How has SCADA changed over the past 40 years?

SCADA systems have benefitted tremendously from the advent in computing, communications, networking and software over the past 30 years. The industry has evolved from mainframe-centric – hub and spoke systems in the 1970s – to a highly-decentralised and distributed client/server architecture now.

Most SCADA systems now comprise large number of intelligent nodes linked together over high speed communication infrastructure; very similar in architecture to the internet. This architecture allows customers to access their data from anywhere and at any time.

Such distributed, decentralised architecture has created other challenges such as security and authentication, but the industry as a whole has been quick to respond to these challenges.

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How has the natural gas industry benefitted?

The natural gas industry, by nature, is highly distributed and geographically dispersed. The industry manages and controls assets including production wells, transportation pipelines, compressor stations, pressure regulating stations and custody transfer points. These assets are normally scattered over a large geographical area that could span thousands of kilometres. The challenge is to manage, monitor and control these assets safely, securely and efficiently.

Advanced SCADA systems, like those offered by Control Microsystems/Schneider Electric (CMI/SE), leverage high throughput wireless or wired communication infrastructure, intelligent field nodes or controllers, sophisticated power management schemes and wireless sensors to gather and control remote data and provide producers visibility to whatever is going on at their remote assets.

For example, producers are able to cut their cost of deployment by more than 50 per cent when using secure, long range wireless instrumentation. Rather than trenching and cabling, which normally cost thousands of dollars per measuring point, self contained, battery operated wireless instrumentation offers access to hard-to-reach measuring points, improves safety and environment compliance, and allows producers to have access to critical data at a fraction of the cost. The new technology and solutions allow operators to improve efficiency and optimise operations while reducing operational costs.

How does Control Microsystems keep up?

Control Microsystems and Schneider Electric work closely with producers and pipeline companies around the world to understand their challenges and look for technological solutions to address them. This could be in the form of developing a new low-cost wireless instrument that would address their monitoring and control needs economically and reliably, or adding a new software algorithm that would optimise operations and turn raw data to insights.

CMI/SE also works with regulatory bodies in Australia, USA, Canada and Russia to understand the trends that could shape the industry–especially from the environmental dimension–and develop products/solutions to help producers comply.

Future developments

Control Microsystems is now leading the development of telemetry solutions within Schneider Electric, with focus on oil and gas and water segments. We envision that by combining Control Microsystems’ expertise in these segments with Schneider Electric’s broad market reach, and research and development capabilities around the world, the company will be very well positioned to offer the natural gas market highly-integrated, economical and easy-to-deploy solutions in the next 5–10 years.