Teck Coal
Greenhills Operations Project
- British Columbia, Canada
Mipac was engaged by Teck Coal Greenhills in 2019 to improve its control system and gain better reliability for the plant. Further aims of this project were to increase efficiencies and enable digitisation. The project started with the development of a roadmap of opportunities and individual projects which would improve the stability and confidence of the plant. Each of these projects has now been successfully completed (see Project scope).
Background
Following the successful completion of several site audits by Mipac staff in 2019, Teck Coal engaged Mipac to improve the control system at its Teck Coal Greenhills Operation, with the aim of increasing reliability and efficiency at the plant, in late 2019.
This work was to form part of Teck Coal’s business transformation program, RACE 21, which has seen the company modernising its technology foundations, accelerating its automation and robotics programs, connecting its data systems to enable advanced analytics and artificial intelligence, and empowering its employees.
Project scope
Mipac was initially engaged by Teck Coal Greenhills to improve the operation’s control system. This included implementing graphics, reducing alarms, modernising the motor control logic, conducting instrument diagnostics, and launching a series of e-learning modules. Since 2020, Mipac’s engagement with Teck Coal Greenhills has been ongoing as various sub-projects have arisen from the control system improvement program.
Each of these projects have now been delivered (see below).
Value delivered
Configuration standards development
Development of a modernised HMI control system following ASM (abnormal situation management) standards.
HMI upgrade
Development of a complete new HMI system using the new configuration standards.
Alarm standards
Development of an alarm rationalisation process and implementation of a new configuration to reduce alarm quantities displayed to the operators.
Control narrative
Reverse engineering of the existing configuration to document the functionality of the operation. This set the groundwork for future works.
Motor diagnostics
Development of new HMI faceplates to inform operators of the factors stopping the motor from running, by implementing first out diagnostics.
Control drawing upgrade
Modernisation of the motor control logic.
Instrument management
Installation and deployment of an instrument management system to monitor real time instrument diagnostics.
Sequence starts
Creation of an automatic start sequence for the wash plant to bring the plant up 45 minutes quicker than when manually controlled.
Support contract
Provision of 24-hour support to Teck Coal team, including when unique issues arise which require urgent, complex, and multi-site support.
Timeline
Project challenges
Key challenges overcome by the project team included:
- The requirement to execute the whole project remotely, due to COVID-19, including installing and commissioning hardware remotely
- Deploying all graphics and logic remotely and without downtime
- Working across time zones (Australia/Canada)
- Collaborating with changing staff on site as the Teck Coal team grew and new client engagements were established
- Hardware procurement and installation assistance around shutdowns
- Managing varying appetites for change among Teck Coal team
Project outcomes
Mipac’s work with Teck Coal Greenhills has reduced the plant start up time by 45 minutes, consequently saving the organisation half a million dollars every shutdown. This was in part thanks to the new autostart system developed by Mipac which enabled the plant to come up faster following maintenance shutdowns.
Other outcomes of the project included:
- A modernised motor control logic which enabled people to fault find more easily and conduct rapid troubleshooting to bring the plant back online more quickly.
- Improved graphics for the operations of the plant. These modernised graphic methodologies highlight faults or problems more clearly, improving plant reliability.
- Alarm reduction and improved alarm logic and reporting, to enable operators to better focus on major faults or suspect pieces of equipment in the field instead of being flooded with alarms.
- Instrument diagnostics and an instrumentation management system to monitor instruments and alert maintenance staff of faults.
- E-learning packages to help upskill operators and ensure long-term sustainability of project outcomes and self-sufficiency.
"MIPAC has been an integral part of modernizing our process controls. They have taught us how to unlock and expand our systems capabilities, developed standards for HMI graphics and logic, and provided both formal and informal training. Despite being on opposite sides of the globe, the collaboration between our team and theirs has been very smooth."
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