CSE Servelec Lands £400k Airport Technology Order

Heathrow Airport Limited has invested £400,000 in computer upgrades that will enable it to better manage mission-critical industrial equipment and improve the way it charges airlines for using these facilities.

The upgrades, installed by IT specialist CSE Servelec within just six weeks of the order being placed, are based on Sun Sparc Unix servers and Windows NT workstations. They give extra capacity to an existing CSE Servelec solution that controls and monitors the power to terminal buildings, runway lighting, alarms and indications. The original system also manages the environment within tunnels beneath the airport.

Heathrow now plans to expand its use of the system to improve the way it charges airlines for the power their aircraft use while on the ground. For example, by tailoring charges to each customer's requirements, the new metered system will mean carriers of smaller aircraft benefit from lower ramp charges.

"The new system allows us to enhance the availability and reliability of the service we provide to the airlines," said Ray Edwards, control systems manager at Heathrow. CSE Servelec's sales director Richard Mellor added: "We were asked to provide a new solution that gave the airport the capacity it needed to expand its control and monitoring system." "This new hardware brings Heathrow's SCADA and management system right up to date and enables the company to maximise the benefits of its IT investment." Heathrow Airport Limited is part of BAA plc.