IPS gets projects in Czech Republic and Ohio

Aug. 20, 2008

Plano, Texas, London  --  August 19, 2008 -- Invensys Process Systems (IPS), a global technology, software and consulting firm, today announced that it has signed a five-year, more-than-$20 million contract to provide comprehensive industrial automation services and solutions to Kraton Polymers, a copolymers industry pioneer and a leading producer of styrenic block copolymers with facilities in the United States, Germany, France, The Netherlands, Brazil, China and Japan.

Under the terms of the contract, IPS will deliver services and solutions to modernize certain operating aspects of Kraton's Belpre, Ohio, facility. IPS will implement its InFusion enterprise control technology, replace the Belpre plant's existing distributed control system (DCS) and digital automation system with IPS' I/A Series® DCS, and install Foxboro instrumentation, batch management software and linear and non-linear advanced process control (APC) applications.

Because of its age and current mix of automation systems, Kraton's Belpre plant requires an integrated solution built on a site-wide, unified automation platform that supports continued growth. This is what IPS has committed to deliver via its InFusion enterprise control capabilities and world-renowned engineering services. IPS will also provide configuration, installation, start-up and lifetime support services, all of which are expected to lead to higher returns for Kraton on investments in operations, efficiency and production.

IPS has also announced a contract to provide extensive automation upgrades to the Chvaletice power plant in the Czech Republic. It is the latest in a series of automation projects IPS has carried out at Chvaletice since 1995. Under the terms of the agreement, IPS will upgrade the existing Foxboro I/A Series system to Version 8.4, allowing the existing mesh network to handle more multiple faults and providing highly intuitive design environments, more integrated input/output functionality and predictive maintenance/field device tool technologies, along with new performance applications.

Situated in Polabi, about 20km west of Pardubice, construction on the plant began in 1973. Between 1996 and 1998, IPS carried out three contracts worth more than 200 million CZK (£6.7 million) on the plant's boiler control, turbine control and block protection systems. In 2006, the company completed an upgrade to an earlier version of I/A Series, following the original installation of Version 4 in 2000. Today the plant operates four 200MW units, giving it a total installed generating capacity of 800MW.
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