Tag Archives: SCADA

UK Wide Telemetry Solution for BP LPG

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Although Telemetry Systems are fairly commonplace these days, they are used in many different industries to give prior warning that an “event” is about to happen

For instance; automatic cash machines will alert the bank’s staff to the fact that the machine is running out of banknotes, petrol filling stations are linked to telemetry to alert the head office that a particular fuel is about to run out.  In the shipping industry, engine performance information is relayed back to a central monitoring station to alert the control centre of any required maintenance that may be performed at the next intended port of call so that down time is kept to a minimum.  We at Oriel Systems are always pleased to hear of other applications that may be of use to our customers and, in turn are keen to offer a practical solution.

One recent application that Oriel were involved with was for BP at their LPG Tanker filling sites around the country.  The problem that BP had was that their LPG filling terminals sites were all 24hour operations and were open 7days a week.  The Health and Safety Executive insisted on 2 people being present at all times to oversee the filling operations.  Some days there may not be a single tanker pulling in to refuel and yet there would still need to be 2 BP staff on site.  Over all of BP’s sites this amounted to many hundreds of staff that would have to be employed and also paid overtime (with unsociable shift allowances) even tough in many cases these staff may not actually be required.

After discussions with the customers engineers, Oriel were able to draft a proposal based on an Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation at each site along with 2 CCTV cameras, one fixed, the other moveable.  Security at the entrance gate would also be provided which, upon a tanker arriving out of hours would open up voice communications between the filling site and the Central Control Station, which was to be located in Scotland.  As soon as this communications link is opened up, the screen for the individual site becomes active and appears in the foreground of their Monitoring PC at the Control Centre.  From the overview screen the Central Control operator grants the tanker driver the required permissions to commence re-fuelling operations and a “time band” is allocated to him.  During this “time band” all the critical and emergency systems such as the fire pump and deluge system are running non-stop.  Once the “time band” has been exceeded the system will automatically shut down necessitating another “time band” to be allocated and permissions to be repeated.

At all times, two cameras, one fixed the other moveable via on screen controls follow every move the tanker driver makes.  If the tanker driver were to fall and injure himself this would immediately be picked up and the necessary action initiated and the operation automatically shut down.  The whole system runs over the secure high speed BP network and the information from any of the remote sites can be viewed from any location around the country just by plugging a laptop into the nearest standard telephone connection point and accessing the relevant password protected pages.  The system gave BP the flexibility that they needed at this time, with the option to move the Control Centre to another location at a later date without incurring additional expense.

Similar technology can and already has been applied to the other Industries, Oriel Systems has already installed a system able to take video in the event of a problem such as vandalism or theft at a remote site.  If the operator is alerted to a “situation” the operator can instruct the remote site to capture video and transmit the pictures to a central location and can then decide what course of action to take.  If the situation warrants police involvement the pictures are saved for future use as evidence.

Of course the camera could also be used for much simpler purposes such as a view on the state of the plant and equipment at the remote site to decide the severity of a situation and whether a site visit is really necessary immediately or whether the engineer can wait until the next planned maintenance visit.  Overall the system can pay for itself in just a few years, although in a recent vandalism case where a local Drainage Board had all the windows smashed in at a remote Pump Station the system, the cost could be recouped in a matter of months.

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com

BP Thetford Depot

Radio telemetry for large dairy to stop contaminated water entering watercourse

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Oriel Systems have just completed a project for a large dairy in Wiltshire providing Automation and Control of a pair of Rotork Actuators and Penstocks

Automation was required to prevent run-off water contaminated with milk powder from the manufacturing process entering the local watercourses until it had been tested for water quality purposes.

In normal operation the run-off water is stored in a large holding pond some distance away on site which is subject to evaporation and refilling through normal precipitation.  The distance and the terrain proved unsuitable and too costly to run cables between the penstocks and the sensor so Oriel reccomended the use of a low power radio link between the two locations.  Oriel engineers installed an Ultrasonic Level sensor at the holding pond along with an Oriel Intelligent Telemetry Outstation or ITO that would accept the water level signals.   In cases of extreme precipitation and when the holding pond reaches it’s upper level and only once waterquality testing has been performed and found to be of acceptable quality can the signal be sent over the radio link to the Actuators and allow operation of the Penstocks to release water to a safe level into the local watercourse.

