A swelling middle class in India has created growing market demand for and increased consumption of petroleum products.
This oil and gas producer is one of India’s largest petroleum product manufacturers and distributors, with a processing capacity of 6.5 million metric tonne per annum (MMTPA).
The plant must steadily keep petroleum products pumping through the station because any unplanned downtime can cause critical product shortages.
Contributing to the ability to reach zero unplanned downtime is healthy equipment, like pumps, achieved through maintenance and monitoring.
The company’s pipeline supplies the interior areas of India. Seven pumping stations along that pipeline already used Rockwell Automation for several years with almost no downtime. The goal is to maintain and even improve that performance.
Challenge
The biggest challenge for this customer is timely distribution and accurate pumping of products 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Any disruption could increase refinery inventory and leave retail units without adequate supply.
To maintain continuous flow, each pumping station uses three pumps: Two are at work at all times to maintain line pressure across the pipeline to the next terminal. The remaining pump is on standby in case one of the other pumps fails.
Oil pump operation is precise. Undetected or unreported wear and tear on the pump is not acceptable because even the slightest shift in pump operating parameters can cause damage. An aging Bentely Nevada 3500 system, installed years ago, did not function, and there was no ability to communicate with the station PLC to identify and rectify system faults.
Solution
To reduce the number of systems it needed to maintain, the customer preferred a single system (and a single system supplier) that worked with their control system, HMI and the machine monitoring system (MMS), and offered continuous and reliable support. Since continuous operation is required, this customer could not shut down the system for a switchover. The company requires seamless integration of this system, including the MMS, with existing systems.
Given the scope and complexity of the requirements, the customer wanted a supplier with proven skills, experience and support and selected Rockwell Automation for the company’s extensive experience in automation and global support. With a local office and authorized distributor just five kilometers from the site, Rockwell Automation had the required expertise to manage the requirements of the project, from initial design through engineering, integration and implementation.
Effective solutions for the terminal included seamless integration on a single EtherNet/IP network with the flexibility to configure parameters using the existing graphic user interface. Separate training was not required so the new systems were easily accepted by the operations team.
