Electricity + Control June 2017

ROUND UP

EARTHING + LIGHTNING PROTECTION CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUT MATIO

Automating the biggest power plant in the southern hemisphere Kusile power station will be the world’s fourth largest coal-fired power station when fully operational in 2020. For this massive project ABB is supplying a comprehensive control system, software, and instrumentation solution for all six of the stations 800 MW generating units. Kusile will be the first power station in Africa to use wet flue gas desulphurisation technology, as part of a new generation of high-pressure, high-temperature power installations. The automation system will ensure the most effective plant opera- tions by improving awareness, response times with decision- making, resulting in better availability and efficiency. ABB is also responsible for the design, manufacture, commissioning and testing of the Distributed Control System (DCS), the field instrumentation and the advanced conditionmonitoring system to check the equipment health and to provide failure diagnosis. To ensure the success of this project, ABB has brought its local engineering resources in South Africa, as well as global engineering expertise, primarily from Italy and Germany.These skills have been drawn together to create an international projects team for Kusile. ABB is a leader in providing automation and software for advanced clean coal power plants, including supercritical installations such as Kusile. Kusile will make a huge impact on South Africa’s develop- ment by generating electricity supply to 5 million people, improve power system reliability and excess power exported and sold to neighbouring countries. Kusile will also improve the quality of life of local communities’ corporate social invest- ment initiatives. Enquiries: Shivani Chetram. Email shivani.chetram@za.abb.com

High bandwidth connectivity to remote locations

The Ruggedcom RX1400 router with MindConnect running in the VPE1400 is a plug & play solution that enables users to easily and reliably read out data with OPC UA and/or an S7-connection from their assets and pre-process it for the transfer toMindSphere. Subsequently, the encrypted data is transferred to MindSphere, where it is available for processing and analysis. The compact, single device solution provides the combined capabilities of data acquisition, conversion and communication with MindSphere. End devices can connect via serial, wireless LAN, optical or Ethernet connections.The connection to MindSphere can be set up with redundant paths, either via LTE or copper/fibre Ethernet and users benefit from the high bandwidth con- nectivity to remote locations. Proven reliability and ability to function in extreme temperatures from -40°C to +85°C and harsh environments make the Ruggedcom RX1400 with MindConnect an ideal choice for MindSphere data acquisition in industrial applications such as electric power, transportation, and oil and gas. The Ruggedcom RX1400 including VPE1400 is a compact cellular router which combines Ethernet switching,Wireless LAN, routing, virtual machine environment and firewall along with wide area connectivity options such as LTE or Gigabit fiber optics. The Ruggedcom VPE1400 allows applications to run in a virtual environment which is safely parti- tioned from the Ruggedcom ROX operating system and has full access to the network, wireless LAN, serial and LTE interfaces on the RX1400. The open cloud platform from Siemens , MindSphere is a powerful IoT operating systemwith data analytics and connectivity capabilities, tools for developers, applications, and services. Enquiries: Keshin Govender. Email Keshin.govender@siemens.com Beckhoff opens in Port Elizabeth The newly-opened Beckhoff Automation Port Elizabeth office is in the sales and technical hub of the Eastern Cape region. The established Sales, Service andTechnical Support office includes an essentialTrain- ing Centre for the projects and innovative industrial designs of Beckhoff Automation’s partners.This office is a base fromwhere the company’s

‘NewAutomationTechnology’ real- ises industrial automation dreams! It is found in the Bloomingdales Office Park, the corner of Main and 9 th ,Walmer, Port Elizabeth. Bradley Garside is the Branch Manager. Enquiries: Bradley Garside. Tel. +27 (0) 82 854 2966 or email bradleyg@beckhoff.co.za

Bradley Garside, the Beckhoff Automation PE Branch Manager.

Electricity+Control June ‘17

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