The Key to Building a Cost-Effective Large-Scale SCADA Project

In these tough economic times everyone has felt a pinch in their pocket book from time to time. Bills for the phone, credit card, cable ... it can all add up quickly to take a big slice out of your monthly income. What if your cable bill suddenly doubled in price; how would that affect you? What if you were dependent upon that service to connect you to the world, and, what if that connection was the key to your livelihood?

Now, what if that increase in your bill was multiplied by hundreds of times; how would that change the picture? Suddenly that simple pinch in your pocket would become a crushing expense, affecting your bottom line in devastating fashion.

A major oil and gas exploratory and production company faced a similar problem. Over time they’d become accustomed to paying a third-party, hosted, process control and data acquisition service.

The hosted service reported data about the company’s numerous principle reserves and producing properties. With 1,800 well sites across Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, and Canada the service was essential in monitoring the 120,000 I/O points from the flow computers on each field.

They sought to break away from their dependency on the third-party control service by bringing control and data acquisition capabilities in-house. A web-based solution was desired in order to connect the approximately 300 employees who needed access to the data daily on both the field and corporate level. In order to avoid the downtime a transition to a new control system could bring, the company required a control system solution that was easy to use and customized to what staff were familiar with.

When the company had assessed all their needs, they contacted Louisiana-based process automation and control firm, Failsafe Controls, to find a solution. Failsafe Controls is a leader in managing products and services for the oil and gas industry. They have built a reputation for using state-of-the-art process control and automation technologies to provide excellent service to their customers while saving them money at the same time.

Upon reviewing their clients’ needs, they recommended Ignition, the web-based SCADA system software by Inductive Automation. Albert Lambert, the web automation architect at Failsafe Controls, said it best: “Going with Ignition was a no brainer. Ignition helped us win the bid and get the job done because of its solid web-based architecture, its simple pricing model, and the great technical support of Inductive Automation.”