Integrated Advanced Applications for Operational Excellence in Natural Gas Transmission |
Cesar Balderas (CENAGAS)
Ricardo Bazan (AVEVA) |
As part of its digital transformation strategy, CENAGAS has integrated advanced operational applications into its SCADA Enterprise platform to strengthen monitoring, forecasting, and control of Mexico’s national gas pipeline system. Key deployments include the Commercial Gas Advisor (CGA) for contract and nomination management, the Gas Day Advisor (GDA) for demand forecasting using meteorological data, and volumetric control tools to ensure fiscal compliance.
The integration of AVEVA PI System has enabled secure access to real-time operational data, improving remote monitoring, responsiveness, and data-driven decision-making. Automated dashboards and performance indicators provide strategic visibility across operations and regulatory processes.
Looking ahead, CENAGAS plans to consolidate these capabilities into a CONNECT, creating a centralized environment for operational intelligence, cross-functional collaboration, and scalable analytics to support reliable natural gas supply and regulatory compliance across Mexico. |
Sparkplug B in Enterprise SCADA: Architecture, Implementation, and Configuration Optimization |
David Gies (AVEVA) |
Sparkplug B is emerging as a practical, MQTT-based standard for secure, scalable Industrial IoT communications, and many organizations are now integrating it into existing SCADA environments. This presentation explains how Sparkplug B can be implemented within an Enterprise SCADA system using a Sparkplug B protocol driver. Attendees will learn the architecture of a typical Sparkplug B deployment, including MQTT broker considerations, edge node roles, host state management, and communication redundancy. The session will then walk through configuring an Enterprise SCADA system for Sparkplug B, including protocol driver setup, real-time database configuration, tag/metric mapping, and system management considerations such as security, commissioning, and operational monitoring. |
Enterprise SCADA Product Extensions: Roadmap Update on Protocol Security, Performance Gains, and What’s Next for IEC 60870-5-104 |
Collin Heggerud (AVEVA) |
This session provides the latest roadmap update from the Enterprise SCADA Product Extensions Team, highlighting what has changed since our last conference and where we are headed next. We will summarize key deliverables across our portfolio of legacy protocols, modern protocols, and supporting applications, with a focus on practical outcomes for operations teams and system integrators. Attendees will hear a brief update on recent PHMSA compliance-related enhancements delivered through our ROCC (Rate of Change Combination) application—important progress, though no longer our primary development focus. We will then review the recently completed security uplift across multiple protocol implementations to align with TSA Security Directive expectations, including what was strengthened and how deployments can take advantage of the changes. Finally, we will outline current work-in-progress and upcoming plans, including major items for IEC 60870-5-104, targeted enhancements to the Mercury protocol, and performance improvements delivered for HPB and the OPC UA Server. |
Sable Offshore Restart |
Edgar Gallegos (Sable Offshore Corp)
Mai Lindsey (Lindsey Inc) |
This presentation will share lessons learned from Sable’s pipeline restart project and the use of AVEVA’s pipeline management solutions, including SCADA, Leak Detection, and Operator Trainer. The session will cover the readiness work required to support restart, including field communications, point-to-point testing, control room staffing, primary and backup control room location selection, design and buildout, and the phased implementation of the primary and secondary data centers.
It will also discuss the rigorous review process Sable had to meet under OSFM, which later shifted to PHMSA review for restart approval. The session will highlight Lindsey’s customer-side role in helping Sable build out the control room team, including Control Room Management (CRM) program development aligned with 49 CFR Part 195, controller training materials, qualification support, and onboarding programs.
It will also discuss how AVEVA, Lindsey, and Sable worked through a highly fluid restart schedule to support data center readiness, control room buildout, field work, testing, staffing, and startup preparation. |
Practical Application: Securing Communications to the Edge |
Alexander Zaitsev (AVEVA) |
As industrial systems become more connected, securing communications between central systems and edge devices is increasingly important. This presentation shares practical experience from real OT deployments and discusses how certificate-based security can be implemented in a way that is both secure and operationally manageable.
The session will cover certificate architecture choices, including the use of root, intermediate, and device certificates, as well as deployment approaches suitable for large-scale OT environments. We will review different trust validation methods for both connected and disconnected systems, where online verification may not always be available.
Special attention will be given to certificate lifecycle management, including provisioning, renewal, revocation, and recovery from compromise. The presentation will focus on practical strategies for handling expired, revoked, or compromised certificates without disrupting operations or requiring engineers to visit remote sites. Attendees will gain insights into building a scalable and maintainable trust model for edge-connected industrial systems. |
Commercial Gas Advisor (CGA): Enabling Digital Transformation in Large-Scale Gas Transportation Systems |
Cesar Balderas (CENAGAS)
Carlos Aguirre (AVEVA) |
This paper presents Commercial Gas Advisor (CGA) as a digital platform designed to modernize and optimize commercial gas operations within systems such as the National Gas Pipeline System (SNG) and the Naco–Hermosillo System (SNH) for CENAGAS in Mexico. CGA provides end-to-end functionality, including contract and tariff management, capacity planning, nomination and allocation processes, imbalance tracking, invoicing, and regulatory reporting. Its flexible, API-driven architecture enables seamless integration with measurement systems, SCADA/historian platforms, and enterprise applications.
