One of the world's largest energy companies, Total, Paris, is committed to improving its refineries' energy efficiency, not only to comply with new environmental standards but also to minimize production costs and enhance competitiveness. As part of this effort, the Normandy refinery, Total's largest refinery complex in France and one of the largest in Europe, asked ProSim, Labège, France, to implement its Ariane utilities-management and power-plant-optimization software in the refinery's production system.
In the dynamic environment of a refinery, executing the actions necessary for optimum utilities-system management requires the help of online optimization software. The main objective of implementing Ariane was to provide guidance and practical daily suggestions for optimizing the production of steam, hot water and electricity within the refinery.