The main business of AS Tere is the production and sales of dairy products and the purchase of raw milk. With roots as far back as 1893, AS Tere is an innovative company with an efficient product portfolio, aiming to raise consumer awareness and offer products that meet their needs

The production units of Tere are located in Viljandi and Põlva and the company employs more than 420 employees in total.

The product list of Tere includes more than 150 dairy products. Their most well-known trademarks are Tere, Merevaik, Kohuke, Haps, Hellus and Paradiis. Strict compliance with modern food safety management systems in production is ensured.

The challenge:

The functioning of the input water pumping station is critical for the client as it supplies the entire production complex. The automation system of the pumping station was originally built in 2003 and, at the time, it was a state-of-the-art system utilising the programmable logic controller S7-200 and including both soft starters and frequency converters.

Within 20 years, the system had become obsolete: there were failures, the causes of which were difficult to identify due to the countless electromechanical components of the system (relay circuits). In addition, it was not possible to interface the automation system with the new SCADA system that the client acquired when upgrading the automation system of the cooling station.

The purpose of the project was to retrofit the automation system, whereas all the mechanical components of the existing system were implemented in the new automation system. All the work had to be carried out without any downtime in production.

Work completed during the project:

We analysed the old system, designed and built a new automation control panel, and programmed a new program and HMI panel for local control. Finally, we interfaced the pumping station with SCADA.

The most difficult and challenging part of the project was transitioning from one system to another without any downtime. It took careful planning and extensive preparation to figure out the order in which we needed to connect the devices. There were three people working on site, each with their own specific role. In the end, we were able to connect all the necessary devices in one day in such an order that it did not disrupt the work of the production plant at all.