Siemens is investing over $23 million in the new service and training facility that is expected to employ about 130 people.

Siemens and Bolivia’s Energy Ministry also signed a memo of understanding (MoU) to collaborate on future technology projects in areas such as distributed generation, renewable energy, electrical infrastructure, lithium industrialization and digitalization.

The new training center is located on a 9,200 square meter site at the Parque Industrial Latinoamericano (PILAT) in the city of Warnes and will also function as a hub for servicing power equipment installed in the South America region.

It will feature the latest in digital technologies and solutions with Siemens’ advanced remote monitoring and diagnostics, data analytics, as well as specialized classroom and hands-on training, parts supply, engineering expertise and project management. By using Siemens’ Fleet Center Solutions at the service center, power generation assets across the country can be monitored remotely, providing real-time insights into the operational conditions of the fleet.

Based on those insights, Siemens’ advanced data analytics will make recommendations for improved performance to help extend the operational lifetime of the power plants.

“A sustainable and reliable power supply is vital to enabling economic prosperity in Bolivia,” said Holt. “As demand for energy increases, this new service center, with its advanced digital operations and state-of-the-art monitoring, will serve as a catalyst for maintaining and optimizing performance at power facilities across the country and throughout South America.”

Siemens is providing its power generation technology to substantially expand three combined cycle power plants in Bolivia: Termoeléctrica del Sur, Termoeléctrica de Warnes, and Termoeléctrica Entre Ríos. Part of an overarching collaboration between Siemens and Bolivia’s Energy Ministry, the project will add more than one gigawatt (GW) capacity to the local power grid, substantially increasing the installed power generating capacity of Bolivia’s National Interconnected System. The close proximity of this new service and training center will serve to support these ambitious power plant projects along with other projects in the region.

Siemens is working to help Bolivia maintain a reliable energy supply for the country’s population and lay the groundwork for future exports. Power generation in Bolivia is projected to almost double, from 8.7 terawatt hours (TWh) in 2014 to 14.2 TWh in 2026. This will allow Bolivia’s planned electricity exports to match internal demand by 2025, in line with the nation’s goal of becoming the energy hub of South America and providing electricity to its bordering countries.

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MV WERFTEN began to manufacture the world’s largest cruise ships, known as “Global Class,” in March. In the past, it was customary to use external diesel generators during the first phase of construction. The generators produced energy at 60 Hz on land and transferred it to the ship. If the ship was provided with its own generator during the next phase, the latter supplied energy during the remaining fitout phase. The new onshore power supply can handle both steps simultaneously in dock and on the quay. The diesel generators can therefore remain shut down shore side as well as on board of the ship under construction.

For the construction of “Global Class” cruise ships great amounts of energy are needed, which will be provided by a Siharbor onshore power supply system.

Unlike the German 50 Hz power grid, ships have an on-board electrical system with a frequency of 60 Hz. The 20 kV/50 Hz voltage supplied from the public grid is converted to the required voltage and frequency in the transformer substation. This frequency is 60 Hz during the first phase of shipbuilding and 440/60 Hz in the later production phase.

The combustion of ship fuels during lay time and construction is one of the main sources of air pollution in the areas around ports and wharves. Harmful emissions in the shipping industry need to be reduced: This would have an enormous impact on every port city around the world. Onshore power supplies make an important contribution to improving air quality and enable significant savings potential when it comes to nitrogen oxide and sulfur oxide emissions, fine dust and carbon dioxide emissions. An onshore power supply is also much quieter than a diesel generator. This benefits residents as well as the employees at MV WERFTEN.

“We’re using the Siharbor solution for the first time in an environment other than right in port and are implementing a parallel power supply,” says Axel Mohr, head of sales of the Siemens Energy Management Division for industry and infrastructure customers, Region North. “This was an exciting challenge for us, one that will greatly benefit the customer and the environment. We’re proud of this opportunity to do our part in making shipbuilding greener.”

“Siemens is an outstanding partner to us,” says André Machatzky, head of investments at MV WERFTEN. “The entire team is near our Wismar location and can give us immediate support for service and consulting. We’ll continue to build low-emission ships in the future. The excellent collaboration led to fast planning, and we’re looking forward to commissioning.”

Project details/benefits:

• Reduction of pollutant emissions, diesel generators can remain shut down
• Parallel supply with up to 12 MVA in dock and while berthed
• Flexible 50/60-Hz power supply
• Siemens takes on turnkey construction and service

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ISA and Siemens co-sponsor a cybersecurity workshop this week that looked at advances in digital technologies and new ways of counter the rising threats of cyberattacks in the energy sector.

