Alvance British Aluminium are pleased to announce the successful completion of our Alpsys upgrade project, which spanned 18 months and involved an investment of £2.4 million, with services and hardware provided by Rio Tinto AP Technology Solutions and Thales.

The project encompassed multiple site visits to Lochaber, alongside practical Factory Acceptance Tests and IT training for our team conducted in Grenoble, France, earlier this year.

Alpsys serves as our pot control system, allowing for the automation and monitoring of critical functions such as alumina feed, voltage regulation and instability management. The upgrade introduces a virtual architecture with full redundancy, ensuring a modernised Human-Machine Interface (HMI) that promotes seamless operations while significantly minimising the risk of failure. This initiative involved the enhancement of the ALPSYS v11 Level 2 hardware architecture and the corresponding software to the delivery of ALPSYS v15.

This investment is pivotal for us, as it will substantially mitigate potential risks within our operational processes.

To celebrate the completion of the project, pictured here are our team donning tartan kilts alongside our French partners – well done!

For further information about Alvance British Aluminium, please contact Colleen MacLean, Executive Assistant & Communications Lead on Colleen.MacLean@alvancegroup.com