Kenya Pipeline Company upgrades SCADA system

New central control system from Telvent is extensible; increases monitoring ability, security

By Control Engineering Staff April 1, 2009

Kenya Pipeline Company Limited (KPC) in East Africa has upgraded its pipeline SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) system to a Telvent OASyS DNA 7.4 system. This upgrade adds several new or expanded functions that facilitate management of the expanding network and make pipeline operations more secure.

KPC, with a network running about 900 km (560 mi) and a total current storage capacity of 3.3 million barrels, is wholly owned by the government of Kenya and operates as an agency of the Ministry of Energy. Its clients include Shell, BP (Kenya) Ltd., Caltex Oil (Kenya), Mobil, the National Oil Corporation of Kenya (NOCK), and Total Kenya. The company provides reliable and cost-effective transportation, storage, and distribution of their petroleum products, along with common-user road and rail tanker loading facilities.

To achieve the pipeline performance and security needed, as well as incorporate new pump stations and a proposed extension, KPC upgraded its legacy OASyS UX control system to an OASyS DNA 7.4 platform. The new distributed system was enhanced with SimSuite modules for leak detection, profile maps, and batch and pig tracking.

Telvent says the RealTime control of the new system provides KPC the ability to shut down the entire pipeline automatically in an emergency, schedule equipment maintenance alarming, and detect leaks in real time for safety and security. Other operational benefits include parallel pump operation, remote terminal unit (RTU) polling over fiber optic cables using IP, and remote access to data by senior management at any hour. Because the system is extensible, it will also accommodate a new parallel line intended to link with a future Kenya-Uganda pipeline.

“We are very proud that KPC selected Telvent, knowing that our solutions matched the challenges they face,” says Larry Stack, Telvent’s energy business president. “This information infrastructure is a platform upon which KPC and Kenya can plan and build a secure energy future.”

—Edited by Peter Welander, process industries editor, PWelander@cfemedia.com , Process & Advanced Control Monthly eNewsletter Register here to select your choice of free eNewsletters .