DIWICON Solution for Cathodic Protection

The DIWICON technology perfectly serves the typical needs of cathodic protection systems offering cost-effective field and communication devices, combined with a system reliability of over 99.97%.

How the products work?

The DIWICON-K field devices are placed at the corrosion protection stations or reference points that need to be monitored. The distance between two CP stations is typically 5 km. The stations put a voltage of -0.86 to 2.4V on the pipeline, in order to avoid corrosion. Via their analog and digital inputs, these devices measure cathode potentials, directly from the measuring points.

Two field devices are used:

DW 631 K - CP (Cathodic Protection) station control and supervision devices.

DW 631 K-D / DW 5844 - Reference point (minimum potential point) supervision devices.

There is only one DW 631 K per CP station. The DW 631 K-D/DW 5844 are buried under the ground, battery operated, having a battery lifetime of up to five years. They are buried somewhere between two CP stations, at a point called a "reference point" (or "minimum point") and it measures the voltage on the pipeline.

The central server application collects and stores the data from the field devices, and generates the real time Web-based user interfaces for monitoring, remote control, and automatic documentation.

Cost savings are significant, since labor-intensive field measurement can be reduced up to 90%, and all malfunctions are detected immediately. Events and alarms are generated in real time. Electricity consumption is reduced (-20%). The wireless communication module is used to communicate over an IP network with the central application.

Complete solution

The DIWICON-K contains all necessary hardware and software components to build a complete system, from field stations to central software applications, including the country-wide communication system.

Ease of implementation

The installation and startup of a field device for CP station takes about 2-3 hours in average depending on station's complexity. At a typical crude, natural gas or product pipeline having hundreds or thousands of cathode protection stations the ease of field installation is essential.

No communication lines required

The intelligent field devices contain data acquisition and communication interfaces.

No power lines required at reference points.

The intelligent field devices at reference points (DW 631 K-D / DW 5844) containing data acquisition interfaces, field communication devices and high power, long life batteries for 2-5 years of standalone operation.

Reliable

Redundant wide area communication is based on cellular networks. In order to assure a 99,97% availability the field devices can use two independent mobile networks.

Central application

All SCADA and other system functions are accomplished by the central applications, easy to protect, maintain and upgrade. Central applications provide dynamic web pages for network supervision.

Central server - thin clients

All applications are running on a redundant central server designed for reliable 24 hour operation. The workstations are normal PC computers connected to the central server over the local network, virtual private network or the Internet. There is no need to install any special software for workstations, except the browser supplied with the Windows XP or Windows Vista operation system.

Scalability

The DIWICON-K system is capable of integrating 4000 utility consumers and 1000 CP stations with one central server. Adding new servers, the system can be expanded without limit.

Compatibility

Based on internationally accepted open standards, the DIWICON-K system and products can be easily integrated with existing SCADA systems using OPC and existing ERP systems, using XML web services.