Reviewer details
The reviewer has requested that his details be withheld
Product details
Vendor: Citect
Product name and version: CitectSCADA V6.0
Telephone: +27 (0)11 699 6600
E-mail: [email protected]
URL: www.citect.com
General
Q: In what industry is the scada application?
A: Kansanshi Copper Mine focuses on the extraction of copper and a small percentage of gold, as a by product.
Q: Briefly describe the application including information on any pre-existing control system or scada system that was in place.
A: The CitectSCADA has been utilised in a global control system concept where the operators are able to monitor and control the entire process. There was no prior system.
Q: Who performed the scada configuration?
A: The system integration was done jointly by Citect Perth and the Africa Professional Services teams.
Q: Approximately how many man-hours did the scada configuration take?
A: Seven Siemens S7-400 PLCs and the full CitectSCADA system were developed in a three month development phase up until the completion of the Factory Acceptance Testing.
Q: What sort of licensing agreement is used on this particular system?
A: Each Citect machine has its own licence. The licence covers all standard Citect functionality.
Q: What upgrade agreements are in place? Are patches and version upgrades free, covered under annual maintenance or managed in some other way?
A: Kansanshi has acquired the Citect Gold Maintenance and Support Agreement, which provides a formal structure of application software support services designed to optimise their investment in Citect technology.
Q: Describe how the after-sales support is handled?
A: After the commissioning phase, an on-site support engineer was supplied by Citect to the client for a two-year period. During this time, training was supplied by Citect to help the on-site system engineer maintain the system by himself. Email and telephonic support is still available should any problems arise.
System architecture
Q: How many tag points/I/O does the installation have? Analog, digital, other?
A: Total Tags = 100 000 split digital tags = 70%, analog tags = 30%.
Q: On what operating system is the scada running?
A: The Servers run Windows Server 2000 and clients Windows XP.
Q: What impresses you most about the architecture?
A: Well-defined data structures in both the PLC and scada system were used to enable auto generation of both PLC code and scada databases to help reduce engineering time and to increase the maintainability of the system. The innovative implementation of the genies, super genies and labels were also used to save engineering time and to help ensure a sustainable standard.
Q: What are the key physical communication layers and communication protocols employed in the system?
A: Profibus DP, Profibus PA, fibre optic communication on Ethernet and Modbus, RS485 Modbus and wireless Ethernet communication.
Q: Is the scada system integrated onto an intranet or the Internet?
A: Wireless communication points in the admin building provide the managers with realtime plant information.
Q: Does the application utilise web services?
A: No
Q: What sort of redundancy is incorporated in this scada application?
A: The Citect system provides a built-in redundancy, including redundant and distributed system architectures. The system consists of two redundant CitectSCADA IO/ ART servers (alarm report trend).
Graphics
Q: Describe the graphics development process.
A: Existing graphics and symbols from one of Citect's most well-known projects, the Olympic Dam project, were used to enhance performance.
Q: How would you describe the library of graphic images?
A: The use of 3D graphics was kept to a minimum to reduce the graphical overheads and to ensure fast access time of mimic screens. The graphics were based on the Olympic Dam standards.
Q: Did you use any 'special' images?
A: No.
Compatibility
Q: Do you run the scada in conjunction with any third-party application software?
A: No.
Q: Describe any specific scada scripts or custom code that were written for this project.
A: The built-in Cicode programming language was used for additional task execution.
Management reporting and integration
Q: Is a trending and historical data reporting system included? Please elaborate.
A: Trending of all analogue tags was done which get sampled every 10 seconds - this includes realtime and historical data. Two years of historical trend data are stored.
Q: Is a management reporting system included in the package?
A: No
Q: Is the system integrated with an MES/ERP or other management reporting or control system? If so then please describe the integration process and methodology.
A: No.
Q: Who performed this integration?
A: N/A.
Q: Was any additional software development needed? Please elaborate.
A: N/A.
Q: Describe any production benchmarking tools which have been configured as part of the scada system.
A: N/A.
System safety, security and data protection
Q: Describe any alarm management standards or best practices that have been adopted in configuring the scada system.
A: Alarm standards were established in different plant areas like crushing, grinding and tailings. Different alarms were assigned to three different levels of priorities namely; urgent, warning and event.
Q: What steps have been taken to firewall the plant network(s) on which this scada system exists?
A: The control network is an isolated network which has no connection to the Kansanshi office network. The control system was divided into two different V-LANs. One V-LAN was used for the PLC control network and the other for the Citect communication system.
Q: What intrusion detection has been incorporated on the plant network(s) on which this scada system exists?
A: Trend Micro has been selected as the intrusion detection system as per Kansanshi IT standards.
Q: Describe any configuration back-up and archive backup methodologies that have been adopted.
A: Citect has provided Kansanshi with a dedicated file server which assists in the archiving of all PLC and scada projects.
Conclusion
Q: What impresses you the most about the system?
A: The way it is structured and indexed to make it easy to keep the system up-to-date, and to add components.
Q: What was the predominant feature (or features) that made you decide to employ this scada, rather than another?
A: It is a very stable and reliable system and well supported by Citect professionals.
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