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FCU Upgrade Domain 3 completion
The Yokogawa Distributed Control System at Chevron Cape Town refinery has been in service since 1990 and has required upgrading in order to retain reliability and the required availability. Ilitha Project Services (IPS) originally supported Chevron during the planning and concept design phases of this project.

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The Ilitha and Yokogawa Project Team
In 2008, the project progressed into the detail design and execution phase. IPS continued with this phase of the project, working within the Yokogawa South Africa team. IPS’s responsibilities on the project include the Detail Design, Risk Assessment participation, Cutover Documentation, Construction and Installation of the DCS equipment and, finally, the live cutover of the Field Wiring to the new DCS equipment. Complete accuracy in the design phase is required to ensure that there is no risk of shutdown during the ‘hot’ switchover phase.

As part of the detail design phase, various Procurement, Construction and Installation Packages are being compiled. These packages consist of Bill of Quantities (BOQ’s), Layout Drawings, Cable Schedules, I/O Lists, Hardware Requirement Lists, Installation Scopes of Work and various Construction and Installation Quality Control Procedures (QCP’s). After the approval of the Construction Data Pack, all Yokogawa Hardware is fitted into the DCS Panels, the Cabinets are placed in their respective positions and all System Cabling to the various Marshalling Cabinets is completed. The entire process is executed in compliance with the detail design documentation and the quality control procedures. During the live cutover, the field wiring is transferred from the Old DCS to the new DCS and, at the end of the Live Cutover, the Old DCS Cabinet is then powered down and removed from the Rack Room.

At the end of June 2009, the DCS Upgrade Team successfully completed the Migration of the old Yokogawa CENTUM XL Bus B to the new Yokogawa CS3000 Domain 3. This portion of the migration consisted of the upgrading of 7 DCS Controllers and was the first of three Domain Migrations, performed on a Live Plant, scheduled over a 30 Month period.

The Ilitha Project Services automation team consists of engineers with experience in petrochemical, mining, manufacturing, iron& steel, sugar and various other industries. Collectively they have approximately 120years experience in the industry.

The smooth running of the project would not have been possible without Chevron Project Manager, Phillip Venter, for his ongoing leadership, support and wealth of experience he adds to the team.