SCADA engineering allows 'remote control' of Pilbara gas assets

APA Group is Australia’s largest natural gas infrastructure business, owning and/or operating more than $8 billion of gas transmission and distribution assets. Its pipelines and assets span every state and territory on mainland Australia, delivering 50 percent of the nation’s gas usage.

In January 2012, APA announced an expansion of the Goldfields Gas Pipeline in Western Australia’s Pilbara. The expansion plans were in response to the boom in mining activity along the pipeline which services Rio Tinto and The Mount Newman Joint Venture, in which BHP Billiton Minerals holds an 85 percent stake.

The expansion work for the Mount Newman JV contract required two new compressor stations, at Turee Creek and at the inlet to the Newman lateral, to provide an additional 28 percent capacity on the mainline and the Newman lateral.

APA Group appointed SAGE Automation to undertake the SCADA engineering works on the local and remote SCADA systems, including interfacing to the local RTU to provide local and remote access for monitoring and control of the compressor site equipment from new standard mimic screens. 

Technology used:

• SCADA: ClearSCADA
• RTU: SCADAPack
• Protocol: DNP3, Modbus TCP/IP

SAGE developed the network architecture using Modbus TCP/IP and DNP3, between the Solar Turbines PLC, Station Flow Computer, Trident CSC, RTU, ClearSCADA HMI and servers.

The development of the SCADA and telemetry system was configured to APA Group’s national SCADA standards.

Key outcomes include: 

• Remote monitoring and control of gas compressor assets
• Further development of APA national SCADA standards
• A functional remote unmanned compressor station
• Close collaborative approach and engagement between SAGE and APA Group