Spending for new or upgraded supervisory control and data acquisition (scada) systems and for additional remote-terminal units (RTUs) by North American pipelines and utilities will exceed $165 million through February 1996.
New and updated scada systems will total 122 at a cost of more than $127 million; 143 RTU add-on projects will cost more than $38 million.
Pipelines and combined utilities/pipelines will spend $89.5 million for 58 scada-system projects and $30.2 million for RTU add-on projects.
Fig. 1 shows the planned projects broken out according to category of planned spending.
These projections were released last month by CSR Inc., a division of PennWell Publishing Co., Tulsa. CSR has been compiling data for pipeline and utility scada spending plans for 9 years.
DATA BASE
CSR maintains a data base of information on 1,500 gas utilities and 750 pipeline companies in the U.S. and Canada. For its most recently released study, CSR contacted 815 gas utilities and pipelines, including all of the largest 100 gas utilities and the 100 largest pipeline companies.
Scada systems are computerized hardware and software systems that perform monitoring and control functions. In gas utilities, these systems perform functions normally associated with gas transmission and distribution as well as production-plant process control.
In gas and oil pipelines, the systems perform these functions as well as such specialized functions as batch tracking, leak detection, and gas load flow.
RTUs measure parameters at remote sites and transmit those data to a central computer for monitoring and control functions.
Programmable logic controllers (PLCs) perform as RTUs but also perform local logging and control functions, thereby reducing the requirements on the central processing unit (CPU).
AWARD DELAYS
Pipelines plan 56 new or upgraded scada projects and 55 RTU projects; gas utilities plan 64 new or upgraded scada projects, 71 RTU projects. Two scada system projects and 8 RTU projects will be installed by combinations of gas utilities and pipelines.
Although CSR's research indicates that gas utilities and pipeline companies plan to award 122 scada system projects by Oct. 1, 1994, the company's experience leads it to estimate that roughly 65% (79) will actually be awarded in that 12-month period. The remaining 35% (43) will be delayed or canceled.
Therefore, the total value of scada contracts actually let in the next 12 months for North American pipeline and gas utilities will reach nearly $82.7 million, while $44.5 million worth will be delayed or canceled.
Copyright 1993 Oil & Gas Journal. All Rights Reserved.
