A new era has begun for the Donges refinery’s wharf 5! At the beginning of February, SEGULA Technologies’ teams presented the results of their work a day and a half ahead of schedule: the renewal of the dock’s automated systems and the modernization of its control room.
Located on the Loire estuary near Saint-Nazaire, the TotalEnergies platform at Donges is the second largest refinery in France. Its six wharves can accommodate vessels from 1,000 to 230,000 cubic meters. Taking advantage of the “2021-2022 Shutdown”, a four-month period of maintenance work, TotalEnergies entrusted SEGULA in July with the renewal of the automated systems on wharf number 5. This is a particularly important project, since wharf 5 is the only wharf that can unload the largest crude oil tankers.
The objective for SEGULA and one of its subcontractors was to replace these PLCs, which dated back to 1983, with a single, more efficient PLC, and to completely modernize the control room.
Thanks to their expertise and organization, the teams mobilized were able to finish the project on February 3, a day and a half ahead of schedule, and were able to welcome a gasoline boat at the same time.

A 10-month turnkey project

Engineers from the SEGULA design office in Montoir-de-Bretagne, located a few kilometers from Donges, carried out the EIA (electrical, instrumentation and automation) studies, the programming of the PLCs, as well as the development of the supervision, supplies and tests. SEGULA also participated in the implementation of the new PLCs, including the removal of the old equipment, wiring and commissioning of the new equipment. Finally, SEGULA assisted TotalEnergies in restarting its business by setting up a continuous on-call team from Thursday evening to Monday morning. The updating of the documentation will mark the end of the project, which will have lasted 10 months.
SEGULA Technologies has been supporting TotalEnergies for 35 years now, with more than 30 employees working on various projects in technical assistance and work packages.