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What we do

Control for plant that is never switched off

Almafor is a system integrator working on process and utility plant across Abu Dhabi and the UAE. Pumping and distribution networks, energy and metering systems, oil and gas pumping, and the building energy plant that behaves like process plant because it runs continuously.

The common thread is not the industry. It is that the plant runs whether or not anybody is watching, it usually sits away from the people responsible for it, and a fault that is not reported is a fault nobody is fixing. That was true of the earliest project in our record, the Tal Adass oil and gas pumping station, and it is still the defining constraint on the work we do now.

We are an engineering contractor rather than a software house. The same team writes the logic, builds the panel, terminates the instruments and stands at site acceptance. On process work that matters, because when a loop misbehaves the cause is as often in the wiring, the transmitter or the scaling as it is in the code.

Typical brief

Where most enquiries start

Process control work reaches us in three recognisable shapes.

The plant reports nothing

Equipment runs correctly and tells nobody. There is no trend, no event record and no alarm that reaches a person. The work is instrumentation, a controller and a reporting path, usually without touching the process itself.

The control is manual

Sequences run by an operator following a written procedure, or interlocks that exist on paper rather than in the plant. Automating this is mostly a question of agreeing what the plant must never be allowed to do, and then making that impossible.

The account does not add up

Consumption has to be demonstrated rather than merely managed, usually for Estidama. That needs metering at the right boundaries and a system that turns readings into an account, which is a different job from operating the plant.

Scope

What the scope usually covers

  • Control philosophy and functional design
  • Sequence and interlock logic
  • PLC and controller programming
  • Instrumentation loops and calibration
  • Motor, valve and actuator control
  • Alarm and trip philosophy
  • HMI, mimic and graphics development
  • Energy and water metering systems
  • Estidama compliant monitoring and reporting
  • Historian, trending and reporting
  • Panel build and factory acceptance testing
  • Installation, termination and loop checking
  • Site acceptance testing and commissioning
  • Integration with existing supervisory systems
  • Operator and engineer training
  • As built documentation and O and M manuals

Track record

Plant we have automated

Completed contracts with the client and the dates. Follow any card for the full detail.

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Platforms

Platforms and protocols

Platform choice follows the installed base and the client's standards. On integration work it is decided entirely by what the existing system speaks.

  • PcVue SCADA
  • GE Proficy
  • Schneider Electric
  • Allen Bradley PLC
  • Siemens PLC
  • Modbus RTU and TCP
  • BACnet
  • DNP3
  • OPC
  • Estidama metering
  • ISO 9001:2015
  • ISO 45001:2018

Method

How a process project runs

  1. Functional design

    What the plant has to do, what it must never be allowed to do, and what an operator has to be told. Settled before any hardware is listed, because a system specified from a hardware list is overbuilt in one place and thin in another.

  2. Survey

    On existing plant, what is actually installed rather than what the drawings say. Instruments, wiring condition, panel space, power and the network are all constraints on the design.

  3. Logic and graphics

    Sequences, interlocks and the mimic. The mimic has to match what a person sees when they walk the plant, or they stop trusting it and the screen becomes furniture.

  4. Factory test

    Logic and panels proven together in our Mussafah workshop, with your engineers present and against the functional design rather than against a demonstration.

  5. Loop check and commission

    Every instrument proven end to end, then the sequences run against the plant, then the trips. In that order, because a trip tested first is a trip tested blind.

  6. Handover

    Training, as built drawings, configuration backups and an alarm list that gets reviewed again after six months in service.

Common questions

Questions we are asked about this

What is the difference between a BMS and an energy management system?

A building management system operates the plant and is judged on comfort and on equipment life. An energy management system accounts for what that plant consumed and turns it into a number somebody has to answer for. They answer different questions, they are read by different people, and on Estidama work you generally need both.

How many alarms should a system have?

Far fewer than the plant can generate. The list should be built backwards from the decisions an operator actually has to make. Build it from the terminal schedule instead and the screen is permanently red, the operator correctly learns that red means nothing, and the one alarm that mattered arrives into a room that has stopped looking.

Do you work on plant that cannot be stopped?

That is most of our work. Monitoring can usually be added in parallel with the existing controls and proven against them before anything is trusted. Control changes need a planned window, because that is where the interlocking and the failure behaviour change.

Can you integrate with a system we already own?

Yes, and it is more common than new build. For Abu Dhabi Investment Council we upgraded the existing PcVue platform from version 9 to version 16 rather than replacing it, with field devices replaced and recommissioned around it.

Do you cover metering and reporting as well as control?

Yes. At the Al Tala Board plant in KIZAD we delivered a centralised energy and water metering and monitoring system for Estidama compliance, and at the KIZAD office building we delivered energy monitoring, a building management system and lighting control as three related but distinct systems.

What industries do you work in?

Power transmission and distribution, water and irrigation, ports, manufacturing plant, oil and gas pumping, and buildings with significant energy plant. The constraint we design for is continuous operation and remote location rather than any particular industry.

Related

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Emailinfo@almafor.com
Sales+971 55 954 5801
Technical+971 55 954 5802
Office+971 2 665 5540
Address
Office 4, Mezzanine 2, Dongfeng car showroom building, Khalifa Bin Zayed The First St
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

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