There are several things of extreme interest in the following press release from Siemens. First, that a major chemical company is investing in a greenfield plant in North America. Second, that the plant will be the largest Profibus PA installation in North America. Third, it will be one of the largest installations of redundant fieldbus anywhere.
Of interest to the WBF crowd, this is going to be one hanging big batch plant.
Somebody posted on the Automation discussion list at Control.com a couple of weeks ago that Siemens' PCS7 "wasn't really a DCS." This project should certainly put paid to that kind of FUD.
From the release:
SIEMENS NAMED MAIN AUTOMATION VENDOR AT NEW BASF JONCRYL POLYMER PLANTATLANTA, Feb. 14, 2008 - Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. has been selected as the Main Automation Vendor (MAV) for the new BASF JONCRYL® Polymer Plant in Wyandotte, Mich. The large green field project of more than 5000 I/O points, scheduled for completion in 2009, will include the Siemens SIMATIC® PCS 7 distributed control system (DCS). It will be the largest PROFIBUS PA installation in the US - more than 3,000 field devices, and one of the world's largest applications of redundant fieldbus. As the project MAV, Siemens will help BASF to minimize the total cost of ownership at the plant by managing the other automation and control vendors involved in the project to ensure the smooth integration of all components into the system.BASF's vendor technology evaluation highlighted the superior batch capabilities of PCS 7 from Siemens. Additionally, PROFIBUS PA was judged to provide superior fieldbus capabilities compared to Foundation Fieldbus, particularly in the areas of interoperability, interchangeability and device compatibility. "Our MAV and technology evaluation processes were very thorough for this new plant," says BASF Project Manager Dr. Wulf Beer, "We had to have complete confidence that the MAV will execute the project according to our expectations. The PCS 7 DCS technology, combined with Siemens' project management capabilities, led to the selection." Siemens will supply a fully redundant DCS including redundant fieldbus connectivity using Active Field Distributors (AFDs), redundant networks, redundant controllers, redundant HMI servers, clients, as well as redundant batch servers. "This award demonstrates the confidence BASF has in Siemens and the capabilities of PCS 7," said Andreas Aufenanger, general manager, Siemens Process Automation. "We are very familiar with the BASF application standard and presented an execution strategy that is in line with the customer's business objectives."
