Energy Developments Limited - Generator Reporting System

Energy Developments Limited

Generator Reporting System

EDL operates a power generation station at the BHP Cannington silver mine located in North-West Queensland, 200km south east of Mount Isa. The power station is critical to BHP's mining operations, as such the reporting and storage of station load shed and run-time event data is considered paramount for effective management.

Along with providing Energy Developments staff at Cannington with immediate feedback the system was required to provide data for key personnel at the Brisbane office to promote effective analysis and response. Apart from the challenges associated with the capture of data, a major problem exists with the communications system between Cannington and Brisbane. Poor service and the tyranny of distance mean the communications sessions are error prone and highly unreliable.

GRS Application

In response to imposed constraints and an extremely tight timeline, VRT created the Generator Reporting System. GRS is a multi-site application specialising in the capture, reporting and long term storage of key production data. This solution has been built primarily on MSSQL Server technology and utilises Crystal Reports for the management reporting and contract compliance as well as the web delivery. The GRS has been integrated into EDL's intranet. For the Cannington implementation the system comprises two key components. First, a Citect Plant2Business server was installed and configured at the Cannington site. This product captures run-time, alarm and other pertinent data from the on-site CitectSCADA servers. Retrieved data is pushed to the VRT Data Agent which transforms it into an appropriate format for long term storage. On schedule, the VRT Data Agent initiates a dial-up session via a BHP Frame Relay network, connecting to the central VRT Data Agent at the Brisbane office. When the session is created, data is transferred between the two Data Agents in a managed fashion ensuring the integrity of transferred data. Finally, the last role of the VRT Data Agents is to provide the reports relating to load shed and run-time events, as well as supporting information relating to the management of connections and long term data storage. The provision of reports occurs at both Cannington and Brisbane, thereby allowing key staff at each location to utilise the information for effective management via their web browsers.

Expected Benefits

· Consistent and timely reporting of station events to key personnel both at the Cannington site and in the Brisbane offices.

· Better coverage of engineering data by a wider audience of related personnel.

· Fulfilment of contractual requirements relating to reporting procedures and facilities, as imposed by BHP.

The Future - Enterprise System

An important element in EDL's set of requirements was that the specific site solution also establish the foundation infrastructure for similar reporting requirements at EDL's 30 or more existing remote sites, as well as any future sites. The system supplied is highly expandable and flexible, allowing it to cater for changing requirements at future sites. Many of EDL's sites in Australia and across the world are in very remote locations with unreliable data communications facilities. The GRS for Cannington has provided the ideal test bed for the reliability of the VRT Data Agent technology that would be used to underpin EDL's Enterprise wide system.

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