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Invensys announces big wins with global customers

12/06/2006

DALLAS, TEXAS, USA (INVENSYS CUSTOMER CONFERENCE) – December 6, 2006 – Invensys Process Systems has announced four major contacts in the Middle East and the U.S, totaling millions of dollars. Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and South Carolina refineries, LNG facilities and power generation plants will upgrade to Invensys technology, including DCSs, SCADA systems, HMIs and SISs.

The Ras Laffan Liquefied Natural Gas Company Limited 3 (RL3) in Qatar, through its engineering procurement construction contractor – the Chiyoda (Japan) and Technip (France) joint venture – has awarded Invensys Singapore an automation contract for the LNG Trains 6 and 7 onshore expansion project. With an annual LNG capacity of 7.8 million metric tons (MMTA) each, RL3 Trains 6 and 7 will be among the world’s largest LNG trains.When both new trains come on line by the end of 2008 and 2009, respectively, the RasGas LNG complex, located in Qatar’s Ras Laffan City, will be the world’s largest with a total LNG capacity of 36.3 MMTA. 

The automation project scope includes the latest mesh network-based I/A Series DCSs from Foxboro (www.foxboro.com); Triconex (www.triconex.com) TMR safety instrumented systems, fire and gas protection systems, and high-integrity protection systems; plus associated Invensys project management, engineering, implementation and acceptance testing services. Invensys will also implement an integrated asset management system, an advanced alarm management system and a control loop performance monitoring system, plus associated project engineering services.

Invensys will also provide Foxboro DCSs and Triconex safety and fire & gas systems for the Yemen LNG Company Ltd. plant being built at Balhaf, on Yemen’s south coast. The new $2+ billion grassroots plant is the first LNG plant in Yemen, and the Foxboro implementation will be the first major DCS in Yemen.

The new plant has a total capacity of 6.7 million tons of LNG per year and will consist of two process trains using the APCI C3/MCR process. The target for Train 1 start-up is the end of 2008, with Train 2 coming on line approximately five months later. The Invensys contract covers automation and safety systems on both process trains, plus all plant utilities.

The implementation will comprise 45 pairs of latest generation I/A Series control processors in fault-tolerant configurations, and will use the high-speed Foxboro mesh control network. The systems will control all major plant processes, including feedstock gas reception and dehydration; acid and mercury removal; gas chilling and liquefaction; LNG storage and ship loading; site utilities, and flare control. Triconex TMR (triple modular redundant) safety-instrumented systems will be employed throughout the plant for the process safety systems, fire & gas systems, and safety shutdown systems.

The Invensys implementation at Yemen LNG also includes supply and integration of Bentley Nevada machine monitoring systems, a plant-wide time synchronization system, an integrated asset management system, an advanced alarm management system, and a control loop performance monitoring system. 

Invensys has also been awarded a multimillion dollar contract to upgrade Foxboro control systems at Saudi Aramco’s two largest gas plants—Shedgum and ‘Uthmaniyah. Invensys Middle East will provide all engineering, procurement (hardware and software) and site services for the DCS upgrade project. 

Under this DCS upgrade contract, Invensys will upgrade the existing I/A Series control networks at each plant with state-of-the-art mesh control network technology. 

Shedgum and ‘Uthmaniyah are the two largest gas plants in the Saudi Arabia, with a combined processing capacity of well over four billion standard cubic feet per day (scfd).  The output from these plants is fed into the Saudi gas grid where it fuels local power plants and provides feedstock for petrochemical plants. 

Back in the U.S., Santee Cooper, South Carolina's state-owned electric and water utility, has chosen to implement an Invensys InFusion-based SCADA system. The new system will monitor and control 56 substations and automation points located along the company’s Myrtle Beach and Moncks Corner electrical distribution network in eastern South Carolina. Santee Cooper serves more than 155,000 residential and commercial customers and generates the power distributed by the state's 20 electric cooperatives. 

The new system will use the InFusion Application Environment and will include Power Factor Control to maximize the efficiency of power distribution, driving direct cost savings. It will also provide an enhanced operator tagging support application for personnel safety at substations that are off-line for maintenance. The InFusion-based system will also support traditional SCADA requirements.  

InFusion Access will provide the communication interfaces to a variety of system and subsystem platforms, using Modbus, GE/Harris 5000, DNP3 and Conitel protocols. The system will integrate interfaces to the existing substation remote terminal units. InFusion Access will also facilitate an uplink of transmission data to Santee Cooper’s corporate headquarters energy management system, and send data to a large network mapboard in the distribution control room. 

The new SCADA project will include four operator HMI stations running InTouch for InFusion; redundant application servers; an InFusion historian system; an engineering station for configuration, and a SuiteVoyager for InFusion web portal for convenient and secure information delivery to authorized managers.  

The project is planned for installation in May 2007.