Siemens UK & Ireland has been awarded a £3.9M contract by joint venture contractor Alstom TSO and Costain (ATC JV) to supply a Safety (SIL2) approved Ventilation Control System (VCS) for the Crossrail C610 project in London.
The project was won in conjunction with Siemens UK & Ireland’s WinCC specialist partner Applied Industrial Systems (AIS) following an extensive tender process. This new contract deepens the company’s involvement in the Crossrail development, with its rail division having already been appointed supplier for the central section communications and control systems (C660) and the signalling and control systems (C620), as well as for three traction power substations to Network Rail.
ATC JV’s primary requirements were for a supplier who could deliver a SIL2 approved VCS on time and meet both the project and rail industry requirements.
Siemens UK & Ireland was selected based on the strength of its proposal, which combined safety PLC equipment and SCADA software – WinCC Open Architecture is the only SCADA system on the market with product certification up to SIL3 – along with the tunnel ventilation expertise of AIS. The teams also demonstrated their deep understanding of the quality requirements and how the 61508 SIL2 requirements could be incorporated within the Common Safety Method (CSM) used by the rail industry.
Both companies have previously collaborated on a similar project for the Heathrow Airport T5 tunnel used for the Track Transit System. The Heathrow project was also developed to meet SIL2 safety requirements and was scrutinised by an Independently Competent Person (ICP), who ensured that the overall system was compliant with rail regulations.
Simon Mott, VCS Package Engineer at ATC JV, comments: “Siemens UK & Ireland and AIS has proven experience with high profile projects in this area, so we knew its technology and support services were proven, and felt it was best suited to meet the project’s demands.
“The WinCC OA product in particular provides safety approved SCADA software as the basis for the full application development. Additionally, the ability of the product to provide user interfaces via smart phones and tablets will be both useful and save time during commissioning and test of the system.”
Daniel Smalley, Product Manager – SCADA at Siemens UK & Ireland, adds: “The award of this contract is testament to the operational benefits provided by WinCC OA. It is designed to meet stringent rail safety standards and is suited to infrastructure projects where a system needs high availability and robustness to operate effectively over the long-term.”
The VCS project began in September 2015 and is due for completion in September 2017 with the full Crossrail development due for completion in 2018.
