15/02/2005

APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A. ACHIEVEMENTS BAHIA BIZKAIA GAS CONTROL CENTRE

Bahía de Bizkaia Gas (BBG), which has become a new entrance door to the Peninsular for gas and also to Arco Atlántico Europeo, is a regasification plant for LNG imported by means of gas tanker ships which, together with Bahía de Bizkaia Electricidad (BBE), make up the first combined cycle power station with integrated regasification in Spain. This improves the gas supply system within the Basque Country Autonomous Region, Spain and Europe, diversifying the supply, serving as a source of energy for the domestic and commercial gas markets as well as for the BBE combined cycle power station and guaranteeing and ensuring the supply of energy by sea and gas pipeline, in both quantity and quality. Its permanent goal is to improve the Spanish gas system, together with achieving growth and improvement in the energy-industrial competitiveness of the Basque Country economy.

APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A. has designed and supplied the Control Centre for the BBG regasification plant. Mr Juan Manuel Pérez is the BBG Regasification Plant Operations Manager and a person who is fully conversant with the plant and works there on a direct, daily basis.

What is the main purpose of BBG?

The main purpose of BBG is to receive methane tanker vessels containing Liquid Natural Gas (LNG), which are then unloaded, taking the cryogenic liquid at a temperature of 160ºC below zero to the plants storage facilities for subsequent regasification and conversion to natural gas in accordance with market demands in order to achieve three fundamental objectives:

* The supply of gas within the Basque Country Autonomous Region, Spain and Europe.

* Supply diversity.

* An energy supply source for the domestic, commercial and industrial natural gas markets in addition to the Bahía Bizkaia Electricidad Combined Cycle Power Station.

Have the applications of operation, control, supervision and monitoring been integrated into the large screen display system?

Yes, the operation and control applications are currently integrated, which enables us to display any production process on any screen, together with on-screen monitoring and supervision of all the process and perimeter security cameras that are installed at Bahía de Bizkaia Gas.

What benefits have been achieved through the total ergonomic design of the Control Room functionality and productivity for the operators?

The possibility of observing detailed information from around the entire plant on a panoramic screen, with zoom operation, makes it possible to detect hypothetical problems. This includes process monitoring from the Control Room of, for example, the cooling of the ship-terminal connection booms and the upper sections of the storage tanks etc.

What made you decide on the video-projection system solution as supplied by APLEIN INGENIEROS, S.A.?

We made this decision because it is a complete solution, which covers all our requirements, above all from the operational safety and security points of view.

Do you really think it would be useful to install systems employing this technology in other control rooms where requirements and activities are carried out 24 hours per day and 365 days a year?

I not only think that it would be useful, but also essential for plants of this type that are in permanent operation. Even more so if the process is linked to inflammable products and gases etc.

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