Web monitoring system SCADA Review of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium

From the very beginning of CPC's operation, the company deployed a SCADA S/3 process monitoring system, at the consoles of which the dispatchers of the OPC and of PS shift supervisors could monitor the parameters of the quantity and quality of oil pumped through the pipeline and located in the tanks. Control was provided by sensors installed on the equipment. In addition to this hardware and software complex, during the first several years of the Consortium's production activities, the SCADA Info information complex was developed by the Pipeline Applications Group of the Technology Division (currently the Application and Software Development Service) with the direct participation of the Control Systems Group and the Dispatch Service, which made it possible in various reporting forms to reflect the status of pumping, oil and equipment on the corporate Internet portal, outside the dispatch consoles.

Such convenient monitoring method was highly appreciated by the company's management. Then requests were received from technologists, commercial analysts, leakage specialists, metrologists, Instrumentation and Automation specialists, power engineers, transport workers, laboratory assistants, turbinists, the Security Service, the Electrochemical Protection Service (EPS) and the other CPC operational units.

Of course, certified paper documents (quality certificate, acceptance certificate and others) are considered official data, but free access (for persons with permitted admission) to the sensors readings installed on the equipment has become very popular. It was possible to view and analyze the operational data of the entire oil pipeline system for any computer connected to the CPC network (with access rights) for every two hours or even in runtime - according to the last changed sensor readings.

As the SCADA Info complex improved, it began to include reports such as Dispatchers daily report. This basic and most widely used SCADA report was visualized with a high quality graphical report developed by Senior Information Systems Development Specialist Sergey Goncharov, It depicted tanks with levels of poured oil, running and non-running pumps and valve positions (marked in different colors), process and main pipelines with pressure and flow readings.

The SCADA Info system also made it possible to display a brief report of the state of the Marine Terminal equipment, a report of leak detection (currently - a report of instrumentation), interval data for leak detection (now - a report of the LDS). In addition, the technological parameters of the PS and the linear part, the readings of electrical equipment by region, the data for the operational balance by region, the operational list of the PS, the report of the chief mechanic on the auxiliary systems of the Marine Terminal were provided.

The complex of "instant" reports included data on EPS at the linear part, PS and the Marine Terminal, data on shelters and radio shelters (including electrical parameters), the state of operation of pumps and SPM equipment. In addition, the climatic parameters (temperature and humidity) in the OPC hall were monitored, and the climate in other rooms could also be monitored, if necessary.

The SCADA Info complex also made it possible to receive reports with diagrams of pressure on the line in meters (for monitoring possible leaks), oil mass received at the Marine Terminal (table and graph with daily indicators), oil balance for the month (list of daily balances with a graph). In addition, monitoring of the amount of loading time on MT was provided - the time of loading tankers in hours and percentage for each day of month. The average monthly weight and volume of oil in the tanks were monitored, and a weekly report on oil pumping was provided (data on deliveries and shipments by PS and MT).

However, a well-functioning SCADA S/3 complex has become obsolete morally and physically over time. It was decided to replace it with a new SCADA OASyS system. Among other things, the new system made it possible to process the received data and determine the reliability of the sensors.

In accordance with the implemented system, the entire architecture of the SCADA Info software package was revised and improved. There were more than 60 thousand (!) parameters - 20 times more than in the old in the new complex. Due to the new principle of data organization in the system and the accumulated wishes from the users, it was decided to rewrite the entire interface, which led to the creation of a new set of SCADA Review reports. The application team decided to create a lightweight, quickly customizable interface that would show key metrics and monitor non-essential data, which was extremely difficult with a single table with thousands of values.

"Moving" the database and software functionality from the old to the new SCADA version lasted more than a year. There was a lot of both creative and routine work. It was required to find a correspondence to all thousands of parameters between the new and old systems. They did not always coincide in the title, a lot of new parameters appeared. It was required to write several hundred (!) auxiliary scripts that are used to control and analyze data to date for such a painstaking and responsible work.

There was enough work for everyone. The Pipeline Applications Group worked hard for a year, and finally, in October 2017, the new SCADA Review system was launched. The former SCADA system also worked during the interim period. Orders to collect dat on operational parameters (loading rate, pumping capacity, temperature, density and viscosity of oil) for several years are still recived, including the period of operation of the "old" SCADA and this data, of course, is available in the archive database, it can be downloaded according to specially developed requests.

After analyzing the SCADA Info data architecture, it was decided not to oppose two-hour and "instant" reports, but to make them mutually transformable - with one click. It is planned to continue this universalization and make different types of reports (two-hour, with a columnar presentation of parameters, monthly, one-day) convertible into each other. To manage such a significant amount of data, Dmitry Bogomolov (currently the Head of the Application and Software Development Service) has developed a unique tree-table architecture that allows to disable entire groups of parameters from viewing. This way, web reports can be shortened both vertically and horizontally, making it easier to view and find the data you want.

After the transformation of the previously existing reports, it became possible to identify the parameters of other PS and regional branches of the linear part in the new system, which had not previously participated in monitoring SCADA Info. These reports were added and, to simplify the entire system, many of them were combined into one with a set of tabs, and especially long reports were, on the contrary, divided into tabs.

The summer of 2019 turned out to be hot, so the issue of monitoring the oil temperature all the way from receiving oil from a supplier to shipment to an export tanker arose. On the instructions of the CPC management, it was necessary to develop online diagrams of temfeatured profiles of the linear part and metering units. The work was new and difficult, but the Group coped with it in a short time. This is how the reports on The temperature profile of the Main oil pipeline (combined graphs of oil and soil temperatures, pressure and oil consumption in all sections of the LP) and the Temperature profile of LAST (combined graphs of temperature and oil consumption at metering stations) appeared.

The Application and Software Development Service plans to provide SCADA Review users with the ability to automatically receive detailed diagrams for any parameters, especially critical: temperature, viscosity, pressure, density, antifriction additives in the future.

The SCADA Review system can also be supplemented with reports in other formats. For example, at the request of leak control and prevention specialists, a semi-annual report on the distribution of the LDS was developed in the form of an Excel file. It should be noted that you can now download any SCADA report to Excel, which was not available in the previous system. It is very convenient for further analysis using Excel tools, including charting.