The radio link provides cost savings for installation over traditional cabling and allows remote interrogation and control of on-site conditions and has proved to be a cost effective and reliable solution for automating the penstocks along with providing a reduction in staffing costs

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com


Live Video feeds over 3G at remote Pump Stations sites

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With the cost of copper and other metals increasing substantially over the last year or so, there seems to be a worrying and increasing trend of thefts and attempted break-ins at remote Pumping Station sites at present.

The target in many cases is the copper windings in the electric motors and inside high current cables.  It is not so much the theft of the materials, although that is obviously a problem, but also the damage that is caused to other equipment, structures and buildings in removing these items, customers have reported chains being used to attach to pump motors, and then vehicles being used to pull these items away from their fixed concrete bases.  The other problem customers have reported is vandalism and public safety issues.  The consequence of this is that with the disruption caused, it can take many months to get the Pump Station operational again and insurance renewal costs will have to rise as a result of this.

In response to this Oriel have introduced their Video Intelligent Telemetry Outstation or “VITO” a low-cost cctv video monitoring solution that can be installed at any remote site even though it may not be connected to a land-line.  For those customers that already have an Oriel outstation, their existing unit can be easily upgraded to provide live colour video back at the main office.

After a successful trial at one of their remote Pump Stations, Lindsey Marsh DB have placed the order for 10 more of their remote Pump Station sites to be linked up with cctv and integrated into the Main LMDB Telemetry System at Louth.  This will ensure that their insurance renewal costs remain low and the system should pay for itself in a matter of years.

The cctv monitoring system comprises a state of the art outdoor day and night colour camera at the site, fixed in a strategically placed location that monitors access to the site at all times and sends real-time video back to the Control Centre in Louth using Mobile Broadband / 3G technology.  Door switches and PIR sensors have been installed at any potential entrance points.  If any unauthorized access occurs it is immediately reported to the Duty Engineers by voice message on their mobile phones, the Duty engineer can then  view the relevant site screen in real-time on the Main Telemetry PC.   A continuous 24/7 high resolution (HD) video is automatically stored onto Oriels’  VITO, which can then be downloaded onto a memory stick and re-played using a free to use media player available on the internet.

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com

Underwater surveillance of migrating fish via remote live video feed

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A new solution, by Oriel Systems, allows operators to remotely view live video feeds of Salmon and Sea trout in order to monitor their numbers and gauge the health of the river.

The monitoring of spawning salmon and sea trout numbers in rivers gives a good indication as to the general ‘health’ of a river. It also helps to confirm whether pumping stations and other water control structures are causing obstructions to fish movements and if fish-passes are working as they should.

Research by the EA has found that some of the smaller fish passes previously constructed to allow to allow salmon and sea trout to travel upstream to spawn were proving difficult for the fish to locate during high river flows and it was found that large numbers of fish were congregating below these structures preventing them from their upstream migration.  During autumn these passes also often became blocked by debris which was limiting the ongoing recovery of the fish population.

The freedom of movement of fish is important in achieving and maintaining a good ecological balance to our watercourses

Live video feed is an excellent means of acomplishing this, however, live video monitoring generally requires either on-site viewing or a visit to download the information and re-playing at a later date.  Oriel System’s solution solves this issue by allowing live video feed to be transmitted back to a central monitoring station.

The solution, soon to be adopted by the Black Sluice Internal Drainage Board, provides time and cost savings and will be integrated into an existing on-site telemetry system, with the existing telemetry outstations being upgraded to Oriel’s Video Intelligent Telemetry Outstations or VITO’s.

The system comprises a number of compact submersible camera’s, specifically designed for underwater applications up to 50m deep and using built-in high sensitive IR LEDs, they can capture video in total darkness.  Various mounting arrangements are available however the BSIDB are mounting them in a perspex panel attached to cables and then lowered into positions that allow for easy retrieval for cleaning, the frequency of which will vary for different watercourses. Live underwater video images from the remote site are transmitted using mobile phone technology back to the Central Monitoring station and appear in a sub-window on the water company’s Telemetry Master Station PC. Live video is only displayed when required and movement is detected by the submersible cameras.

 

 

 

 

For further information please contact us on 01249 705070 or www.orielsystems.com