Repsol Butano entered into an agreement with ABB, Inc. (Zurich, Switzerland) to upgrade its Distributed Control Systems (DCS) at 12 of the energy company’s butane factories across Spain. The 18 month-long migration project was executed in a systematic manner, with one plant being updated every month, ensuring that there was no operational downtime or loss of productivity.
The latest 800xA 6.1.1 platform aids in the optimization of services and database connections across Repsol’s twelve butane factories. Completely based on virtual machines, the new system also enables standardization of control libraries for all the updated facilities. Additionally, virtualization helps to improve server reliability and availability, while lowering operational costs for the customer.
“This upgrade will allow Repsol to modernize and streamline its day-to-day operations across all butane plants,” said Roberto Rivero, Project Manager at ABB Energy Industries Spain. “It will also increase quality, productivity and security, while improving energy and cost efficiency. Repsol has also signed up for ABB Care service program to maintain and further optimize their systems operation over the years to come”.
Despite a very tight schedule, ABB completed the migration project on time. The complete commissioning of each factory took four days, which involved close collaboration between Repsol and ABB project engineer team in Spain.
The upgraded system has been in operation for more than six months. During this period the system has improved the visualization and control management of process enabling continuous improvement of operational efficiency.