Saturday, April 9, 2016

P 19 Visag '81-'87 Feb. Contd

  P  19                           
300 Millisecs
 Mr Ashok Partahsarathy, though technically qualified and competent, by nature he was suspecting everybody and queried why not we opt  only computor based control system developed by ECIL instead of DCS ! He made us to run around.  Whereas BVG of MRL  was hell bent to go for only
Honeywell TDC 2000. Added to misery, the  process licensor M/S UOP were not familiar with DCS  and insisted to  have single loop controller irrespective of whichever DCS chosen  and specified that the total loop response should be within 300 Millisecs! That is the total time taken from the transmitter sensing to controller to the final control element action in the field has to take place within this time slot. They were not ready to listen or even consider that the temperature loop response time  and its time constant is high.
All these conflicting mandate took the toll of task force and it was royal battle for 19 long months
before the team freezing the enquiry specs. for DCS. Within EIL Mr Rangamani had the influence and say  to utilise  the services of M/S Vasudevan, Seetharaman, Vijay Hathmode, the respective project instrument leads to help him to generate the loop I/O counts, functional logic and detailed specification. Mr Ashok Parthasarathy was so doubtful Thomas, he went through line by line of the prepared specification and asked Mr Rangamani to seek a quote  or regret letter from ECIL! Mr Banerjee, GM of ECIL begged us stating that his job is at stake and he cannot issue us anything in writing. Then Mr Ashok asked the team to summon all the international bidders(17 of them) to Delhi  and give presentation of their products and system on offer. Courtesy Sh Ashok , I had the previlage and opportunity to enjoy the hospitality of almost all 5 star hotels of Delhi during these vendor presentation. He himself was physically present to listen to them and interact.
This long drawn task spread nearly 1 1/2 years and I was in Delhi most of the time.There were time that I had gone back from Delhi to  Visag.; on same day after landing at Visag call invite arise. It came to that extent, on one occasion my wife got distressed , she phoned me by trunk call & enquired when are you likely to visit the home!
After Mr Ashok Parthasarathy clearing the document to go ahead floating international enquiry, a different drama started. BVG was firm&adamant that MRL will have only TDC 2000; Sardesai followed suit, whereas HPCL was open. The enquiry was floated to 12 parties and the task force had the responsibility of preparing reviewing/shortlisting criteria- what&which are the factors to be given merrit and which can be overlooked and at the same time meet UOP's mandatory criteria of 300 Milli secs loop response time and single loop integrity. There used to be critical discussions  running extended hours- Process pundits pulling in their direction, computer specialists spelling their knowledge, instrument functional managers showing their maintenance experience in process plants.
Here one important point!In those days since we were bound to follow GOI Rules, late receipt of bids or  OEM quoting through agents or authorised subsidiary were not allowed.Though BVG/Sardesai were eagerly looking for Honeywell offer, that party did not participate directly; even Honeywell counterpart Japanese offer was received late and could not be considered for evaluation.
The task force were left to scrutinize the balance offers in line with agreed technical points. and three were selected for next round of evaluation.-M/S YEW,Fisher Controls and ABB.In next round ABB got eliminated since they could not guarantee loop integrity and response time. That left the other two to bid for final commercial bid. Both the parties were asked to bid including their recommended spares. Then another drama unfolded .                                                 300Millisecs Contd.........

Key Aspects:- Planning &Scheduling,  Technical issue

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