MH Technical/Critical Switchboard Upgrade

The Task

Upgrade a Technical/Critical Switchboard PLC/SCADA monitoring and control system at a high profile, secure facility for Balfour Beatty. Tasks Include baselining the existing Installation onto a design to allow for complete removal of an existing ‘open fronted’ PLC and control panel Including all cabling, to be replaced with a new compliant PLC control panel In a new location with rerouted cabling, plus new capabilities and Interfaces together with upgrades SCADA system and graphics.

The Challenge

Like other projects IES are involved in, the work is required to be carried out with the minimum of disruption and so a risk based approach to both design and implementation was to be adopted. Additionally, working within a live secure facility, possible failure of critical equipment poses a high risk to national security.

Risks

Equipment failure impacting on customer service supply.
System failures resulting in extended downtime and operational disruption.
The outdated control system meant that the company risked system failure and loss of comms/control.
Upgrading/switching the existing equipment also carried a risk; with critical monitoring dependant on an operating control system

The Strategy

The strategy was to build a newly compliant (with directives control panel) developed down to the panel terminal level. The innovative design of the system architecture, control panel layout, new SCADA screens/graphics was developed not only to meet the clients requirements for the system update but also to reduce significant downtime necessitated by the upgrade. The full scope retrofit, including cabling and electrical connections, had to be done within a challenging timeframe so the approach was to spend extra time and care to confirming the existing installation was as per the design and to carefully mirror the existing design into a new installation.

Once the newly supplied and compliant control panel was designed, built, tested, and installed on site, a careful, calculated method of approach, identified in the detailed RAMS could be implemented on site to allow for a risk mitigated, smooth transfer.

Key Objectives and Benefits

Hardware – New control panel based on a Rittal IP55 VX Baying enclosure system to house Siemens based PLC system with redundant power supply technology for technical and critical switchboard status monitoring and control. The new installed and tested hardware onsite will provide longevity and reliability for years to come together with compliance with the relevant standards and new control and interface capabilities for the end client.

Software – InTouch SCADA PC is fitted with an Applicom PCU2000 Network Interface and Wonderware SCADA screens updated for both 208V and 415V Technical / Critical Switchboard monitoring and control will provide new capabilities, monitoring and visibility for the end client, plus new interfaces and screen for newly installed transformers and power meters, providing further longevity and reliability.

The Design and Implementation Teams

IES provided original concept hardware/software design solutions derived from developing a suitable a best suited quotation, providing project management and supervision of mechanical and electrical contractors on-site during the installation phase.

Both hardware and software designers and engineers work together at all stages of the design and upgrade and the development to assure that the new system could be implemented as seamlessly as possible. The end client’s requirement for the monitoring and control to be fit for purpose for the foreseeable future.

The Outcome

The project was completed successfully within the planned time frame. A major contributor to the success of the project was the careful approach to mirror the existing design together with carefully added new interfaces and capabilities to allow for a swift and accurate changeover from old system to the new.

The Project Team

Lead Project Manager & Electrical Design – Ross Patrick
SCADA – Ian Elkington

Did You Know?

Balfour Beatty, one of the UK’s largest construction firms, were in the news very recently as they completed the breakthrough of the last and longest of the five onshore cooling-water tunnels at Hinkley Point nuclear power station. They had excavated through 600 metres of ground to create the tunnels, and sprayed 9000 cubic metres of concrete in order to stabilise the recently formed underground structures. The tunnels will now undergo secondary lining works. The tunnels will be responsible for transferring over 120,000 litres of water per second from the Bristol Channel to cool the new reactor, Hinkley C.

SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) systems are becoming increasingly central to the normal functioning of society. IES’s close attention to system security reflects real dangers. ‘American Blackout’, a realistic drama documentary made in 2013 by National Geographic, explores the effects of a malicious cyber-attack on America’s national electricity grid. During ten days without electricity the nation descends into anarchy. A cast of ordinary characters struggle to feed and protect themselves and their families, and record their experiences on mobile devices.

Although PLCs (programmable logic controllers) are now nearly universal in modern industry, their history is comparatively short. The ‘father’ of the PLC is generally considered to be Richard E. ``Dick`` Morley (1932 –2017) a self-schooled American mechanical engineer who had dropped out of MIT. He was behind the production of the first PLC for General Motors in 1968. A self-confessed workaholic, Morley held more than twenty U.S. and foreign patents, including the parallel inference machine and a hand-held terminal. He claimed that he invented the PLC one day when he had a hangover, and didn’t feel like designing a separate control system for each new application.