Repsol Unearths Operations Benefits in SIS Migration

As a result, Repsol sought to migrate to an SIS system that could bring its Ecuadorian facilities into compliance while also reducing downtime risks associated with aging equipment.

The company also wanted the nearly month-long migration to be carried out without interrupting production, which runs continuously at both sites.

SIS and Network Upgrades

Repsol worked with Rockwell Automation and Exida, an Encompass^™ Product Partner within the Rockwell Automation PartnerNetwork^™ program, to define and select the best solution for the new SIS at its NFP and SPF facilities.

The team selected an Allen-Bradley^® ControlLogix^®-based SIS from Rockwell Automation.

From an implementation standpoint, the system provided easy integration not only with the PLC-5 that it would be replacing but also with the rest of Repsol’s existing installed base of Rockwell Automation equipment and other vendors’ equipment.

This ease of integration reduced risk of downtime during the migrations.

“Sharing information across different vendors’ systems is possible but not always easy, and sometimes it requires that you bring in outside technical experts,” said Marcelo Villegas, project engineer, Repsol Ecuador.

“That wasn’t the case with the Rockwell Automation system. It gave us a clean interaction between the different systems that we had in place.”

As part of the migration, Repsol also implemented a new fiber-optic network for the communications between controllers and I/O racks, and used alarming and events capabilities within the new system to gain better visibility into performance and downtime issues.

Benefits Beyond Compliance

Because the NPF facility is smaller and has only about one-quarter the capacity of the SPF facility, Repsol used it as a proving ground for the first of two SIS migrations.

The NPF migration was successfully completed in 21 days, and the team carried over key learnings from that project to the SPF migration.

Despite the SPF facility being much larger, the team completed the migration in the same amount of time.

Migrations at both facilities also were completed without interrupting production.

The new SIS systems now meet Repsol’s new, internal safety standard at both facilities.

Furthermore, the systems are creating new opportunities for Repsol to improve reliability and productivity at both sites.

Replacing the decades-old SIS technology with modern systems reduced the risk of downtime that plagued both facilities due to a lack of spare-parts availability with the previous system.

Additionally, the new systems are standardized on the same technology, allowing Repsol to minimize its parts inventory.

Repsol workers also can now use alarms and events to access information about system performance to improve troubleshooting should a failure occur.

Workers can even use real-time performance data to predict where failures are likely to occur to help avoid downtime events in the first place.

“We didn’t have any insights into failures in the previous systems,” Villegas said.

“The new system allows us to monitor every part of the architecture, whether it’s the controller, the different I/O racks, or a specific output signal. This can help us more quickly identify the root cause of a failure and in some cases anticipate where a failure is likely to happen.”

Looking to the future, the systems will offer Repsol greater flexibility for meeting safety requirements.

Both facilities currently only have SIL 1 safety requirements, but the new SIS provides SIL 2 performance should it someday be necessary.

“By staying ahead of our current safety requirements, the Rockwell Automation solution prepares us for future expansion,” Villegas said. “These systems will help us get ahead of potential SIL requirement increases without another SIS upgrade in the future.”

The results mentioned above are specific to Repsol’s use of Rockwell Automation products and services in conjunction with other products. Specific results may vary for other customers.

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