Through this implementation, CGA improves data transparency, reduces manual intervention, and enhances decision-making across large-scale gas transmission operations. It ensures the reliable execution of core commercial processes, including nominations, confirmations, scheduling, balancing, and regulatory publication, while supporting continuous transaction processing aligned with audit and compliance requirements. |
Separating an Existing Enterprise SCADA System into a New Organization |
Joe Vornbrock (Keyera)
David Tsoi (Keyera) |
The purchase of NGL assets by Keyera required the successful separation of a large and highly integrated enterprise SCADA environment, along with its supporting communications infrastructure. This presentation will explore the end-to-end journey of planning and executing this complex transition, highlighting the technical, operational, and organizational challenges encountered along the way.
Attendees will gain insight into the original SCADA and communications architecture, the processes used to separate critical systems and infrastructure, and the impacts on integrations and interfaces. The presentation will also examine how dependencies were identified and managed to ensure business continuity and operational reliability throughout the transition.
Finally, the session will provide an overview of the resulting environment at Keyera, outlining key outcomes and lessons learned. These insights will offer valuable guidance for organizations undertaking large-scale asset divestitures, system separations, or similar transformation initiatives in SCADA and industrial communications environments. |
In Place SCADA Upgrade: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly |
David Kelly (Southwest Gas) |
During a recent SCADA Enterprise SCADA 2018 to Enterprise SCADA 2024 SP1 upgrade project a decision was taken to upgrade, in place, to Enterprise SCADA 2025. This is the experience and learnings of Southwest Gas through that process. |
Bridging the OT/IT Divide: Automating the Connection Between AVEVA PI and IBM Maximo |
Arturo Solis (Plains)
Matthew Vana (Streamline Control) |
Operations technology and enterprise systems often live in isolated silos, leaving teams to manually bridge the gap between what's happening in the field and what's tracked in the business. Streamline Control partnered with Plains Midstream to close that gap, building a middleware solution that automates the flow of data between the AVEVA PI System and IBM Maximo. Using APIs to connect OT and ERP environments, the integration eliminates manual data entry, automatically triggers maintenance work orders from real-time operational data, and keeps both systems in sync as new assets come online. The result is a scalable, low-maintenance bridge between the control room and the enterprise that reduces administrative overhead and gives maintenance teams visibility into asset conditions. This session shares Streamline Control's approach to designing OT-to-ERP middleware, lessons learned along the way, and why this integration is becoming essential as pipeline operators push toward greater automation and digital transformation. |
Beyond the Historian: Visual Evidence of What Operators See, Independent of SCADA |
Destry Moss (HF Sinclair)
Dushyant Makadia (HawkVue LLC) |
When an incident occurs, SCADA historians tell you what the system logged — not what the operator actually saw. This session introduces Operator View Management, a patented approach that continuously captures control room workstation displays and enables frame-level rewind for incident investigation, shift handover, training, and PHMSA Control Room Management compliance (49 CFR 192.631 / 195.446). Because capture happens at the display output, it works with any SCADA platform, requires no integration, and produces tamper-resistant evidence independent of the system being audited. We'll share lessons from two production pipeline deployments — one gas transmission, one hazardous liquids — including how AI-driven screen analysis converts visual evidence into alarm KPIs, audit-ready CRM reports, and operator-defensible incident timelines. Attendees will leave with a practical framework for automating 70–80% of manual compliance evidence gathering, cutting investigation time by 80–90%, and answering the question regulators increasingly ask: what did the operator actually see? |
Standardizing Multi-Control-Room Operations: A Governance Framework for AVEVA-Integrated Environments |
Josh Hunkele (Enbridge)
Russel Treat (EnerSys Corporation) |
Operators managing multiple control rooms face a common problem: control rooms performing the same function but executing it differently. Alarm response, shift handover, and documentation practices drift apart even when formal standards already exist. The gap usually isn't missing procedure - it's inconsistent governance and execution across sites.
This session presents a four-layer framework for building consistency across control rooms without collapsing local flexibility into rigid centralization.
The framework is grounded in a real deployment: a multi-state pipeline operator that inherited inconsistent workflows, documentation practices, and tooling across sites through acquisition and organic growth, and rebuilt governance without forcing rigid uniformity. We'll cover what changed, what the operator measured to confirm it worked, and where AVEVA Enterprise SCADA integration fit into closing the gap, capturing electronic logbooks, shift handover, and alarm data consistently across sites so compliance documentation became a byproduct of normal operations rather than a separate audit effort.
