The Ballast control system provides control of values and indicates the status of tanks & pumps as indicated by the customer and can be designed as per the requirements projected. It shows the suction and discharge pressure of ballast pumps, Drill water pumps and Hydraulic pressure. The system is designed with a central console on an important location of the vessel with remote stations in various other locations. Each of the control station has got their own dedicated PLC drives that control and monitors their particular valves for carrying out the corresponding operations. The system is also provided with redundant PLC panels for catering for any event of failures and the data is taken out on ethernet format and converted into optical format for onward transmission to the command station and monitored on the SCADA server which enables the operator for viewing the details on screen with action pop ups.
Ballast Control Systems
The vessel’s existing mechanics have been retained and the electrical controls were modified into an advanced PLC based architecture replacing the conventional relay based system and solenoids with new and advanced items. The electrical control system incorporates necessary indications and alarms for the safe operation of the system. All the push buttons have been designed and integrated into the HMI provided from where the system can be initiated for operation. The software residing in the PLC caters for the logical operations and controls the system by monitoring the inputs from various field elements and sensors. This is the heart of the system wherein various inputs are computed and a desired and accurate output is generated which is monitored on the screen provided.