Origin Energy: Gas Distribution SCADA System - Case Study

The natural gas distribution system in Victoria Australia is owned by Envestra Ltd. It comprises of over 8,300 Km of natural gas and supplies over 400,000 industrial and residential premises in Melbourne City and regional areas. The Origin Energy Asset Management (OEAM) Team manages their gas reticulation system using the Kingfisher and Citect SCADA systems telemetry system.

Servelec’s SCADA & Telemetry Application Kingfisher RTUs are used to monitor and control 118 gas regulator sites within the Melbourne metropolitan and regional areas. These RTUs provide critical gas regulation control and monitoring to sites 24 hours a day where high pressure reduction is required. The Origin Energy Asset Management (OEAM) SCADA control system is located in Thomastown, Melbourne and communicates to regulator sites by using either UHF radio or PSTN (telephone) based communications.

The RTUs provide valuable information back to the SCADA system which includes site pressures, valve positions, site security and other ‘on demand’ information. This project was successfully engineered and commissioned by Serck Controls Pty Ltd in 2003. Serck is one of Servelec’s authorised System Integrators.

The telemetry system consists of two hot standby redundant Citect SCADA servers connected to redundant Kingfisher master RTUs. The SCADA system provides comprehensive graphical and tabular information (trends, mimics, alarms, etc) with on demand information for all 118 regulator sites using either PSTN or UHF radio communications. SMS and pager alarms are also provided for alerting management and maintenance staff of critical messages.