ABB has been commissioned to supply a integrated telecommunications system including CCTV, security, access control and communications. The facility is being built for E.ON at Holford in Cheshire and will store gas in eight salt caverns deep underground. The processing plant consists of several gas compressors that optimise the pressure of gas stored and withdrawn from the caverns into the National Grid Transmission System.Designed to hold over 160 million cubic metres of gas, the plant will be controlled by ABB Extended Automation System 800xA and integrated with the telecoms systems, providing a single point of access and control for operational personnel. It includes multiple workstations and two 52in wall-mounted monitors, allowing operators to visualise the entire process. It incorporates CCTV images, along with other plant process and asset-management information, increasing uptime and site security, and reducing operational costs.
The telecoms scope includes: CCTV - perimeter surveillance and plant-asset monitoring, including video recording; site security - access control and intrusion detection for site, including perimeter fence, gates, turnstiles and buildings; communications - fixed telephones and a site-wide mobile radio system; remote operation - from a remote location both production and site security visibility is provided; public address - zoned systems for alarms and broadcast messages; fibre optics - a dedicated fibre-optic network for security voice and data communications.
The System 800xA will also interface to fire and gas monitors around the plant and third-party packages such as the compressor unit controls. The combined solution will provide E.ON with an integrated process-control, safety and security system that, through the use of the System 800xA aspect-object technology, allows operators to call up process and telecoms aspects from relevant graphics.
