Oiling the controls at Derry Terminal

PDE has specified electrical equipment from Schneider Electric for all major automation functions at the new Derry Oil Terminal, the first major installation of its type in the UK for many decades.

Project Design Engineers Limited (PDE) has specified electrical equipment from Schneider Electric for all major automation functions at Derry Oil Terminal, the first major installation of its type to be built in the UK for many decades.

The new terminal provides storage and distribution facilities for oil products, including unleaded petrol, diesel road fuel, gas oil and kerosene.

The terminal storage capacity is 76,000 tonnes of refined oil spirit, which is divided between eleven main storage tanks located within an impervious bund.

The installation is supplied from tankers of up to 20,000 tonnes capacity that are offloaded at a private jetty in Loch Foyle.

The transfer to bottom-loading vehicles uses four gantries, two with seven loading arms, and two with six.

Products are pumped to the gantries by ten 90kW, 4,500 litre per minute pumps, which are used in various combinations according to demand.

To control the pumps, PDE selected Altivar variable speed drives from Telemecanique, a brand of Schneider Electric.

These deliver significant energy savings by allowing pump speed to be accurately matched with the current demand for product.

The pumping system has been designed to deliver full capacity with the motors running at 90% of their rated speed, a measure that significantly improves energy efficiency.

Since minimal environmental impact is a central requirement for the project, PDE installed energy efficient and power quality enhancement equipment, including Altistart soft starters to control the pumps, conventional starters, Modicon programmable controller, Advantys pre-wired interfaces all from Telemecanique and active filtration systems from Merlin Gerin, a brand of Schneider Electric, to minimise supply harmonics.

The Derry Oil Terminal is now fully operational and functioning reliably, meeting or exceeding all of its owner's requirements.

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