Uniform documentation for a complex EI&C project

The automation centrepiece of the largest European energy infrastructure investment in recent years is located on the Baltic coast in Lubmin (Germany). Here, the Nord Stream Pipeline reaches German soil, supplying the new Lubmin landfall facility near Greifswald with up to 6.6 million m3 of Russian natural gas every hour. The designer and operator of this complex station, GASCADE Gastransport GmbH (a joint venture of BASF and Gazprom), has standardised all documentation for the EI&C technology and committed all its suppliers to adopting EPLAN Electric P8. This results in accurate and reliable documentation across the various systems. Natural gas is pumped from the Siberian gas fields at the Arctic Circle through Vyborg (Russia) via the Nord Stream Pipeline along the bottom of the Baltic Sea to Lubmin (Germany), near Greifswald. From there, it is pumped south as far as the Czech Republic through the connecting pipeline OPAL (Baltic Sea Pipeline Link, in German: Ostsee-Pipeline-Anbindungsleitung) and west through the NEL (Northern European Natural Gas Pipeline, in German: Nordeuropäische Erdgasleitung) to storage tanks in Rehden (Germany). A substantial portion and increasing share of the natural gas used in Germany and Western Europe flows through this route.

An energy infrastructure megaproject

The first leg of the Nord Stream Pipeline went on-line in November 2011, followed by the second one eleven months later. Now, up to about 55 billion m3 of natural gas from the Western Siberian deposits can be transported to Europe annually. This corresponds to more than half of the per annum natural gas demand in Germany, which amounted to 96.26 billion m3 in 2010. The Nord Stream Pipeline, a megaproject of a consortium consisting of BASF SE, Gazprom, Gasunie and GDF Suez, was completed on schedule after just 30 months of construction without exceeding its planned budget of 7.4 billion euro.

A link between pipeline and distribution grid

The landfall facility at Lubminer Heide near Greifswald is the logistical link between the 1,224-kilometre-long Nord Stream Pipeline and the European gas distribution grid. GASCADE’s Engineering Department designed the facility with every technical department in mind. The Operations Department, acting as technical operations manager, is responsible for the secure functioning of the landing facility. In the station, the natural gas is cleared of potential impurities and kept at a predefined temperature to avoid condensation during further transport. Next, the natural gas is distributed by the two connecting pipelines, OPAL and NEL, into the European distribution grid.

Large outlays for EI&C technology

Scattered throughout the facility are thirteen electrical control rooms with more than 320 control cabinets. This provides insight into the complexity of the electrical instrumentation and control (EI&C) technology. Along with filters and preheaters, many valves are also installed to regulate the pressure and amount of natural gas. In addition, a separate area of the plant has measurement stations installed. Ultrasonic flow meters determine the current natural gas throughput and its condition for OPAL and NEL before it leaves the facility through the two pipelines.

E-CAD: Standardisation as goal

How to design a facility like this, involving many engineering systems and in some way representing unchartered terrain for almost all suppliers? Ralf Hartmann, who is responsible for the planning and commissioning of all EI&C technology for the Greifswald landfall facility, previously managed various large-scale projects around the globe and placed great emphasis on a uniform database right from the start: “In 2009, after completing the design of the facility in Lubmin, we started drawing up the specifications and requested quotes for the various EI&C engineering systems. More than 20 EI&C contracts were awarded for a wide range of subsystems, and this required supervising suppliers on detail engineering and delivery. With support from EPLAN Consulting, we had previously defined a standard requiring each supplier to create documentation for the electrical instrumentation and control technology.” In 2008, after in-house consultation and a great deal of lobbying, Hartmann took GASCADE on this new path with EPLAN.

Supplier handbook for electrical engineering as basis

The basic requirement: All EI&C design must be achieved using EPLAN Electric P8. In an in-house engineering handbook expressly expanded for the landing facility, GASCADE defined the structure of the main project. Moreover, suppliers received a sample project containing all data and settings along with standard typicals. Furthermore, forms were developed – including ones for components, process control technology site lists, cable lists etc. – that suppliers were required to use. Excel interfaces for data import were also defined.

Clear documentation, rapid adaptation to changes

Why the strict regulation? “One of our tasks as plant operator is to keep clear documentation of the entire facility and ensure that it is up-to-date if modifications or enhancements are necessary,” says Ralf Hartmann. “This is almost impossible without a uniform standard, especially since we only have a small team of employees on site.” Negative experiences on a previous project led Ralf Hartmann to remain uncompromising about standardisation: “On an earlier project, the documentation was delivered from six different design systems. It required a great amount of reworking. Consolidating and maintaining such a heterogeneous dataset is practically impossible – especially for a facility unique in Europe, with EI&C documentation comprising more than 9,000 inputs and outputs.”

20 systems – one design tool

In addition to wide acceptance in the marketplace, there was another argument for using EPLAN as the basic tool for EI&C documentation: “The landing facility is very complex. From an electrical engineering perspective, it has an array of very disparate components – and all of them should be designed with one and the same tool. Along with the large low-voltage and medium-voltage systems, the facility also features a 110 kV switchgear system and a 40 MW generator. The great complexity of the process control technology takes up a huge portion of the EI&C design. This also includes the gas metering, boiler plants and technical building services as well as the heating, climate control and ventilation technology. All told, approximately 20 different systems were designed using EPLAN Electric P8.”

Clearly defined processes

The processes involved in the collaboration between GASCADE and the suppliers were as clearly structured as the documentation. Suppliers submitted their control cabinet designs as P8 documents. GASCADE granted approval for the control cabinets; suppliers realised their plans and then installed the control cabinets at the site. This was followed by loop check and commissioning. The red-line revision was then transferred into the as-built documentation, which was verified – again with EPLAN tools – and finally approved.

Standardisation

The landing station has been operating for two years now and there have been a multitude of EI&C technology optimisations. Nonetheless, the uniform database has always proven itself. This holds true for both the integration of changes and additional components as well as for the planning and execution of maintenance and servicing of the facility’s individual systems. Ralf Hartmann says, “The EPLAN-based processes offer us the opportunity to implement and document any changes and enhancements in a defined ‘closed loop’ process. This facilitates the work and ensures a very high safety standard. And safety is our main priority as natural gas plant operator.”

No upgrading without EPLAN

Currently, the final work is underway on a new combined heat-and-power installation on the landfall facility station grounds. After its completion, the natural gas out of Siberia can be used right after landfall. Once again, the electrical engineering design for this project is being standardised using EPLAN Electric P8, again with the involvement of numerous engineering systems.