Control System World

Zurich, Switzerland, Feb.7, 2012 – ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won a major order from Hydro One Networks Inc., the power transmission and distribution utility of the Canadian province of Ontario, to supply an indoor gas-insulated switchgear substation, an outdoor switchyard with air-insulated switchgear and associated transmission infrastructure. The order was booked in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The new substations will replace an existing installation built in the 1950’s and serve Canada’s largest city Toronto. They will connect the existing Portlands Energy Center generation station and enhance grid reliability.

“The new substations will enable the integration of diverse power generation sources and boost power supply to the region,” said Oleg Aleinikov, head of ABB's substations business, a part of the company’s Power Systems division.

Paris, February 7, 2012: Total announces that the second phase of the Ofon field development in offshore Nigeria (Ofon Phase 2) has begun. Construction and installation contracts have been awarded for Ofon Phase 2, which is scheduled to come on stream in 2014.  The Ofon field is located in Oil Mining Lease (OML) 102, 65 kilometres off the Nigerian shores in a water depth of 40 metres.

Ofon Phase 2 will unlock the field’s undeveloped reserves to increase production to 90,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day from 30,000 barrels, by installing 4 new platforms: 2 production platforms, a processing platform and an accommodation platform. Most of the development is dedicated to recovering natural gas, which will be compressed and evacuated to shore.

In line with Total’s environmental stewardship commitments, Ofon Phase 2 is a major step forward in the Group’s plan to reduce its flaring of associated gas and its greenhouse gas emissions.  “In launching Ofon Phase 2, Total is increasing the pace of development of its resources in a sustainable manner,” commented Jacques Marraud des Grottes, Senior Vice President, Exploration-Production for Africa at Total. “It is a further growth driver supporting our strategy, which is primarily focused on developing deep offshore fields such as Akpo and, in the near future Usan by minimizing its greenhouse gas emissions.”

FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International and OPC Foundation found a company to establish a common technology for device information management in the process industries.

Orlando, Florida (February 6, 2012) – The five major automation foundations, including the FDT Group, Fieldbus Foundation, HART Communication Foundation, PROFIBUS & PROFINET International, and OPC Foundation have developed a single common solution for Field Device Integration (FDI). These foundations have combined their efforts to form a joint company named FDI Cooperation, LLC (a limited liability company under US law). FDI Cooperation, LLC is headed by a “Board of Managers”, which is composed of the representatives of the involved organizations, as well as managers of global automation suppliers including ABB, Emerson, Endress+Hauser, Honeywell, Invensys, Siemens, and Yokogawa.” FDI LLC marks an unprecedented level of cooperation among suppliers and foundations to achieve a single integration technology for the benefit of end users”, says Achim Laubenstein, managing director of the FDI Cooperation. FDI’s mandate is to develop a single technology for the management of information that comes from all intelligent devices throughout all areas of the plant. The mission of FDI LLC is to do the following:

• Complete the standardization of FDI under the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission).

• Manage the FDI Specification.

• Finalize the FDI tool kits for system and device manufacturers.

• Promote and provide high quality technology support for FDI, independent of and common for the respective communication protocols.

• Preserve end users’ and automation manufacturers’ investments by providing state-of-the-art technology that is fully backward compatible.

• Ensure stability, interoperability and compatibility of FDI-based products.

Why FDI?

Efficient and economically viable device integration requires multiprotocol, standardized technology that makes device information available across systems and applications from different manufacturers. In the past, the development of such uniform technology was inhibited by too many different interests from organizations and automation manufacturers, resulting in the creation of disparate technical solutions. The current solutions – EDDL (Electronic Device Description Language) in various formats and FDT (Field Device Technology) – have their strengths and weaknesses, but also overlap to a large extent and thus lead to additional expense for users and manufacturers.

