APA owns and operates energy infrastructure assets across Australia including The Victorian Transmission System (VTS).

The VTS comprises of high pressure gas transmission pipelines in Victoria, serving an approximate consumption base of 1.4 million residential consumers and 43,000 industrial and commercial users. The majority of the natural gas consumed in Victoria is transported through the VTS.

The Dandenong LNG storage facility is a critical piece of this infrastructure, providing peak shaving and security of supply services as well as supply of LNG for commercial consumption.

SAGE Automation was engaged by APA Group to upgrade the facility’s legacy control system which had exceeded its operational life cycle, and replace it with a new system compliant to APA Group’s national SCADA standards.

Capabilities Demonstrated

SAGE was engaged to replace the existing control system with a new Basic Process Control System (BPCS) and Safety Instrumented System (SIS)to deliver increased reliability and regulatory compliance. The scope of works also included the development of a new SCADA system compliant to APA Group’s national SCADA standards.

To develop a SCADA system in line with these standards, it was imperative that SAGE take a collaborative approach to deliver the system as required.
The design documentation was developed to a high level of detail to ensure a comprehensive review process could be achieved. The result of the comprehensive design package now provides APA Group with documentation of the plant’s functionality that will inherently assist in operations & maintenance, future additional process improvements.

SAGE reverse engineered existing legacy system code, and had to interpret existing site documentation, including the Safety Requirements Specification (SRS), to determine the functionality for implementation of the new control system.

The scope of work included;

• Site Documentation Collations and Interpretation Reverse Engineering of legacy control system code and SIS design
• Electrical Circuit Investigation
• Functional Safety System Design, Implementation, Verification & Validation in Accordance with AS 61511
• Functional Specification Development
• Hazardous Area Dossier
• Development Engineering Workshop Facilitation
• Control Panel Design and Manufacture
• Detailed Live Cutover Plan Development and Execution for each plant area

Project Outcomes

• Close collaborative approach and engagement between SAGE and APA Group
• ‘Rollback’ strategy requiring both the legacy & new control system to be active.  Requirement to ‘Rollback’ within 2hr, to maintain continuous plant operation
• Interface with neighbouring sites (BOC) and site RTU infrastructure
• The work effected a number of stakeholders - Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO) and  BOC gases
• ‘Zero Safety’ on a Major Hazards Facility
• Ability to expand and mobilise commissioning team to meet tight cut-over schedule
• Designing a redundant SIS, compliant to a Rockwell SIL2 ControlLogix Architecture  
• High availability BPCS (Basic Process Control System) Achieving ‘Hazardous Area’ compliance on a ‘brown field’ Major Hazards Facility 
• Meeting a very tight cut-over schedule for meeting Victoria’s peak gas demand over the winter period 
   

Technology Utilised 

• BPCS: Rockwell ControlLogix
• SIS: Rockwell ControlLogix SIL2, fault tolerant architecture (redundant CPUs and MooN I/O using IFMs)
• ClearSCADA HMI
• Device Level Ring (DLR) for BPCS & SIS operation