In September 2010 Orbital successfully installed the gas monitoring and treatment plant on the UK’s very first large-scale Bio-Methane production facility at Didcot, Oxfordshire – a plant which extracts biogas from waste-water / sewage via anaerobic digestion. Since that date Orbital has successfully delivered many such systems and, as part of our drive for technological leadership, recently introduced a new, next generation remote telemetry system, named VIRTU (Visually Integrated Remote Telemetry Unit), to complement our Bio-Methane gas to grid solution,
Orbital’s VIRTU is designed to operate in all energy sectors including Gas, Water/Wastewater, Electrical Power Distribution, Industrial Process and Renewables (e.g. biogas, solar, wind etc) on a range of applications such as Remote Asset Monitoring and Environmental Monitoring. This market leading solution is ideally suited to both traditional and specialist applications such as anaerobic digestion.
Introducing VIRTU
VIRTU builds on Orbital’s extensive experience developing and integrating telemetry systems across the UK Gas Transmission and Distribution networks over the past 15 years. As the first fully end-user configurable Remote Telemetry Unit (RTU) for the UK market, VIRTU firmly places configuration control with the Technical Operators on site. Utilising control architecture powered by Mitsubishi Electric and Orbital’s IEC 61131 compliant software, VIRTU’s innovative setup wizard minimises the potential for introducing human error, reducing the need for software rework or expensive process complications created by code errors.
Partnering for Sustainability
The introduction of VIRTU followed Orbital’s announcement of a formal partnership with Mitsubishi Electric Europe BV, started in November 2018, and founded on close technical collaboration. This partnership will further enhance Orbital’s RTU and BioMethane product lines with leading-edge automation control platforms. Collaborating with such a global technical partner provides long term business continuity protection for VIRTU customers and eliminates the support/obsolescence risk that comes from using dedicated hardware from niche RTU suppliers.
Cyber Security Assured
Under the Network and Information Systems Regulations 2018 (NIS Directive) that came into force on 10 May 2018 for the water, health, transportation, digital and energy sectors Ofgem has imposed new duties on Operators of Essential Services (OES) regarding cyber security of network and information systems. VIRTU has been designed to be cyber-resilient through compliance with IEC 62443 Cyber Security Standards and is ready to support OES as they work to meet current and future cyber threats to our utilities networks.
In ensuring the cyber-resilience of VIRTU, the hardware, software and Orbital’s internal quality management systems have been independently threat assessed and, as a result, a number of key security features have been included as standard to support cyber security on site, for example:
- Two-stage password protection for the HMI setup wizard to limit access to non-authorised personnel,
- Second stage password is a continually varying algorithm based on time, date and site ID,
- Decoding information is issued by Orbital on a one or seven day pass basis only to authorised users.
Remote access is a future possibility via Orbital’s Android and iOS mobile applications which are currently being developed. Furthermore, VIRTU ensures a simple transition from existing Orbital RTU platforms (IRIS) or other RTU systems, with transferable configuration files between the two systems.
Usability as a Priority
Traditional RTU systems require software customisation to allow the system to be configured for the specific target site. However, VIRTU is designed to be easily configured on-site by technicians without the need for expensive and time-consuming software modifications.
VIRTU’s comprehensive software library allows supports off-the-shelf delivery and site deployment in a fraction of the time of traditional RTU systems.
VIRTU’s User Interface has been designed to be intuitive, fully featured and flexible. The system includes features designed to assist the operator, for example: file setup, auto-generated back up files for rapid system restore, self-diagnostic information for operator interrogation, fully redundant CPU option, fast system switching, hot-swappable I/O, data trending information and a PDF viewer.
Future Proof Technology
Through our partnership with Mitsubishi Electric Europe BV, Orbital is able to guarantee the long-term future of the hardware and software that makes VIRTU so capable. The software environment in which VIRTU was developed is guaranteed to be supported by all future hardware generations, allowing VIRTU to remain technically current across multiple generations of product development.
Telemetry system upgrades today that do not meet IEC 62443 or support NIS compliance directives are likely to require costly upgrade in the near future. As a long-term investment, VIRTU is a next generation RTU and as such represents a logical choice for Operators of Essential Services who must consider cyber security compliance during the next 5 years.
