 3513, [email protected], www.adroit.co.za

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Shell upgrades its Island View facility

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