Supplier of critical alarm and event management technology, Omniflex, has worked with the South African Nuclear Energy Corporation (NECSA) to upgrade equipment providing digital and analogue signals for NECSA’s safety critical fire and gas alarm systems. The new Teleterm M3 remote terminal units (RTUs), which use the company’s proprietary Conet technology, required minimum wiring changes to existing panels at the Pelindaba site, 30 km outside Pretoria, making the upgrade installation quick and allowing for minimal disruption.
With the new Teleterm M3 RTUs using Omniflex Conet technology, minimal changes were required to existing wiring and panels.
Teleterm M1 and M2 telemetry RTUs replaced the original Conet squeezer units, which were originally installed by Omniflex in the 1980s and ‘90s for the then Atomic Energy Board. The Teleterm units provide the same functionality, with the advantage of reducing the spares holding requirement as they are transceivers – rather than transmitters and receivers – and allow mixed analogue and digital signals.
Using Teleterm modules allows for use of the same Conet networking topology across its 127 outstation units, so they can all be connected via the existing copper cables, and the replacement of any legacy equipment that has become faulty due to age or external factors such as lightning strikes.
Ian Loudon, International Sales and Marketing Manager at Omniflex, highlights that “Using the Teleterm M series reduces the installation costs by using the existing cabling and panel space. This also helps to reduce engineering and configuration time significantly. It allows us to replace a small part of the existing system with minimal disruption, so it continues to work as well as it has done since installation.”
Providing this new equipment for its outstation units enables the NECSA plant to maintain its fire and gas safety critical alarm detection systems, alongside its nuclear radiation monitoring capabilities. The use of existing cable to the fire station control room allowed for cost savings and minimal interruption across the site. All outstation alarms from the NECSA campus are displayed on Omni16 Annunciator panels so staff on duty can take action from the fire station. Omniflex was also on hand to provide on-site commissioning assistance and training for technicians working with the new system, to ease the transition to this new technology.
The Teleterm M3 RTU and M1 units are the latest iteration of the industry-proven RTU range that Omniflex has provided through its 60-year history, still supporting customers who first adopted the technology decades ago.
For more information visit: www.omniflex.com
