Invensys Operations Management, a global provider of technology systems, software solutions and consulting services to the manufacturing and infrastructure operations industries, announced the winners of its annual Invensys Operations Management OPEN competition. Contestants were recognized for their innovative use of Invensys products and solutions to generate significant business results in four Operational Excellence categories: Asset Excellence, Control Excellence, Productivity Excellence and Environment and Safety Excellence.
The winners were selected based on the business results they achieved using an Invensys Operations Management product or solution. They will be recognized at a special ceremony during the company’s OpsManage'10 global conference series, in Orlando, Florida. The winning applications will be highlighted as part of the North America OpsManage'10 general sessions and Expo in Orlando, as well as at other OpsManage'10 conferences around the globe. Entries were judged by industry experts, trade magazine editors, industry analysts and the Invensys Operations Management executive team.
The 2010 Invensys Operations Management OPEN winner for Asset Excellence is 9ren Group of Madrid, Spain. The Control Excellence award went to Taiwan Power Company. The Productivity Excellence award was given to Xcellerex of Marlborough, Mass., and New Belgium Brewery of Fort Collins, Colo., was recognized for Environment & Safety Excellence.
9ren Group is a new energies group focused on solar energy. The company designs, develops and operates solar photovoltaic and solar thermal plants in Spain and Italy. 9ren was selected for Asset Excellence based on a solution that positively impacted the performance of its operations, engineering and customer care departments. The company's EOSystem, a platform for integrating remote renewable energy facilities in a unified, consistent and reliable control room, is built on Invensys' ArchestrA® System Platform with Historian and Wonderware® InTouch® HMI + ActiveFactory™ software.
The Control Excellence award was given to Taiwan Power Company (TPC), which faces competition from independent power producers following the deregulation of the country’s energy market in 2007. To maintain its market-leading position, TPC needed to increase the reliability of its production facilities and the availability of electricity to the grid. The company upgraded its process control systems at several fossil fuel, hydroelectric and nuclear power generating plants using a Foxboro® I/A Series® distributed control system and mesh control network, Triconex® critical safety systems and turbomachinery controls and SimSci-Esscor® dynamic simulation solutions.
More than 30 percent of TPC’s power output is now controlled and monitored by Invensys solutions. The company has reduced power surges in its nuclear water recirculation control system by 22 percent, which has cut water level swings. Invensys technology has also helped reduce the time TPC needs to conduct offline or online testing by 50 percent and the total cost of ownership was significantly reduced because of the efficient upgrade process and improved visibility.
Xcellerex is revolutionizing the way biomolecules are developed, manufactured and commercialized and was awarded for Productivity Excellence. Using several Invensys® solutions, including Wonderware System Platform, InBatch™, InTouch HMI, Historian Software and Historian Client products, the Xcellerex technology platform allows manufacturing capacity to be deployed rapidly, flexibly and at greatly reduced cost compared with conventional technology. For example, fully integrated manufacturing capacity can be established within one year versus three to five years, at a capital reduction of 50 to 75 percent compared with traditional facilities. This results in implementation savings and the ability to begin producing high-value products two to four years sooner than when leveraging a traditional system.
New Belgium Brewery (NBB) was recognized for Environment and Safety Excellence. NBB uses Invensys products to maximize its sustainability efforts within its 500,000-barrel brewery in Fort Collins. NBB was the first brewery to use wind to power its plants, and when it started in 1999, was the largest private consumer of wind-powered electricity. Currently, NBB has the largest privately owned solar array in the state of Colorado and solar energy accounts for 3 percent of its total electricity. Its wastewater plant produces methane as a byproduct, which NBB uses to fuel its co-generation plant. When running full time, the co-generation plant supplies 15 percent of the brewery’s power requirements.
