Case Study: Richards Bay Coal Terminal cuts costs and downtime with AVEVA (Wonderware) thin-client SCADA

58 Thin Clients replace Stand-alone PCs at Richards Bay Coal Terminal with Help from Wonderware

Richards Bay Coal Terminal Co. (RBCT) is a large coal-export terminal in Richards Bay, South Africa, that faced reliability, maintenance and manageability problems with distributed, fan-cooled PCs operating in a dusty, vibrating environment. To improve security, accessibility and cost-effectiveness for its SCADA/HMI systems, RBCT turned to AVEVA technologies (Wonderware), leveraging products such as InTouch HMI, Historian and Information Server alongside terminal-client software.

AVEVA implemented a thin‑client architecture—replacing 58 standalone PCs with thin clients running Wonderware InTouch (Terminal Client/InTouch View) and Historian accessed via Microsoft Terminal Services, deployed by system integrator Quad Automation and run in parallel with the legacy system during a five‑month rollout. The AVEVA solution reduced PC capital and engineering costs, cut power consumption and theft risk, improved software integrity and SCADA uptime, increased operator productivity, and provided redundancy through multiple server connections.

Richards Bay Coal Terminal Co.

Eric Gumede

Control Systems Specialist