“Using the Power of Analytics to Address Cyber Security” was a half-day workshop sponsored by the International Society of Automation (ISA) and its Premier Strategic Partner in Industrial Cybersecurity, Siemens. The workshop was held prior to ISA’s PCS 2018—Process Industry Event, a technical conference for professionals in the energy processing and process manufacturing industries.

During the workshop, featured experts reported that the rapid pace of digital technology and the increasing sophistication of cyber tools at the disposal of foreign entities are making it more difficult to protect critical infrastructure and the industrial control systems that operate them. However, they said advances in security analytics and machine learning are improving detection and threat assessment, and enabling more proactive and responsive defense measures.

Owners and operators of energy infrastructure also are recognizing the real threats to their businesses that cyberattacks pose and are more willing to invest in cybersecurity solutions — such as best-practice standards and in-house or outsourced security operations — and hire a qualified cybersecurity work force.

The workshop was kicked off by Leo Simonovich, Vice President and Global Head of Industrial Cyber and Digital Security at Siemens. Simonovich set the stage by explaining digital technology and the cyber world in general are evolving too fast for government and private industry to fully keep pace.

Companies must take the lead, he said, “and data analytics are the key.” Armed with these tools, companies can “own their environment” by significantly improving detection when an operation system is being attacked and implement effective risk mitigation efforts. “Context and speed,” according to Simonovich, are the two necessary ingredients needed to identify and thwart a cyberattack.

Providing a vital perspective from the U.S. government was Bob Kolasky, Director of the National Risk Management Center for the US Department of Homeland Security. Kolasky outlined the federal government’s functional approach to risk management in protecting the nation’s critical infrastructure. He reinforced the point that data analytics and data aggregation are critical in order to better anticipate and evaluate possible threats.

Kolasky reported that while many nations in the world do not pose a significant military threat to the U.S., they often do present threats from the cyber realm. He said that while some of these nation states are not currently attacking U.S. domestic infrastructure, they are conducting attacks throughout the world and could, at some point, turn their attention to the U.S.

Because of the public/private nature of U.S. infrastructure, Kolasky said it’s important to implement consistent cybersecurity standards and practices across public and private sectors. To further these efforts, he said the U.S. government is incentivizing R&D and cybersecurity investment. He emphasized the importance of greater engagement among private companies in cybersecurity as solutions cannot come solely from government.

Kolasky agreed that data and security analytics hold great promise in identifying those risks that require greater and more immediate levels of response and connecting patterns and instances of vulnerability.

Sean Plankey, Global Cyber Intelligence Advisor at BP, urged more companies to take a more active approach to cybersecurity given the risks cyberwarfare presents to business operations. He said he is constantly gathering intelligence and scanning the external environment to identify and evaluate potential threats.

He is particularly focused on the operations side, where continuous processes may be affected by an attack. He agreed with Kolasky that cyberattacks differ in their ability to cause actual damage and impact business operations. By defining threats in a hierarchical manner, a business can establish a baseline.

This “baseline” concept was a recurring theme at the workshop. Given the number and types of cyberattack, it’s difficult for cybersecurity systems to engage them all. Plankey said for a security system to be effective, it must work from a baseline so it can accurately distinguish viable threats from non-viable ones. Plankey said one factor to determine is whether the attack is levied by individuals acting alone or through state sponsorship. State-sponsored actors, he noted, are much more capable of executing a potentially damaging intrusion.

Ernesto Ballesteros, the State Cybersecurity Coordinator for Texas, said he focuses his efforts largely on information sharing and analysis because his mandate extends beyond government facilities and systems. “We’re trying to secure the state as a whole,” he explains.

To combat the shortage of workers trained in cybersecurity, Ballesteros said Texas encourages students through scholarships, and supports workforce development programs and apprenticeships so staff can gain vital skills on the job.

Matt Stewart, Head of Research and Development for Industrial Cyber Security at Siemens, highlighted Siemens’ advanced security monitoring solutions. He acknowledged that many companies don’t have the resources to staff a dedicated Security Operation Center (SOC) and said it can be more efficient to outsource data analysis.

Siemens, he pointed out, can extract data on potential threats at a customer facility and then rapidly get the metadata analysis in front of Siemens’ cyber experts. Stewart explained that Siemens uses an industrial security product to monitor traffic on the customer networks, looking for anomalies. Using machine learning, the system monitors all network traffic, defines what is “normal” operation based on millions of transactions, then continues to seek out and flag any abnormal activity.

Siemens technology, he said, can also distinguish between activity that is simply “different” from normal, and that which could be considered dangerous. Potentially harmful activity is either acted upon by the software, or circulated up to an expert, on-call team at Siemens that can evaluate and counter high-level threats.

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