As the name indicates, the company DEEP. Underground Engineering GmbH specialises in working underground. The engineering firm, with a staff of around 50, works in the underground storage sector, constructing giant caverns for the storage of natural gas in old salt mines among other things. The company uses EPLAN PPE to plan the electrical instrumentation and control of the installations, and benefits from an integrated approach.
1,000 to 3,000 meters deep caves
Natural gas is a promising energy carrier since reserves are expected to last much longer than petroleum. Rather than coming directly from the exploration regions, the natural gas is usually stored in interim regional storage facilities maintained by the gas utility companies before reaching the end consumer. Caverns - artificially created caves that are 1,000 to 3,000 meters deep - are used for these storage purposes. Planning and building these caverns is a highly challenging task and DEEP. Underground Engineering GmbH, based in Bad Zwischenahn, operates in this specialist field. The company's premises were chosen not so much for their idyllic location on Lake Zwishenahner near the North Sea. The caverns, which can be as large as 1 million m3, are often found in the vicinity of the coast for a very good reason: They are created by selectively "rinsing out" salt mines with fresh water and then dumping the salty wastewater straight into the ocean.
The pipeline used to supply fresh water and take away the residue later serves as a gas pipeline to deliver and extract the natural gas via a gas compressor station, which is also supplied by DEEP..
Brine pumps: Complex P&I diagrams
Instrumentation and control engineering plays a major role in plant engineering at DEEP., partly because the fresh water is pumped into the emerging cavern by a series of pumps. Engineer Hans-Günther Johnebloed is responsible for electrical instrumentation and control within the plant engineering division at DEEP.: "Typical brine pumps operate at a capacity of around 300 m3/h and a pressure of 100 bars. We tend to use regulated, frequency converter-controlled pumps and record a wide range of parameters which are used to control the system, such as pressure, flow rate, temperature and vibration. All of the valves and fittings in the pipelines are equipped with status scans, so the piping & instrumentation diagrams of our plants are highly complex."
Consistent I&C planning
EPLAN PPE was developed precisely for this task as it allows standardized planning of electrical instrumentation and control systems on the basis of NAMUR recommendations. Since the design data is stored on the central EPLAN Platform, neighbouring disciplines such as electrical CAE are likewise able to access data from the electrical instrumentation and control engineering. This ensures an integrated information flow. Hans-Günther Jongebloed explains: "With manual planning, inconsistencies in the drawing status become apparent from time to time when the systems are being built. What is more, duplicate measuring points or duplicate designations can never be completely ruled out. This leads to time losses during system production, but they can be avoided by using an integrated CAE-based system for electrical instrumentation and control engineering."
Convincing presentation
The electrical instrumentation & control engineers were pleased with the outcome. Hans-Günther Jongebloed adds: "One of the major benefits is that network engineering allows several colleagues to work simultaneously on the same project. For example, the process and design engineers who produce the P&I diagrams and the electrical instrumentation and control engineers have joint access to a database of measuring points for any given project. Evaluation of the measuring points and measuring signals has also been automated. As an engineering company working for numerous customers all with their own specific standards, we also appreciate the high level of flexibility afforded by this system. For example, we are able to format the layout of the lists individually and give both location- and system-specific designations to the measuring points." The DEEP. staff are also impressed by how user friendly EPLAN PPE is: "After only two days of training, the system is very easy and intuitive to use."
Integration of EPLAN and Autodesk® InventorTM
Another current project aimed at optimizing the use of E-CAD/CAE systems concerns three-dimensional planning with the incorporation of EPLAN PPE: In the future, DEEP. will use Autodesk® InventorTM for three-dimensional representation of the cavern systems. Autodesk® InventorTM will be used for individual components rather than complete systems. There will then be three CAD/CAE systems - AutoCAD®, EPLAN PPE and Autodesk® InventorTM - which are able to communicate with one another and ultimately use the same database. In addition, projects will be clearly displayed in 3D.
ePlan, a global software provider for engineering solutions with over 60.000 licenses worldwide presented its new software release of ePlan Electrical P8 on the world's leading technology fair Hannover Messe 2008.
The new version of the market established software contains hundreds of new feature mostly based on customer feedback to enhance the intuitiveness, and productivity for all users, regardless of their experience level with EPLAN product.
Talking to several customers from the Middle East, ePlan's Managing Director for the region, Sigi Gruber confirms: "More and more clients are switching from their traditional design method to a professional approach with ePlan. The new version exactly meets the demand of our client base. Especially the enhanced functionalities in PLC design resulted in tremendous increase in the demand for our software."
-Ends-
Company Info
EPLAN Software & Service is a global software provider for engineering solutions. Present in more than 50 countries and having more than 60,000 installations worldwide, the company has been demonstrating the success of its consistent practical orientation and international presence for more than 20 years.
As a Rittal subsidiary and part of the Friedhelm Loh Group, the name EPLAN Software & Service has become synonymous with durability and investment security.
Contact info:
ePlan Middle East
P.O.Box 500297
Dubai Internet City
Building 1, Office 211
Dubai, U.A.E.
Tel: +971 (4) 3912216
Fax: +971 (4) 3918740
http://www.eplan-me.com
info@eplan-me.com
© Press Release 2008
