Refinery Tank Farm Upgrade

Key Facts

Location: Minnesota
Client Challenge: To upgrade their refinery tank farm PLC network due to obsolescence.
Technology: GE PLCs interface with DeltaV DCS for inline blending, with one Allen Bradley PLC used for pipeline pump VFD interface.
Size of System: The network comprises 17 GE PLCs, consisting of a variety of models due to their age, alongside approximately 1800 hard-wired I/O distributed throughout the plant. Within this setup, there's 1 Allen-Bradley ControlLogix 1756, 4 GE PACSystems RX3i controllers, 8 GE PACSystems RX7i controllers, 1 GE 90/70 controller with I/O, and 3 GE 90/30 controllers with I/O. Additionally, there are multiple Genius blocks for equipment interface and several IO rack extenders.
Project Duration: 4 months of automation support

Scope of Project

Arion was responsible for developing a technical evaluation and providing recommendations for upgrading the aging refinery tank farm PLC network from current legacy technology to the latest supported technology and maintainable design. A detailed report was generated comprising of the obsolescence status of the current system, evaluation of options for upgrading to fully supported technologies and recommendations for a solution based on a weighted scoring system.

Approach

All pertinent documentation was reviewed (SOW, P&IDs, I/O Index, Network Architecture Drawings, Hardware Lists) to understand the main objectives. Next, Arion traveled to site to perform a field walk and documented the entire system. While on-site we met with client’s PLC network support team and management to better understand the operational challenges of an upgrade from an off-line and on-line perspective. Also discussed were the site history with local vendors and support. The client was asked to provide priorities to be considered in a scoring system to aid in providing prioritized recommendations. A package was prepared and provided to potential vendors for pricing with upgrade and long-term support proposals. Vendor data was compiled into a report highlighting the score-based recommendations and presented to the client.

Client Benefits

The client was able to fully understand the risks associated with their systems obsolescence and understand the options for upgrading from a price, execution, and after project support basis that was derived from a scoring system based on their concerns and priorities.