Fluxys signs contract for production of 1100 RTU

Fluxys signs contract for the production of 1100 remote monitoring RTU for Cathodic Protection of gas pipelines.         

Bausch Datacom has sold the Intellectual Property and exclusive production rights of a Remote Monitoring Unit (RTU) for cathodic protection test points to Fluxys, Belgian operator of gas pipelines. The contracts for the production of 1100 RTU in Q4 2007 and Q1 2008 are signed with Index Belge and Demival. Bausch Datacom will perform end testing of all devices in the factory and will grant approval before release of the RTU out of the factory. More than 50% of the RTU will be installed in the field with a Tadiran long life battery pack delivering energy to the RTU for more than 3 years.

Cathodic protection is a technique to control the corrosion of a metal surface by making that surface the cathode of an electrochemical cell. It is a method used by Fluxys– the Belgian independent operator of gas pipelines infrastructure - to protect the pipelines from corrosion. To be able to monitor the Cathodic Protection test points from a distance Fluxys asked Bausch Datacom to develop a CP remote monitoring RTU and bought the Intellectual Property and the exclusive production rights of the device. The RTU with 4 isolated analogue inputs, 8 isolated digital inputs, 4 isolated digital outputs and a real time clock has the technical specifications to monitor the CP test points and transmit the measured data and alarms via GSM and SMS technology to a CTU (central terminal unit) system. The CTU is collecting all the data transmitted by the RTU’s, performs the data handling and generates the necessary output (visualisation) to the users. Communication is basically triggered by a time-driven event and is also event-driven (alarms). The main functionalities of the RTU are: analogue and digital data acquisition, comparing the analogue data with limits, comparing the digital data with alarm status, transmitting of alarms when analogue data is out of limits or when a digital input is in alarm status, calculating characteristic values for all analogue data, transmitting of alarm statuses and characteristic values, archiving alarm statuses in a logbook. The 4 AI’s each have 4 independent voltage scales, configurable via menu: - +/- 100 mVdc, - +/- 10 Vdc, - +/- 20 Vdc, - +/- 200 Vdc with a measurement precision better than 1 % and an automatic calibration check at each measurement. There are two ways to power the CP RTU ; via the AC mains (with an additional rechargeable NiMH backup battery pack to give the necessary energy during mains power failure) or via a long life battery pack delivering energy to the RTU during at least 3 years (measuring period 3 minutes). More than 50% of the CP test points in the field will continuously be monitored by a RTU which is equipped with such a Tadiran long life battery pack.

  Remote Monitoring Unit for Cathodic Protection of gas pipelines