Spring Gully is one of several Coal Seam Gas (CSG) fields managed by Origin Energy. Spring Gully is 80km North of Roma, Central Queensland Australia. Coal Seam Gas is retrieved from the gas wellheads and travels to the metropolitan centres of Rockhampton and Brisbane. The gas (mostly Methane) is compressed to 12000 kPa at the Spring Gully and Strathblane compressor plants prior to being sent to the main transmission line at Wallumbilla.
Water produced from the Coal Seam Gas extraction process is sent to evaporation ponds, some of which is treated to EPA standard and streamed into the local river systems.
Remoteness was more obviously an issue, but as infrastructure services were deployed the gas fields became virtually connected to the city. Rich information about how the gas is collected reduces the need to have field staff visit sites on a daily basis and empowers Operational Staff to manage their precious resource from anywhere in the world.
The Spring Gully Well Production SCADA and Information System was developed with large scale and system sustainability in mind. Specific areas of engineering focus include the reliable and systematic monitoring of Well Head controls and configuration parameters.
Very early in the design stage Origin Energy determined that Well Head site configuration may change as the performance and characteristics of the well changes. This meant a primary focus needed to be ease of changing a site’s functionality. The electrical interface and SCADA user interface needed to be adjustable with minimal fuss and low risk to production. As such the instrumentation, electrical interface, control devices, communications, SCADA and Information Systems were tightly integrated resulting in a site configuration change by the “click of a button”.
PARASYN’s role as a turnkey project delivery group included the design and supply of telemetry panels, instrumentation and all software systems. It is impressive that today PARASYN remains the only supply partner from the original pool of vendors thus demonstrating the importance of sustainable process coupled with sustainable engineering in the eyes of Origin Energy.
Objectives
The intent of the Origin Energy’s Well Head SCADA system design specification was as follows:
Develop a SCADA and telemetry monitoring system for the Spring Gully Gas Field.
Develop an area wide control system capable of supporting a large number of production wells (with an estimated maximum of 500 wells) distributed over an area of 500 – 700 square kilometres.
Develop well monitoring system to be integrated into the SCADA system on a per well basis.
Prioritised date and time stamped alarming, exception based prioritised alarm management via fast polling communications.
Provide standard input/output information i.e. control set points, alarm contacts and well monitoring related data.
Historical trend data and automated production reports to analyse system performance to operational and remote asset managers.
Allow Offsite wellhead integrity engineers access to process data for data modelling and engineering analysis.
Operator controls to manage the gas fields from Spring Gully.
Meet tight operational drilling schedules linked to market demand for gas.
Develop field wide standardisation that leverages wellhead enhancements in the SCADA system.
Allow for full automated control of well heads remotely.
Designing Large Systems
Today’s system is clearly an extension of the original design. There are no band aids, patches or creative cover-ups to compensate for underperforming software and hardware products or to cater for flaws in the original system development. In the early stages of the type testing, the application was structured and tested for 400 remote outstations. Large by any yardstick for RTU systems and especially for event logged systems, the platform was tested to accommodate growth and the first implementation catered for 50 Well Heads. The system currently operates with 160 sites and only takes a few minutes to recover all information with integrity requests. If an alarm condition occurs, unsolicited messaging allows the information to report back to the central SCADA Server for alarm annunciation and audit tracking.
At the time the project was initiated, there were no systems using this combination of control hardware, communications protocol and SCADA software in the world. In fact the contingency planning made allowance for developing a fully redundant DNP3 Server should the SCADA platform DNP3 server not meet the performance specifications during testing.
Basic System Model
The major solution features include:
1. Standardisation of a single site types.
2. Sustainability through well documented design and implementation testing plans.
3. Large scale design to overcome short term development foresight.
4. Fully configurable site typing so various site configurations and instruments can be used.
5. Designed Graphical User Interface (GUI) which is now being adopted across the enterprise for other systems and plants.
6. Information system (process historian) used on site synchronised to central office (process historian) to link planners and modellers to important business planning data.
Fully Configurable Single Site Type
Most sites are single meter well head sites with the option of dual meters for sites with a flare. Each site has a multivariable gas flow meter for monitoring gas flow on just the well head and flare sites have an additional Multivariable gas flow meter to monitor flare gas flow, and pressure. The entire system operates with only one developed site type. This means maintenance and control of changes is very tight. Each site has 4 different site configurations and the individual IO can be enabled or disabled according to site specific instrumentation and production requirements. The 4 basic configurations are:
• Single Hydrapack: incorporates a single Hydrapack (gas fired engine) that provides a 12V DC supply to control equipment.
• Dual Hydrapack: Similar to the Single Hydrapack sites except with 2 Hydrapacks (gas fired engines) that can together or independently supply the control equipment with 12V DC supply.
• Solar Powered (Free Flowing) Site: Free Flowing wells do not require a pump and the control equipment is supplied from a solar array.
• Electric Pump Site: An electric pump supplied by a gas generator is used on these wells. The gas generator supplies 12V DC to the control equipment.
Orifice Plate Type
The orifice plate on the well head is interchangeable, and can also be selected from the HMI. This allows for wellheads to be configured for varying gas flow rates with a “click of a button”.
Non-Essential IO
Due to remoteness of the wellheads, many of the site run off a solar Supply. To reduce the load on the system and extend the battery life, some high power, low importance monitoring devices can be switched off by the RTU to conserve battery power.
Engineered Solution
Working closely with Origin Energy, specialised RTU and instrumentation hardware was chosen for its tight fit and industry acceptance worldwide and in particular North America where CSG is very common.
