A Sustainable Guidance System for Gas Supply

The existing wayfinding system was stable and reliable, but had become increasingly complex over the years due to customizations and special solutions. However, migrating to a new version would have entailed significant financial and technological costs. At the same time, the future system was expected to meet new requirements and simplify the system landscape that had evolved over the years.

Therefore, the goal was to find a modern and maintainable control system that would preserve existing functionality while remaining open to future expansions and integration with third-party systems, and that would enable efficient engineering.

Zenon was chosen as the technological foundation. The platform offers the flexibility needed to meet customer-specific requirements and is well-suited for use in energy and infrastructure environments.

Implementation took place in stages and in close collaboration with GVM. Following a design phase, the solution was initially implemented with two stations as a proof of concept and further developed in collaboration with GVM. The remaining stations were then integrated in stages.

Running the existing and new control systems in parallel enabled a controlled transition. To ensure efficient implementation and long-term maintainability, CTE relied on standardized interfaces, reusable templates, and as few custom solutions as possible.

GVM now has a state-of-the-art control system based on zenon. The new control system incorporates approximately 34,000 data points and 98 stations or locations. In addition, two peripheral systems were integrated.

The new visualization allows for more intuitive operation and provides a better overview of the pipeline network. The improved alarm overview also helps speed up fault localization.

The long-term goal of the chosen architecture is for GVM to be able to maintain and further develop the system largely on its own