IPS Lands Barcelona Regasification Contract

Invensys Process Systems (IPS), a global technology, software and consulting firm, announced that it has won a major contract to upgrade control and automation systems at a liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal and regasification plant near Barcelona, Spain.

The site, at Barcelona Terminal, is one of three such facilities run by Enagas, Spain’s leading natural gas transportation, regasification and storage company. Enagas currently has more than 7,600 kilometers of high-pressure gas pipelines in Spain, plus two other regasification plants and one underground natural gas storage facility.

Under the terms of the contract, IPS will upgrade the site from an existing Metso DCS Max1+ to its Foxboro I/A Series® technology and InFusion(TM) enterprise control system. The company will also supply Fieldbus Foundation digital technology, GPS and sequence-of-events technology, four operator stations, two servers, an engineering station, a Historian server, a Hart station and one remote operation substation.

“One of our biggest challenges was to carry out the project without a shutdown so that Enagas could continue to meet contractual commitments to their electricity-generating customers,” said Victor Martinez, IPS Client Sales Executive. “Enagas needed a business partner and industry expert who not only knew the site and the processes, but who could also provide excellent technical support.

“With our existing Triconex(TM) emergency shutdown and fire and gas system installations on the site, as well as our excellent relationship with staff both in Barcelona and at Madrid HQ, IPS was uniquely qualified to provide the service and equipment Enagas needs to meet the demands of their customers,” he said.

Barcelona Regasification Terminal currently has six LNG storage tanks, two with 150,000 cubic meters (m3) of capacity, two with 80,000 m3 and two with 40.000 m3. Enagas was looking for a supplier who could offer both improved customer support and meet its medium-term plans for huge expansion at the site.

IPS has been providing valuable service to Enagas since 1995. The company began factory acceptance testing of the new systems in July, prior to full start up in December 2008. IPS systems and solutions now cover the entire regasification and storage sites at Barcelona Terminal, and the company is in negotiations with Enagas to provide an operator training simulation system for a new grassroots terminal being planned for the north of Spain.

Invensys Process Systems (IPS), headquartered in Plano, Texas, is a global technology, software and consulting firm leading significant change in process manufacturing, plant optimization, business operations and enterprise performance. IPS clients are some of the world’s most important industrial organizations — companies that operate large oil refineries; plants that process chemicals, gas, LNG, power, pharmaceutical and minerals; and pulp and paper mills. IPS solutions, used at over 50,000 locations across the globe, include field devices and controls from Foxboro and Triconex, advanced applications from SimSci-Esscor, operations management from Avantis, and the world’s first truly open enterprise control system, InFusion.

The company’s nearly 7,000 employees integrate these capabilities to create solutions that impact and increase efficiency, boost productivity, and accelerate performance. These results help industrial companies run safer, operate more efficiently, and extract useful knowledge from their operations to make faster, better decisions. To learn more about IPS visit www.ips.invensys.com.

The Invensys Group (www.invensys.com) is headquartered in London and is listed on the London Stock Exchange (ISYS.L), with approximately 25,000 employees working in 60 countries.