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S&C at PSIG

Join S&C at the 2017 Pipeline Simulation Interest Group (PSIG) Conference May 9–12, 2017, in Atlanta, Georgia. Our presentation “Real-Time Congealing and Pipeline Monitoring System” (1714) is scheduled for Thursday, May 11, from 16:45–17:30. We will discuss how models are built using scientific principles and how simulation may be used to predict where congealing is or may occur inside a pipeline. The presentation will also discuss the scientific foundation and mathematical approach and will provide a case study using these modeling and simulation techniques.

Also look for our table with the solution provider exhibits to learn more about all of our solutions.

Build Power & Process Models with a Single Tool

The OptiRamp Developer is a single platform serving multiple functions, including building system models, connecting OptiRamp Virtual Tag Server tags to system components, creating OptiRamp Web Analytics and Reports displays and templates, customizing OptiRamp Notifications, and building regulatory control programs, among other functions.

Additionally, the OptiRamp Developer highly unique is that has standard process and power library blocks used to build both power and process models. No additional tools are required, allowing for faster development.

Other features and benefits of using the OptiRamp Developer include

  • Intuitive graphical user interface for ease of use
  • No special programming knowledge required
  • Quickly configure elements through standard library elements
  • Easily build large-scale models of operating assets
  • Reduce development and maintenance costs
  • Plan for system expansion
  • Protect your investment

OptiRamp® Decision Support Center

A Decision Support Center (DSC) centralizes and improves asset monitoring by bringing people together to make faster, better decisions about assets through dynamic key performance indicators (KPIs), key operating parameters (KOPs), actionable data, and rich graphics. Losses across the entire value stream are made visible, and customers manage their operations 24/7 by exception (anomaly) by focusing on the highest value and by focusing resources on the right problems at the right time. 

S&C has the skill and experience to help design and implement state-of-the-art DSCs that provide the following additional benefits:

  • Remove people from harm’s way by enabling remote monitoring capability and providing intelligent analysis tools and notifications
  • Use relevant (in terms of time) data in decision making with an instrumented field
  • Visualizing real-time data and aggregate data on a single screen for faster and better decision making
  • Use predictive analytics instead of time-based maintenance to make decisions
  • Increase the efficiency of each process element
  • Decrease the number of process variations
  • Decrease operating expenses
  • Increase production
  • Increase environmental performance
  • Meet and exceed contract obligations

OptiRamp® Tag Advanced Functions

S&C has released OptiRamp Tag Advanced Functions (TAF), a high-speed, multithreaded calculator used in conjunction with the OptiRamp Virtual Tag Server (VTS) to quickly and easily create meaningful and actionable key performance indicators (KPIs) and key operating parameters (KOPs). TAF, with the help of VTS, dynamically connects to any modern PLC/DCS via OPC or ODBC. Using these collected data, TAF allows for numerous calculations, including

  • Math operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division)
  • Algebraic operations (power, modulus, logarithmic functions, square root)
  • Trigonometric functions (sine, cosine)
  • Boolean operations (or, and, not, selector)
  • Maintenance analysis
  • Decline analysis
  • Statistical computations
  • Totalizing
  • Averaging

These calculated TAF tags may be visualized in OptiRamp Web Analytics graphically (e.g., with trends, meters, charts, and plots), connected to OptiRamp Notifications, and added to OptiRamp Reports. TAF tags allow our customers to monitor by exception (anomaly), quickly assess current operating conditions, and provide actionable information that assists customers make better operating decisions.

OptiRamp® Digital Power Plant

The OptiRamp Digital Power Plant (DPP) solution is a scalable approach encompassing monitoring and surveillance in terms of data collection and transformation, analysis (e.g., objective functions, mass balance reconciliation, regulatory control, multivariable predictive control, and optimization), and optimization at all hierarchical levels.

The key objectives of the OptiRamp DPP solution are to

  • Optimize the entire value stream
  • Manage by exception
  • Bring people together to make faster, better decisions
  • Make losses visible

The purpose of the DPP is to not collect the most data but to collect meaningful data and transform these data into dynamic key performance indicators (KPIs) from which decisions can be made and actions can be taken by exception. The OptiRamp DPP solution provides the following features made visible through the OptiRamp Web Applications:

  • Unit analytics
  • Turbomachinery control
  • Mixed-mode solutions
  • Runtime and offline simulation
  • Optimization
  • Multivariable predictive control
  • Predictive dispatching
  • Fleet management (when the solution is applied to more than one power plant)