Attendees will leave with a practical model for evaluating where their own multi-control-room operations are losing consistency, and where SCADA-integrated tooling can help close it. |
From Opportunity to Impact: Lean-Guided AI-Assisted Development for High-Value Operational Solutions |
Joseph Hermann (PG&E) |
Generative AI is changing how operational software is developed, but many organizations are still determining where the technology delivers measurable value. This session presents PG&E's experience using Claude through Kiro as part of its digital transformation journey, exploring how AI-assisted development can accelerate the delivery of operational applications that support gas control, pipeline operations, and regulatory compliance.
Before writing a single line of code, PG&E's Gas AI Task Force applies Lean principles to decide where AI actually fits. Through structured problem-solving sessions and value stream mapping with process owners, the team maps how work really happens, surfaces bottlenecks and inefficiencies, and pinpoints the specific steps where AI can add value versus where it can't. Every idea then runs through a consistent scoring model — weighing value (does it move the business forward?), feasibility (do we have the data, people, and buy-in?), and fit (will it plug into how work already happens?) — so ideas are ranked on clear, repeatable criteria rather than gut feel. This front-end discipline builds a defensible pipeline of high-impact use cases and keeps the team focused on solving real problems, not chasing technology for its own sake.
Through several real-world projects, developed rapidly by our technology team combining deep Gas operational data knowledge with AI-assisted software development, the solution illustrates how organizations can use AI to unlock more value from their existing SCADA and enterprise systems—moving from manual data searching toward intelligent exception management. The presentation discusses development workflows, productivity gains, challenges encountered, validation strategies, and key lessons learned along the way.
Rather than presenting a theoretical view of AI, this session offers practical examples and actionable guidance for utilities and pipeline operators seeking to apply generative AI in a responsible and effective manner. Attendees will gain insight into how to identify and prioritize the right AI opportunities using Lean methods, where AI delivered meaningful productivity gains, where engineering expertise and human review remained essential, and how teams can responsibly incorporate AI into the development of operational and regulatory applications.
The presentation concludes with actionable guidance for adopting generative AI in software development, giving attendees a framework — from opportunity identification and scoring through delivery — for evaluating AI-assisted development opportunities within their own organizations and operational technology environments. |
Modernizing the Pipeline Control Room: From Operations Center to Intelligent Hub |
Joseph Hermann (PG&E)
Matko Papic (Evans) |
Pipeline operators are under growing pressure to enhance safety, reliability, and efficiency while adapting to rapid technological change. This session explores how organizations are transforming traditional pipeline control rooms into connected, intelligent operational hubs by leveraging increased data availability, advanced analytics, digital asset tracking, and cloud integration.
From a corporate strategy perspective, the presentation will discuss some key benchmarking amongst pipeline industry peers in terms of operational practices and design standards that enable excellence in System Monitoring & Control while enabling next generation performance. This includes considerations around Facility Strategy, Operational Readiness, Operator Focus and Technology Enablement by looking at resourcing Strategy & Key Infrastructure Requirements.
These changes enable expanded operational scope, consolidation of control room functions, improved integration with corporate IT systems, and optimization of capital and commissioning costs. The session also highlights practical applications of AI in the control room, demonstrating how existing systems and assets can be used to ingest AI driven insights that support effective operational decision making.
Modernization efforts must balance innovation with regulatory compliance, human factors, safety, reliability, and cybersecurity requirements—particularly when bridging IT and OT environments. Through real world examples spanning planning, design, and implementation, speakers will share both industry and end user perspectives. Attendees will gain practical insight into the technological, architectural, and organizational considerations required to modernize pipeline control rooms while maintaining long term reliability, security, and flexibility. |
Your Customer FIRST Support Program |
Andrew Potkins (AVEVA) |
The AVEVA Customer FIRST software maintenance and technical support program designed for end-users to extract and retain the maximum benefit from their AVEVA software investments.
Customer FIRST is the foundation of your service and support relationship with AVEVA. Learn the included entitlements and Technical Support processes to help you get the most value possible from your investment in our software and keep your operations running smoothly. |
Cutting Commissioning Time and Cost: Using Test Automation and Digital Evidence for Point to Point Validation |
Josh Hunkele (Enbridge)
Gina Howard (Dexcent) |
Point-to-point testing and commissioning are among the most costly and schedule-intensive phases of pipeline SCADA projects, often relying on manual processes and fragmented documentation. These approaches increase execution risk and limit visibility into compliance readiness.
This paper presents an approach to reducing cost and risk through test automation and structured digital evidence. By shifting validation earlier into pre-commissioning environments, teams can perform repeatable testing of signal paths, configuration, and logic before field deployment.
Automated testing outputs are captured as digital records, creating a consistent and auditable compliance framework for project delivery and handover. Integration with configuration workflows enables continuous validation as changes occur, reducing reliance on field-based testing.
The result is a faster, more predictable commissioning process that improves quality, reduces rework, and strengthens compliance confidence. |
