Case Study: Total S.A. achieves seamless, low‑downtime migration of legacy DCS with Honeywell Experion PKS

Total Performs Stepwise Migration of Legacy DCS to Experion® PKS

Total SA, a multinational oil and gas company, faced aging TDC 2000 distributed control systems at its Port Arthur refinery—systems installed in the 1980s and 1990s that were over‑capacity (18,000 active I/O on eight data Hiways) and had lost unit segregation. Because lengthy shutdowns were unacceptable, Total SA partnered with Honeywell to modernize control systems using Experion PKS and a stepwise, hot‑cutover migration strategy.

Honeywell implemented Experion PKS and an open automation architecture, replacing 45 legacy consoles, migrating about 400 operator graphics, adding 12,000 I/O and nine next‑generation controllers, and installing a fault‑tolerant Ethernet backbone. The eight‑step, loop‑by‑loop hot cutover approach with dedicated cutover teams achieved roughly 35 points per day, minimized production impact, preserved operations during migration, and extended automation assets to improve visibility, incident avoidance and decision‑making.

Total SA

Randy Conley

Supervisor DCS/SIS/APC Implementation