The Enterprise Pipeline Management Solution (EPMS)

Benefit

The EPMS package brings the following benefits based on 30 years of experience in engineering medium to large complex pipeline automations.

Functionalities

EPMS consists of two application solutions:

• Gas Enterprise Management Suite (GEMS)
• Liquid Enterprise Management Suite (LEMS)

EPMS delivers the following interrelated and integrated functions:

1. Processing of meter inputs for accurate measurement and flow calculations
2. Management of gas data with the device scheduler and EFM log up-loader
3. Schedule and monitor gas nominations
4. Monitor the line-pack along the pipelines and segments
5. Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure, MAOP, monitoring
6. Pipeline balance, storage and inventory calculations
7. Schedule and track batches for efficient transportation of liquid products
8. Monitor liquid pipelines for leaks, inventory and hydraulic profiling
9. Drag reducing agent management and power management on compressors and pumps
10. Controlling a manifold with the flow path manager
11. Tracking and management of anomalies like pigs/scrapers, merge/hot spots and interfaces

Features

1. Enhanced interface management
   When transitioning from one product to another in a pipeline, a trans-mix that is of a certain volume and varies in quality will be formed at the interface between the adjacent fluids. With EPMS, multiple product cuts from the same interface can be performed, for the easy management of quality gradations. Furthermore, the use of product density meters to detect variations in interface quality based on color and sulfur content is now supported.


2. Shared use of physical devices
   For the delivery of products to different tanks, EPMS allows multiple flow paths to share use of the same physical meter. This is made possible by the assignment of a so-called “logical meter” to each flow path. The assigned logical meters are then associated with a specific physical meter. This is cost effective as it reduces the number of physical meters that are required to cover a specific application.


3. Enhanced batch management
   For greater flexibility, continuity, and energy efficiency, EPMS supports side stream injection and stripping as a product batch passes an intermediate delivery or receiving site. The main benefits here are the opportunity to easily adjust the volume of a main batch and to more efficiently manage sudden changes in demand. For further optimization, enhancements are provided for split/merge and local batch operations.


4. Drag Reduction Agent (DRA) injection
   Energy is a big contributor to the operational cost for transportation of gas and liquid products. The new DRA management component of EPMS assures accurate injection resulting in less energy consumption and increased capacity.


5. Tracking of inspection devices and scrapers
   As per EPMS tracking of pipeline inspection devices and scrapers can start at any moment from the new pig launcher component. Further enhancements are provided by accurate calculation of slippage to more precise allocation at any given time.


6. Enterprise IT/OT convergence
   EPMS (CI Server) makes it possible to integrate the pipeline field equipment and devices horizontally bringing in critical process information from industrial equipment and sensors simultaneously. This information is seamlessly transported vertically to upper-layer systems for visualization and analytics purposes, using built in industry standard communication standards such as OPC UA, MQTT & ODBC.

System Architecture

Positioning on system layers

EPMS plugs into the CI Server platform and inherits the CI Server advantages in one common environment;

• One system/user management and configuration environment
• Same layout of pipeline displays can be used for process displays
• Same user authorization can be used within the whole application
• Standard features like reporting, history and configuration are available in the same environment

Latest platform support

Many pipeline SCADA systems that are in use today have been tailored to suit a specific set of circumstances. They lack both a standard system foundation for supporting pluggable application modules and a core design that ensures interoperability with enterprise IT environments and policies. The maintenance and upgrade of tailor-made applications that often have a complex system architecture for protection from security breaches poses increasing challenges for pipeline operators. The EPMS suite is a sustainable solution made up of pipeline applications that may be used in combination with common supervisory and monitoring functions, and is based on a well-designed modular platform that is both IT friendly and secure. CI Server on which EPMS is based is compatible with the latest platform (Operation System), which can reduce security holes and other risks. As no two pipeline applications are identical and operational philosophies can differ from one pipeline operator to the next, the EPMS suite allows the easy modification of templates and functions, without having to call in pipeline application experts. Furthermore, the EPMS can be offered in combination with advanced pipeline simulation solutions that both reduce commissioning time and enable the full simulation of the pipeline operations management environment for the training of operators.

Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) optimization

CI Server Integration

Integration with CI Server allows the full EPMS capabilities to be applied throughout the enterprise for the most effective information utilization and decision support.

Simple Maintanence and Flexible

Unlike customized applications, EPMS is easily maintained and upgraded. Since EPMS is completely version-coherent with CI Server, users realize the most effective possible life cycle management. EPMS and CI Server always share compatible version updates and a common development roadmap.

At the same time, the standardized functions provide the flexibility to be tuned and extended to fit specific customer needs.

Object-oriented and Scalable

The object-oriented EPMS structure expedites configuration of user graphics and data structures. Plus, EPMS maintains the same scalability as CI Server. Therefore, system expansions such as new pipeline construction, mergers & acquisitions, etc. are readily implemented.

Software Design

GEMS includes a comprehensive suite of management functions for natural gas pipeline operations.

LEMS includes a comprehensive suite of management functions for hydrocarbon liquids pipeline operations.