S&C Celebrates 12 Years

S&C is celebrating 12 years in business this month with many plans for the coming year. Here’s a quick look at some of the planned developments and major upgrades coming to our existing core software and advanced modules:

  • Version 2 of the full suite of OptiRamp Web Applications to be released
  • Enhancements and additional web capabilities for our Lean Six Sigma module
  • New algorithms to provide our customers with more advanced pipeline analytics
  • Optimal scheduling and dynamic batch optimization to be visible in the Web Applications
  • Complete the OptiRamp Predictive Turbomachinery Diagnostics module
  • Add grid stability algorithms to our power Active/Reactive Power Flow solution
  • More automated tools to build key performance indicators (KPIs) faster and to publish them in Web Analytics

Keep checking back regularly for updates on these releases!

2016: The Year in Review

Despite the continued low oil price environment, S&C experienced greater interest in our simulation and optimization technology to help companies optimize their facilities, processes, and power plants. The year 2016 brought many key developments and project successes. Here’s a summary of the highlights.

S&C expanded its global reach by hiring a new regional manager to cover Texas, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean; formalizing several partnerships and entities in Angola (SCA, lda), China, and the Independent Territories in the Lesser Antilles; and opening a new office in Moscow, Russia (StatControl Ltd.).

Development highlights include the following:

  • Introduction of the OptiRamp Digital Oil Field and Digital Power Plant solutions
  • Power and process model elements were consolidated into one modeling tool: the OptiRamp Developer
  • Multidimensional dynamic batch optimization algorithms were developed and released
  • OptiRamp can now simulate multiphase flow in pipelines, which is important for several of our pipeline solutions, including the Leak Detection System, Slug Prediction, and Congealing modules that were also released this year
  • Version 1 of the OptiRamp Web Applications was released and verified on multiple corporate IT network
  • Enhanced oil recovery methods for ESPs and PCPs may now be simulated and optimized in OptiRamp
  • Introduction of real-time, advanced pipeline analytics for complex pipeline networks in the form of a pipeline profile 

Many turbomachinery control projects were completed this year, notably completing two steam control valve actuator retrofits and successfully starting up the 230 MW steam turbines following completion.

S&C rang in the first quarter of the year with an overhauled website to keep in step with current trends. Additionally, later in the year, the S&C logo was made a registered trademark by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office; the company also filed a patent applications for part of our Power Management System (PMS) solution.

We hope you had a prosperous 2016 and looking forward to working with you in 2017.

S&C Expands Turbomachinery Offerings

S&C recently replaced an obsolete turbine control system with a Schneider Electric system. This work included programming an appropriate control system application and developing the HMI as well as providing a panel engineering review, a fuel valve specification, a Factory Acceptance Test (FAT), and start-up services.

With the completion of this project, S&C has added Schneider Electric as another OEM to our long list of turbomachinery control offerings. 

Monitoring Remote Operations with Rational SCADA

The sayings “you can’t manage what you can’t see” and “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” hold true today. In today’s world of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), smart devices and “smart factories” (such as the Digital Oil Field and Digital Grid), companies are being flooded with multiple terabytes of data on a daily basis. Data are critical for real-time models to remotely monitor any asset or operation; however, massive quantities of data will not improve remote monitoring if the right data are not being collected.

In cases where instrumentation is not installed, doing so might not seem practical. SCADA, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, systems have a large upfront cost; require dedicated software, hardware, personnel, and training to implement; can take a long time to actually install; and then must be supported and maintained in, typically, remote locations. An alternative to a complete SCADA system is rational SCADA.

Rational SCADA allows for the rapid deployment of key field devices to securely provide data that will improve model accuracy without a significant investment of capital, resources, or programming.

For additional information about how you can use rational SCADA, read our white paper or contact us.

S&C Visits China

S&C has expanded into China with a partner located in Beijing. Through this partner, the PetroChina Pipeline R&D Center invited us to attend and present during a seminar titled, “Key Technology of Compressor Dynamic Simulation and Efficient Solutions for an Optimization Model of a Large Natural Gas Pipeline Network.”

Our President and CEO attended this seminar at the PetroChina Pipeline R&D Center and presented information about how S&C and OptiRamp may be used to optimize a large-scale natural gas pipeline. Our key differentiators include successfully working with complex networks, a strong data foundation and hierarchy for optimization, the OptiRamp Developer, our proprietary auto-tuning algorithms, inter-island mode that allows us to successfully model and simulate as well as optimize complex networks, our array of turbomachinery control solutions, and fleet management.