London -- Invensys Process Systems (IPS) has announced that it has won a major contract to upgrade control and automation systems at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and regasification plant near Barcelona, Spain. The site, at Barcelona Terminal, is one of three such facilities run by Enagas, Spain's leading 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 HARTrt 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, IPS client sales executive. "Enagas needed a business partner and industry expert who not only knew the site and the processes, but who could also provide excellent technical support.
"With our existing Triconex emergency shutdown and fire-and-gas system installations on the site, as well as our excellent relationship with staff both in Barcelona and at Madrid HQ, IPS was uniquely qualified to provide the service and equipment Enagas needs to meet the demands of their customers," he said.
Barcelona Regasification Terminal currently has six LNG storage tanks, two with 150,000 cubic meters (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 been providing service to 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 cover 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.
