eWON connects HIMA and Allen Bradley PLCs at gas plant

August 26, 2014 - DNO is a Middle East and North Africa Oil and Gas company that holds stakes in oil and gas blocks in various stages of exploration, development and production both onshore and offshore in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, the Republic of Yemen, the Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates, the Tunisian Republic, and Somaliland.

The Summail Gas Plant is being developed and installed in Kurdistan by DNO International to supply gas for power generation. Raw gas from the wellhead is processed to remove all toxic gases and moisture content. Using a high capacity compressor, gas is compressed to build up the pressure required to fuel the power station.

Exchange of critical information
DNO International uses an Integrated Control & Safety System which consists of a Process Control System, Emergency Shutdown System, and Fire & Gas Detection System, fully redundant SCADA server, and Alarm annunciation systems.

As part of the new factory acceptance test requirements, it appeared that HIMA and Allen Brandley PLCs needed to communicate with each other to exchange some critical information.

ANG Automations Solutions, a highly skilled System Integrator in the Emirates, suggested using eWON for Remote Access (remote PLC programming), Protocol conversion, SMS alarms to field engineers and daily Reporting to DNO Head Office.

The eWON solution can connect devices regardless of the industrial protocol used. In just a couple of hours, the eWON Flexy was installed and configured. The device allows information exchange between the Allen Bradley and HIMA PLCs thanks to the capability of the eWON Flexy to be used as a Modbus TCP Gateway.

Remote access from the comfort of the Dubai office
A remote connection feature was requested in order to connect the site in Iraq to their office in Dubai for remote support and troubleshooting. The use of an eWON Flexy with a WAN card gave the office in Dubai easy remote access to their LAN network including PLC programming, Emergency Shutdown System, SCADA software modifications, etc.

Conclusion
With only three eWON Flexy 201 base modules used for communication between Allen Bradley and HIMA PLCs, and one eWON Flexy 201 base module with a WAN extension card for remote access, eWON provided a solution that was seven times less expensive than the standard Gateway / VPN server solutions. "We are more than happy to take eWON in an Oil and Gas Application", says Balaji Vedanarayanan, Managing Director of ANG Automation Solutions FZCO.

About eWON
eWON  is a Belgian manufacturer of industrial routers and the designer of Talk2M, an innovative cloud-based remote access service. Since 2001, eWON has become a leading player in the market for intelligent internet-based remote access routers, and works with manufacturers of PLCs and automation systems throughout the world.

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