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As connected technologies and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) pave the way for many technological innovations, the significance of data in monitoring electrical infrastructure is starting to gain traction.
BASF is the largest chemical company in the world involved in several products that go into wearable devices, mass transportation, construction materials, and even footwear. The Beaumont plant, part of BASF’s agricultural business, needed to expand in order to sustain the production of an important active ingredient. This ingredient is widely used in a corn and wheat weed herbicide product that plays a significant role in the agriculture industry. To be able to support the production of this new active ingredient, the electrical infrastructure and substations serving the plant needed an upgrade. With a view to ensuring that corn and wheat growers should have access to the latest technologies for better weed management and increased food productions, the expansion of this facility was strongly supported by the chemical company.
An important facet of this facility’s success relied on the electrical infrastructure and the reliability of the new electrical equipment.
Supporting the global initiative of digitalization within BASF, the company partnered with Schneider Electric to leverage their data-driven services to maximize plant uptime and productivity.
The Beaumont plant now has a digital dashboard and the expert support needed to monitor critical-asset status with 24/7 access to data. Through its partnership with the Schneider Electric Services Bureau, BASF gets customized advice and proactive recommendations to prevent failure and optimize maintenance strategies.
“EcoStruxure Asset Advisor is helping prevent catastrophic failures. It’s getting the right data at the right time. And in the end, data is value.”, explained Lee Perry, Electrical Design Engineer from BASF.
The cloud-based service combines a data-driven platform with Schneider Electric expertise in all field services areas. It harnesses the emergence of IoT, along with breakthroughs in connectivity, sensor technology, and predictive analytics. EcoStruxure Asset Advisor evaluates live data from critical connected assets and applies advanced analytics to identify potential threats.
The result? Over 100 variables get measured and computed through Asset Advisor to provide accurate and reliable condition-monitoring for the Beaumont plant. BASF can now monitor “the pulse” of its new substation assets through their customer dashboard that provides a global health index and specific asset status, thus enabling them to improve plant safety and increase operational efficiency.
Conversation
Cordell Scott
5 years ago
This is a good example of a reliability type project that can be deployed as part of a global or NA strategy by the corporate engineering team. Unless, you have an embedded local site migration and modernization strategy Electrical Infrastructure projects are often difficult to justify at the site levels as most E&I don’t provide ROIs. It was truly a great idea to mobilize it under the IIoT. The value of Electrical Infrastructure and architecture is not natively seen until “the lights go out”. But a good E&I engineer can give any process engineer a run for their money by showing how utilities/energy affect the operating and conversion cost. This information brought in from the substations helps production and maintenance make informed decisions on how to run and maintain pumps, centrifuges, and off set electrical heat, with exothermic/steam. Again, Great Job!