10 June 2009

The project will integrate much of China's railway network

China’s Ministry of Railways is to implement the Wonderware System Platform as the SCADA system to operate the country’s national railway.

The project will extend to 2020 and involves the automation of all power monitoring points for a majority of the Chinese railway system and will feature three million I/O points. The system will be the largest-scale industrial project to date involving the Microsoft SQL Server platform.

The project integrates a large part of the country’s railway lines running from Beijing in the north to Guangzhou in the south. The project’s estimated budget is approximately 3.5 trillion yuan (US$512 billion). The organisation expects a six year return on investment.

“When the China Railway system is completed it will carry both passengers and goods, reaching a distance of 4,000 kilometres in just a few hours,” said Chen Qizhi, vice general manager of Chengdu Jiaoda Guangmang Industry, the Wonderware system integrator managing the project. “This is a big leap from the normal multi-day trip it takes right now and is a huge improvement in our country’s transportation system.”

The China Ministry of Railways selected the Wonderware System Platform on SQL Server to meet its unprecedented scalability challenge without sacrificing reliability and security

Chris Colyer, Microsoft The initial rollout of Wonderware System Platform software involves approximately 100,000 I/O points. By the end of 2009, the SCADA solution will expand to 300,000 I/O points as more stations are added, and will increase to 1.5 million I/O points by 2010. It is expected that by the time the project is completed in 2020, the Wonderware SCADA solution will manage more than three million I/O points and will include the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway currently under construction.

“Wonderware System Platform was chosen by the China Ministry of Railways because it is able to accept large I/O systems into a single, integrated solution,” said Mark Davidson, the company’s vice president. “The scalability of the software makes it possible to execute the project in stages, enabling China Railways to operate only the system that is required at a certain time. This allows railway managers to budget resources properly.”

Wonderware has standardised its automation and control systems on Microsoft’s industry-standard platforms, such as Microsoft SQL Server. “The China Ministry of Railways selected the Wonderware System Platform on SQL Server to meet its unprecedented scalability challenge without sacrificing reliability and security,” said Chris Colyer, Microsoft’s global director of manufacturing operations strategies. “Microsoft and Wonderware offer a solid and secure SCADA system built on an open, highly scalable and fully integrated architecture. Together, we remain dedicated to providing robust, easy-to-use automation software based on Microsoft technology.”

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