Electricity + Control January 2018

CONTROL SYSTEMS + AUTOMATION

Ageing Systems and Expansion Drive Modernisation

Marc Ramsay, Schneider Electric

Management at Premier FMCG decided that the time was right to replace and mod- ernise its control, automation, and electrical systems.

Take Note!

Schneider Electric de- signed an industrial control, supervision, and reporting solution for a wheat mill that produces various types of flour. Process Automation Sys- tem, PlantStruxure PES, is designed to meet the demands of production facilities with hybrid con- trol applications. PES is built on Ethernet – allowing seamless in- tegration of system com- ponents and providing connectivity to business systems for fast and easy information exchange.

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T he existing control system used in Premier’s wheat mills (Siemens S5 PLC and CitectS- CADA system) was ageing, and the lack of support and spare parts for its Siemens PLCs pre- sented a definite operational risk. Additionally, they expanded the plant with a new wheat mill, increasing their production capac- ity. As part of this expansion, Premier decided that the time was right to replace and modernise the control, automation, and electrical systems. They sought to: • Modernise the control system based on a proven and mature architecture • Standardise the control system software based on a proven and mature automation software standard/philosophy • Apply power metering and variable speed drives to monitor, control, and optimise energy usage From its humble origins in the 1820s as a local Durban bakery, Premier FMCG has grown and expanded into milling and commercial baking, in addition to other lines of business. It currently operates 16 bakeries, five wheat mills, two maize mills, a sugar confectionery plant, and 24 distribution depots across South Africa, Swaziland, and Lesotho. Its wheat mills have a total capacity of 800 000 tons of wheat per annum, and two are designed specifically to mill flour for speciality in- dustrial customers.

Innovative systems integration a key selling point PlantStruxure PES, Schneider Electric’s innovative process automation system which is designed to meet the demands of production facilities with hy- brid control applications, played a key role in the customer’s selection for this modernisation project. Premier was impressed by all the functionalities provided by PES to efficiently manage their process and energy use, starting with its single environment for engineering, operation, and maintenance. They also liked the fact that PES is built on Ethernet, an open industry standard which allows seamless inte- gration of system components, like smart devices, and provides connectivity to business systems for fast and easy information exchange. Long-term back-up and support were also im- portant considerations for Premier and the rea- sons they always prefer to partner with large com- panies. Schneider Electric offered a large pool of engineering resources and support services that will give Premier confidence in their systems well into the future. Leveraging PlantStruxure PES in a fully con- nected architecture Schneider Electric delivered an industrial control, supervision, and reporting solu- tion for a wheat mill that produces various types of flour. Built on the single PlantStruxure PES platform, the system consists of redundant super- vision servers and clients, connected to multiple controllers, remote I/O stations, and 500+ variable speed drives on an industrial Ethernet network.

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6 Electricity + Control

JANUARY 2018