APCS of boiler-room. Customer: JSC “Berdsk electromechanical plant” (Novosibirsk region)

APCS is implemented on the basis of DCS “Tornado-I” and designed to perform all monitoring and control functions of technological equipment of the boiler-room. The facility of control is DKVR-10 and PTVM-30 boilers.

Work stages

The first contracts between CJSC “Tornado Modular Systems” and OJSC "Berdsk electromechanical plant" were concluded in September 2000. In accordance with the provision of the contract, the “Tornado Modular Systems” company provided services of development, shipment and implementation of the APCS of two PTVM-30 boilers.

The control system design, development and assembling of the DCS on the developer’s territory took three months, after that the system was shipped to the boiler-room. The adjustment of the system was carried out by CJSC “Tornado Modular Systems” together with JSC “Sibtechenergo” – the leading technological organization in the region. Automation of the boiler units was implemented in a short time which made it possible to minimize a downtime of the equipment of the boiler-room and quickly move to an entirely new level of control. The successful experience in the APCS integration led to the continuing cooperation and in 2001 another DKVR-10 boiler was included into the system.

The installed APCS is scalable, so addition of another boiler did not change anything in the system and did not require any new developments. It required only one additional control cabinet and an upgraded operator’s interface. Thus, the system expansion was also performed in a short time.

Up to the present day, the control of all three boilers has been performed from a single workplace.

Purpose and functions of the system

The APCS of the boiler unit is implemented on the basis of DCS “Tornado-I”. The system is designed for remote monitoring and control of all the electrified boiler-room equipment.

The APCS implements full-scale monitoring and control functions and allows to perform the following tasks:

The structure of the system

The structural scheme of the system consists of the following components:

Automated workstation

Operator’s workplace is equipped with a standard hardware compatible with IBM PC. The “InTouch” software package (manufactured by “Wonderware” company) specialized for visualization of technological processes is used to create the operator’s interface.

Operator's AWS is used for:

Service engineer’s AWS

The engineer’s AWS serves as “hot” reserve in case of failure of the operator's workplace. The database server is also located on the engineer’s AWS in this project. The server stores information about all events that have occurred in the system (information about technological parameters of the boiler equipment, control actions of the operator and others).

Controllers of the functional units

Controllers of the functional units (CFUs) provide connection of cables from the sensors and conversion of the analog signals from sensors into a digital form required for further processing by the system. The CFUs are located in the one-sided servicing cabinets with level of protection of IP54 or higher.

The controller equipment manufactured by “Kontron” (“PEP Modular Computers”) and “UniControls” companies is used in the CFUs. Controller is designed as a CXC crate of 3U format. The controller has a modular architecture. All controller modules are installed in the crate, where they are combined using a CXC local bus.

The I/O modules are implemented in the ModPack standard. The data range of I/O modules allows to solve any tasks in the data collection and processing. This controller can work independently, providing control over the facility if there is no communication with an operator.

The main properties of the CFUs:

• use of reliable automation hardware compliant with the open international standards;
• functional isolation of the controller level;
• each controller can operate independently from the other components of the system;
• high fault-tolerance of the microprocessor elements, mean time between failures (MTBF) of the controllers is over 10 years;
• extensive internal diagnostics of the controller elements;
• redundant power sources;
• modular architecture of the controllers;
• standard desighn of the controllers (3U).

The field interface units (FIUs) are used in the CFUs. They allow to directly connect controller to the equipment, sensors and actuators of the facility. The FIUs allow connecting the natural signals from thermocouples, resistance thermometers, sensors of current and voltage as well as discrete signals and commands with 24 V and 220 V voltage. A field cable can have a cross-section of up to 2,5 mm². The spring-loaded clamp of the FIUs provides reliable contact insensitive to vibration, which is equivalent to cold welding.

Use of the FIUs allows avoiding use of bulky industrial terminal block cabinets and reduces the number of relay cabinets.