The software, hardware and computer systems used to manage the Spring Gully wells are rich in functionality. The heart and uniqueness of the system is encapsulated by the use of Time Series Protocols (DNP3). The DNP3 Communications Protocol was also a requirement to retain “openness”. Not only was the system designed to give local well maintenance staff current information for making decisions and changing site configuration options via touch panels, but everything that occurs in each station is uniquely and independently logged as it occurs with a resolution of milliseconds. Although this high resolution is not always called for, it comes as a by-product of the choice of infrastructure and protocols used to implement the Data Management Strategy. The Data Management Strategy is core to PARASYN’s large scale SCADA design approach.
The SCADA software was developed to cater for multiple user clients, redundant servers and for seamless interface into a process historian. High importance was placed on “no loss of data resolution” and therefore dead-band filtering was not to be used. (Often deadband filtering is done to reduce data storage requirements particularly if the data repository is only a relational database). The performance of the implemented system demonstrates no loading of the SCADA server for information reporting. This is because the data is provided to the process historian directly from data sources rather than from the SCADA application itself. This is an essential element for large scale information systems so that operational performance of the SCADA is not compromised while attempting to provide data requests to third party applications like process historians.
Web Based Reporting was implemented and customised to match asset owner production requirements. Recurring production reports and conditional exception reports are published and emailed to stakeholders wherever they may be managing the system from. As all data is logged to the process historian, historical adhoc reports can be built via a simple user interface and new correlations and information can be derived from raw data sets. PARASYN’s Process Information Portal is tightly integrated with the process historian leveraging the highly compress database and making use of relational database functionality.
Active Factory is used by Process engineers in the distant Brisbane office daily for data retrieving for modeling and analysis. The data is sourced from the remote historical database. This allows for remote support, decision making and planning for wellhead expansion.
The project included design and implementation from Instrument to Web Report. Taking this holistic approach empowered PARASYN and Origin Energy to fully develop the flow and resolution of data so that rich data sets could be generated and used to automatically populate Production Management Reports.
Implementation & Execution
Selling gas in an open market demands that the product be available when the customer is ready to buy. Before the system was implemented and commissioned, many field crews would visit numbers of well heads every day to keep the gas flowing. This ongoing operational demand put great emphasis on the delivery timetables as every day the system didn’t have SCADA the costs were higher than they needed to be.
PARASYN’s traditional approach to engineering includes the mandate to “design before code”. Driven by the project leader, it ensures the client gets what they need to run their business. This planning principle even applies to completely developing the test plans before any development begins. Such a design platform provides a common interface for all parties to contribute and share ideas. If used correctly the design manual is the foundation for all future developments.
Today as the system continues to grow and functionality is developed to match maturing operational requirements regular updates are made to the design and implementation documents, thus maintaining consistency of thought, consistency of design and consistency of well established implementation standards. The design and implementation documents have become the foundational training platform for engineering support and operational technical staff.
Benefits
The use of the specific RTU, multivariable flowmeter, SCADA platform and DNP3 protocol had never been done before this project. To ensure a well designed project, PARASYN incorporated modules and software components used in other large scale solutions implemented elsewhere. Driver Development was undertaken to extend the full DNP3 functionality into the chosen SCADA platform. This coupled with beta testing of new device firmware demanded patience and methodical planning. The overall outcome met the original design targets and was part of the plan to reduce project and operational risk to Origin Energy while maximising production performance.
The “designed graphical user interface” has now been adopted by Origin Energy as their own and is being implemented across the enterprise for other systems and plants.
As clichéd as it may seem, PARASYN followed their well established “design before code” approach. Not only did this avoid the normal delays introduced by developers who “can’t wait to cut the code” but it allowed Origin Energy to have input and influence in the specific outcomes of their new system before it was too late and
costly.
The framework setup by taking a systematic, defined but interactive design approach has and will continue to permit additions and process improvements without fundamental re-engineering mountains to climb. Truly the documentation systems have ensured robustness in the solution and long term sustainability to more than just the Automation system but to the business of acquiring gas from coal seams in Queensland.
For Origin Energy perhaps the single most important benefit is the access to the tools and information allowing them to continue to improve the production performance.
Looking Forward
PARASYN continues to expand the “well” developed principles and philosophies into other gas fields owned by Origin Energy. Plans are in place to place Spring Gully like data into an enterprise wide process historian. Pipeline, gas plant and power plant SCADA systems are also adopting the GUI and conventions to standardise and leverage an investment in state of the art robust technologies.
Client Comments
Origin Energy Reports that PARASYN Controls performed exceptionally well as a partner in the delivery of SCADA and Hardware Systems. PARASYN was originally selected because they could demonstrate Systems Integration and implementation experience in industrial arenas.
Origin Energy, having seen the benefits of the historical data provided by the gas field SCADA system, have now expanded the data retrieval to include the remaining portions of the Spring Gully Field including, RO plant, Gas Power Plant, Gas Compressors Stations and Weather stations.
The new Talinga Field will expand on the Spring Gully Standard giving Origin Energy the enviable position to prototype & enhance the existing wellhead system in a way that it will be backwardly compatible with the Spring Gully system. This allows for sharing of benefits betweens fields with no additional cost.
With the Current integration of SCADA system at Spring Gully allowing for global clients both local and remote to spring Gully to access process data and control for any part of the field. Coupled with the integration of NextG system remote pilot wells at exploration sites can now be manned remotely removing the necessity to have onsite presence and leveraging standardised systems.
“The system designed and integrated by Parasyn Controls incorporating Field Telemetry, Citect SCADA and through to a data Historian has enabled Origin Energy to optimize the operation of our Coal Seam Gas Wells and monitor the status constantly. The implementation of “time and date” stamped data through the DNP3 protocol has meant that we have been able to expand our field assets without incurring significant expenses due to communications infrastructure while maintaining high levels of data integrity and resolution.”
–Andrew Leeson Instrument/Electrical Technician, Spring Gully
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