J.R. Simplot (JRS) has authorized EA to perform a substantial upgrade to their nitric acid plant SCADA infrastructure, extending the life of their SCADA computing foundation by 10 years.
The project consists of six major areas of improvement, aligned together to achieve a cohesive, robust, redundant, and secure SCADA platform for the long term: server hardware, network architecture, Microsoft Domain implementation, Microsoft operating systems upgrade, HMI version upgrade, and security architecture in cooperation with JRS corporate IT. The new SCADA platform will operate on top of the PLC and electrical infrastructure EA finished updating in 2012.
The project scope includes implementing a test platform server that will support JRS from an EA location. The test platform is a virtualized direct copy of the production SCADA system. This allows EA to execute development, testing, and software update routines on a mimic of the production (onsite) system – substantially reducing the typical change management risk associated with modifying control system software in a development environment. This methodology is one factor in EA’s long standing track record of successful and on schedule startups.
EA was selected for this work based on a long standing relationship with JRS, which has been maintained through consistent excellence with preventative maintenance and consulting, control system risk management, project planning, and startups.
Specific technologies include: Vijeo Citect v7.4 (HMI), VMware ESXi operating system, VMware vCenter Server, Microsoft Active Directory (Domain), Microsoft RDS, Quest vRanger (backups), SVN source control