FDI technology will provide a very scalable solution that users can deploy in applications ranging from simple configuration to complex management of the most sophisticated field devices for the various tasks associated with all phases of their lifecycle, from configuration, commissioning, and diagnostics to calibration. This makes different solutions for different devices obsolete. FDI is a truly unified solution that addresses end user requirements across the spectrum.

FDI has also released a White Paper 'Field Device Integration Technology'.

BATON ROUGE, La.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2012-- The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SHAW) today announced it has been awarded a contract to provide the technology license and process design package for the revamp of a residue fluid catalytic cracking (RFCC) unit for Star Petroleum Refining Company in Map Ta Phut, Thailand. The design will upgrade the 40,800 barrels per day (bpd) RFCC unit by incorporating the latest advances in reactor system technology.

“Shaw was the original licensor of this RFCC unit, which first started-up in 1996,” said James Glass, president of Shaw’s Energy & Chemicals Group. “We are now upgrading the unit to incorporate the latest technology features and improve performance and profitability.”

Shaw jointly developed the proprietary RFCCU technology through an alliance with Axens and Total that began in the early 1990s. To date, Shaw and Axens have licensed 51 grassroots units and performed more than 200 revamp projects.

The Shaw Group Inc. (NYSE: SHAW) is a leading global provider of engineering, construction, technology, fabrication, remediation and support services for clients in the energy, chemicals, environmental, infrastructure and emergency response industries. A Fortune 500 company with fiscal year 2011 annual revenues of $5.9 billion, Shaw has approximately 27,000 employees around the world.

This device is a 2-wire TDR level meter for measuring distance, level, volume and mass of liquids and solids. Its simple, compact design allows service technicians to quickly assemble the probe and attach it to a threaded connection. It is an affordable solution for applications that do not require a high level of accuracy and is also an excellent alternative to traditional level controls such as RF Capacitance, conductive and DP transmitters.

The display can be ordered with the device or as an accessory. It shows measurement data on a 128 × 64 pixel screen. The configuration menu permits the device to be set up in a small number of intuitive steps.

The cost-effective TDR solution

• Continuous level measurement of liquids and solids
• Cost-effective 2-wire loop-powered TDR level meter
• Intuitive 5-step quick setup procedure

The Yokogawa DTSX200 distributed temperature sensor (DTS) is used to monitor temperature, leaks, and flow in oil/gas downhole, pipeline, LNG/refinery tank/reactor vessel, fire detection, and other industrial thermal applications. Released in October 2011, the DTSX200 is the distributed temperature sensor with a STARDOM field controller option to improve production efficiency by working together with production control systems. The DTSX200 is being field tested for oil/gas in-well applications by some major oil companies. The DTSX200 is also being proposed for pipeline and tank leak detection systems.

For further details please click 'Distributed Temperature Sensor - DTSX200'

Network security for switches and network infrastructure is gaining more attention than it once did as more people and businesses rely on their networks as a normal course of their daily lives and businesses. Most people who have direct oversight of their network security are concerned about the safety and security of their network, especially as it relates to data exchanges between offices, cites, states and countries. With the critical nature of networks to keep businesses moving forward and the amount of mission critical data that is pushed and pulled across these networks, the more vulnerable these systems appear to be. The looming doom of a security threat or infrastructure failure can have cascading affects on any business that relies heavily on their network to conduct their daily operations.

Please click 'Network Security' to download White Paper by Lantech communication to read in detail.

Yokogawa Electric Corporation announces that it has developed three new field wireless system devices and enhanced existing wireless pressure and temperature transmitters, all of which are compliant with the ISA100.11a*1 wireless standard. The first of these products are scheduled to be released in March 2012.

These new wireless products can be used to construct highly reliable large-scale plant networks, and may also be incorporated in small- and medium-sized networks that already utilize our existing products, substantially expanding their capability. This is in line with our “Grow” concept of enabling customers to expand their plant wireless networks while making full use of existing assets.

For further details on this product please click 'ISA100.11a Compliant Wireless Devices'