IPS in LNG plant upgrade

16 December 2008

Invensys Process Systems (IPS) is set to upgrade control and automation systems at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and regasification plant, under the terms of a recently awarded contract.

Martinez, of IPS, said the biggest challenge was avoiding a shutdown of the plant
Martinez, of IPS, said the biggest challenge was avoiding a shutdown of the plant

The technology, software and consulting firm will upgrade the plant in Barcelona, Spain.

The site, at Barcelona Terminal, is one of three such facilities run by Enagas, a Spanish natural gas transportation, regasification and storage company. Enagas currently has more than 7,600 kilometers of high-pressure gas pipelines in Spain, plus two other regasification plants and one underground natural gas storage facility.

Under the terms of the contract, IPS will upgrade the site from an existing Metso DCS Max1+ to its Foxboro I/A Series technology and InFusion enterprise control system. The company will also supply Fieldbus Foundation digital technology, GPS and sequence-of-events technology, four operator stations, two servers, an engineering station, a Historian server, a Hart station and one remote operation substation.

‘One of our biggest challenges was to carry out the project without a shutdown so that Enagas could continue to meet contractual commitments to their electricity-generating customers,’ said Victor Martinez, client sales executive of IPS.

Barcelona Regasification Terminal currently has six LNG storage tanks, two with 150,000 m³ of capacity, two with 80,000 m³ and two with 40.000 m³. Enagas was looking for a supplier who could offer both improved customer support and meet its medium-term plans for huge expansion at the site.

IPS has worked with Enagas since 1995. The company began factory acceptance testing of the new systems in July, prior to full start up in December 2008. IPS systems and solutions now covers the entire regasification and storage sites at Barcelona Terminal, and the company is in negotiations with Enagas to provide an operator training simulation system for a new grassroots terminal being planned for the north of Spain.


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