Rocky Mountain Communications Systems Turns to Siemens and FreeWave for Efficient Oil and Gas Remote Monitoring
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- SIMATIC S7-200 Series PLCs
- SIMATIC HMIs – TP177 Micros
- MP 277 and MP 377 display products
- FreeWave HTPlus
- FreeWave FGRplus and FGR Series data radio technology
Tech Stack
- Ethernet
- Serial Interface
- M2M Communications
- SCADA
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Functional Applications - Remote Monitoring & Control Systems
- Networks & Connectivity - Ethernet
Applicable Industries
- Oil & Gas
- Telecommunications
Applicable Functions
- Field Services
- Maintenance
Use Cases
- Fleet Management
- Predictive Maintenance
- Remote Asset Management
Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Rocky Mountain Communication Systems (RMCS) is a division of Rocky Mountain Oilfield Warehouse established to help the organization deploy and manage M2M network telemetry and wireless data communications, and facilitate public safety efforts. RMCS helps enable the easy implementation of telemetry and M2M communications systems in Wyoming, Montana, Colorado and the Dakotas. RMCS has extensive experience in the design, licensing, construction and maintenance of wireless M2M communication systems that are typically used in the petroleum, law enforcement and other commercial markets. Siemens Energy & Automation, Inc. manufactures and markets one of the world’s broadcast ranges of electrical and electronic products, systems and services to industrial and construction market customers. Its technologies range from circuit protection and energy management systems to process control, industrial software and integrated automation solutions. The company has expertise in systems integration, technical services and turnkey industrial systems.
The Challenge
More than two years ago, RMCS was faced with a daunting task. An important customer - one of the world’s largest oil companies - wanted to overhaul the remote monitoring functions of its oil and gas field M2M networks to increase operational efficiency, reporting and tracking. The oil and gas producer also wanted to expand exploration and production into new geographical areas. The company faced two challenges: the need for reliable and accurate remote monitoring over a vast and rugged terrain, and having an affordable solution that could be implemented quickly. The oil and gas producer’s M2M network is spread throughout several states in the Rocky Mountain region with long distances (more than 13 miles) between different controllers and well heads. When asked by the oil and gas producer to overhaul its field sites and improve the M2M network performance of its real-time remote monitoring communications and control capabilities, RMCS first tried modifying its existing system and equipment to fit these new requirements. It became obvious that trying to integrate the existing devices into the communication facilities was extremely not feasible. They wanted a solution that could overcome these obstacles with easy deployment and maintenance, but was also reliable and cost effective.
The Solution
In stepped FreeWave and Siemens to offer a joint solution. Both organizations have extensive experience and success in serving mission-critical energy applications such as remote monitoring and control, telemetry automation and Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA). The M2M networking solutions deployed with RMCS were comprised of a comprehensive Ethernet backbone network built on Siemens’ SIMATIC S7-200 Series PLCs and SIMATIC HMIs – TP177 Micros and larger MP 277 and MP 377 display products. RMCS used FreeWave’s HTPlus, FGRplus and FGR Series data radio technology with a serial interface between the PLC and FGR radios. The solution continues to perform extraordinarily well, and completely eliminated the complexity normally found when attempting to integrate or expand from legacy communications systems. All products selected were available in both serial and Ethernet interfaces with enough timing parameters to allow for quick tuning for maximum performance. By deploying FreeWave radios, versus the radios RMCS had used in the past (which were much more expensive), it lowered the total cost of ownership significantly and improved the overall reliability of the monitoring and control applications.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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