An Acquire™ solution for a custody transfer metering system underlining Acquire™’s rapid deployment capability
In this age of depleting energy stocks Floating Production Storage and Offloading [FPSO] facilities have become the key to extending the life of depleting fields or making smaller fields economically viable. These high tech floating process systems are complex, demanding increasing performance and reliability in the instrumentation and control systems deployed in remote parts of the world.
The measurement and control system that manages offloading from an FPSO is an important link in the process, availablity of the system is paramount to ensure continuous production.
The metering system uses skid mounted metering instrumentation connected to flow computers that provide the flow measurement integrity demanded of a custody transfer metering station. The operator interface is provided by a supervisory system with an interactive display of the process.
The conventional approach to creating the HMI has been to use an application generator, customized by software engineers. This can take several weeks and imposes a burden of technical risk that carries through to commissioning, and long-term support.
An integrator, client and end user with several systems in the field using conventional applications will have many, possibly hundreds, of custom written control systems to support. They are often written by itinerant software engineers writing code around personal preferences. They may not be available at a critical time to support complex systems that can be located thousands of miles away.
Acquire™ does not have that problem, there is no custom software! Acquire™, provides a platform for conformity enabling a local, competent instrument engineer on site to support the system. This platform can be extended to direct support from Ambrit or its approved integrators via the Internet or private networks.
An Acquire™ solution can be deployed rapidly without recourse to custom software. What takes weeks conventionally can take a few hours for a competent instrument engineer to create an Acquire™ solution. This reduces the cost of ownership to a minimum, lowers the technical risks and simplifies long-term support in the field.
Acquire System™ Topology
The skid-mounted instrumentation is connected in parallel to two Omni flow computers operating in Duty/Standy mode. The flow computer(s) provide the custody metering integrity for the metering station. The Omni 6000’s communicate with an Acquire™ server over a local Ethernet network. The valve control on the skid is handled by a PLC responsible for the valve logic interacting with the flow computers and the Acquire™ server.
The browser HMI(s), in this instance a single screen, is connected by a second, isolated, Ethernet network to the server. This network can support several HMI screens connected to this network. The HMI provides an interactive mimic diagram representing the metering station, this allows the operator to monitor and control the metering station from the control room. Using the intuitive navigation in HMI an operator can access and influence all data from the metering system in real time.
Reports and alarms are printed on a local printer(s) connected to the server on the ethernet network. Reports, alarms and events are also stored in the Acquire™ database for future recovery.
This Acquire™ solution is typical of most FPSO metering systems using turbine meters and a meter prover. The Acquire™ server automatically configures its self with the final detail implemented with the innovative drag and drop Acquire™ editors.
The server can be augmented at any time with additional features:
- Redundant Acquire™ servers.
- Dual networks.
- Modbus and OPC server connections.
- Additional HMI Screens and printers.
- Control Charts
- Multi-lingual access
- Metrology™ asset management
In addition the network can be extended out into private Intranet or Internet networks using the secure WebSpring™ communication technology embedded in Acquire™ allowing remote, secure, real-time access to the system by users satisfying the stringent access privileges.
All of these features are available in Acquire™…out of the box!!
Southwestern Measurement Systems
The Houston based systems integrator Southwestern Measurement Systems have implemented several systems with Acquire™ and can testify to the ease of use.
“The HMI/Supervisory component of these systems have always been a major bottleneck in a project. Having to rely on third party programmers to configure the HMI/Supervisory is a area that can delay the whole project. Acquire™ released us from that problem putting our project engineers back in control, enabling SMS to configure a system in a few hours. FAT, commissioning and support of the system in the field is much easier and cost effective without the reliance on specialist software programmers.” Randy Stubbs – President SMS.
Summary
Acquire™ is a purpose designed solution for custody transfer measurement and control systems. Designed to work native with all the major flow computers used in the industry… Out of the box!
No custom software – Acquire™ will auto configure with innovative drag and drop graphical editors that streamline the detail… Out of the box!
Reduced technical risk – Acquire™ is a solution generator not an application generator. No reliance on custom software = less technical risk. These systems work… Out of the box!
Reduced cost of ownership – Systems are configured in hours not weeks or months reducing the cost of deployment… Out of the box!
Reduced cost of support – conventional systems require a relationship with the, often itinerant, software engineer that configured it. Acquire™ can be configured, commissioned, extended, and supported by any competent instrument engineer without software knowledge… Out of the box!
Backwards Compatibility – Acquire™ versions are backwards compatible ensuring clients have full support and access to new features as they are introduced in new versions. As hardware, operating systems or browser technology change, backward compatible versions will be released to extend the life of the system. New versions are shipped FOC to clients with an Ambrit support contract.
