BASF experiences EPLAN

A global leader in chemicals

BASF creates chemistry – and has been doing so for 150 years. The company’s portfolio ranges from chemicals, plastics, performance products and crop protection products to oil & gas. As the world’s leading chemical company, BASF combines economic success with environmental protection and social responsibility. Through science and innovation, it enables customers in nearly every industry to meet the current and future needs of society. BASF products and solutions contribute to conserving resources, ensuring nutrition and improving quality of life – objectives that are summed up by its slogan: “We create chemistry and have been doing so for 150 years.” In 2014 BASF had sales of over € 74 billion and over 112,000 employees as of the end of the year. The company markets approximately 8,000 products globally in the most varied economic sectors. Major customers include the automotive, chemicals, textiles, construction and packaging industries; agriculture, healthcare, the energy sector and the paper industry also purchase many products.

BASF Antwerp

BASF’s plant in Antwerp is the largest chemical production company in Belgium and the second most important production platform of the BASF group globally. The focal areas of its 56 production units include plant protection and nutrition, chemical products, synthetics and fibres, colouring agents & refinement products and oil & gas. The facility employs a staff of 3,800 who are mainly involved in producing basic products and half- finished goods that find their way to numerous applications for consumers and industry.

A highly complex and evolving electricity grid

Powering all these diverse activities at BASF Antwerp is an electricity grid supervised by the Department of Electrical Power Supply & Infrastructure, which consists of a small team and sub-contractors. The grid is divided into a transport-grid and distribution-grid. It incorporates high, medium and low voltage equipment, with a high degree of redundancy of critical components. As BASF Antwerp has a big history, with some units dating back to the 1960s, retrofits and revamps are continuously being implemented in the grid. In addition, new installations and equipment are constantly being added. “This makes it a highly complex yet continually changing electricity network,” says Thierry Lint, Engineer Electrical Power Supply & Infrastructure. “We are therefore constantly looking for smart, innovative ways to optimise the distribution of electricity throughout the plant, focusing on safety & reliability.“

A challenging environment

The key challenges facing the Department of Electrical Power Supply & Infrastructure are in the areas of reliability, design, knowledge and documentation. Ensuring a reliable, highly available power supply to all 56 production units, most of which operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is critical. So vital is this continuous supply of electricity that unexpected interruptions of the elecrical supply must not exceed 100 milliseconds. This could seriously disturb the production units and results in losing a lot of money in lost production. In addition, whenever a change is required – such as a retrofit, revamp or the addition of new equipment – the grid has to be cut, without of course affecting the power supply to the rest of the grid. High-quality documentation is therefore critical. In the past, all schematics were produced using an AutoCAD tool. The result is about 80,000 schematics in A4 format. However, modifying and maintaining this database is extremely time-consuming. “We were looking to reduce the design volume; we were losing too much time doing design and wanted to make more time available for conceptual engineering,” adds Lint. A further challenge is maintaining and optimising the extensive electrical engineering know-how within the plant.

Looking for a solution

To meet all these challenges, BASF decided to outsource part of its engineering activities and started to look for a supplier able to support them. “We wanted help in aligning our electrical engineering schematics with the latest codes and standards, without losing flexibility regarding BASF standards. We additionally wanted support in optimising our design methods, making them more efficient,” says Lint. The name EPLAN came up in their consultations. Looking at the functionality of EPLAN software it seemed to meet BASF’s high requirements, but they also wanted a solution that was used by their partner companies and sub-contractors. “We talked to several engineering contractors and panel builders, and they all knew EPLAN and worked with their products. This gave us assurance that the EPLAN technology platform was well accepted in the market,” remarks Lint. BASF decided to work with an EPLAN project for each electrical panel, allowing to create several typicals. This gave them great flexibility. EPLAN listened to their requirements and translated them into the IT environment. They looked at all aspects, including documentation, revision management, structuring, and a comprehensive asset management tool that allowed every individual component to be identified and named. The EPLAN engineering philosophy was also implemented in BASF, which enabled product-based engineering as well as knowledge-based engineering.

Significant benefits

After redesigning a high voltage substation using the EPLAN software BASF carried out an intensive Return on Investment calculation. “We calculated that we are now conducting our engineering activities 30% faster than before, and making time savings of up to 50%. This is due to the high-quality documentation that the EPLAN software can generate automatically, whether it’s simple terminal diagrams or more norm-related documentation,” explains Lint. BASF were also pleased with the outstanding technical support received. EPLAN Consultant/Project Engineer Marijn Roels fully understood their challenges and guided them through the whole implementation process. This included a structural approach to IT infrastructure, platform setup, norms and standards, design methods and process integration. Overall he implemented a system of project management that ensured all changes were implemented smoothly and trouble-free. “The EPLAN team also carefully listened to our feedback and implemented it when appropriate,” adds Lint. It’s an ongoing relationship. One of the latest steps is to help BASF Antwerp think more digitally, by using the functionalities of EPLAN to provide documentation in a digital format for people throughout the plant who need information in this format. Go to www.basf.be to find out more about BASF.