Central Control Room-EPOČ

Customer:               ČEZ

Location:                 Power Plant Počerady

CEZ’s Počerady Electrical Power Station is one of the most reliable in the Czech Republic. It has been using CIMPLICITY for ten years to separately manage processes on its five 200MW production blocks. In 2001 a decision was made to integrate most of the systems to provide overall control in a Common Control Centre using CIMPLICITY Plant Edition. Return on investment was achieved within six months by reducing the operational budget and simplifying maintenance.

The Počerady power station is a brown coal fired thermal power plant with five 200MW generating units. Power stations increasingly need to make better use of modern automation solutions to improve their    efficiency and reliability and to reduce gas emissions and fuel consumption. The original solution consisted of the five identical main 'power production blocks' being controlled from individual control rooms located next to the turbines. Individual control systems were allocated to the production blocks, electric separators, desulphurisation and other auxiliary operations. The system was based on GE Fanuc control system and Genius distributed I/O systems, all under the control of CIMPLICITY monitoring and control software.

Original benefits

It is ten years since the first implementation of the GE Fanuc control and SCADA system, and during that time the system has worked reliably. The high reliability, immunity against electromagnetic interference, and the mature software of the Series 90-30 significantly stabilised the power station’s operation and lowered its failure rate by more than 75%.

The control system had reduced the need for operator intervention. In 2001 the power station’s management decided to capitalise on the latest technologies by centralising monitoring and control in one location, and reducing the number of operators required to successfully control the whole power station. The project had to be carried out with no interruption to production at the power plant.

New concept

As Ing. Jan Kurka, Common Control Center project design leader explained, “We were looking for a GE Fanuc Systems Integrator with the experience and ability to innovate. ZPA Industry has an extensive portfolio of successful projects with CIMPLICITY and they had already implemented number of successful control systems and SCADA systems here at Pocerady.”

The five ‘production blocks’ have now been integrated electronically so they can be controlled from one Common Control Centre. Each block is under the control of a GE Fanuc Series 90-30 or Series 90-70 control systems. They provide control of coal loading and feed, cooling water, the boiler, turbogenerator, switching station and the auxiliary equipment. Each control system is partitioned into 43 functional units according to the technological process. The system provides control of automatic start-up and shut-down and regulation of boiler and turbine parameters (such as turbine speed and thermal stress calculations). The use of redundant control systems provides autonomous protection of groups, such as turbine/generator units and full power blocks. The control system can also set sub-systems to a default state without operator intervention. There are over 6800 I/O points on each block.

CIMPLICITY is used as the visualisation and control system in the Common Control Centre. It provides two way communication with the control system s in the functional blocks. Each PLC offers a dual redundant communication path with the Control Centre by being fitted, either with two Ethernet, or with two CCM, communication cards. Each control system also has two Genius communication cards, again providing redundant paths for transfer of rapidly changing data to and from the technology infrastructure. Genius communication has proved to be extremely robust, offering excellent diagnostic capabilities and high resistance against interference.

New system architecture

It is now possible to access CIMPLICITY projects on any ‘production block’ from any configuration console, even during full block operation. This has considerably reduced the cost of maintaining or modifying the system.

According to ZPA Industry’s programmer, Mr. Kunc, the choice of CIMPLICITY has proved beneficial. “On the old system you had to go to the block where you wanted to make some modification and you had to ask the operator to carry out the modification. Now we can manage all CIMPLICITY projects from any configuration console. I only need to tell the operator when I am carrying out changes.”

Moving all the operator workstations into one central location has proved fairly easy.

“Changing the location of all the operator workstations meant we had to re-design the system architecture. The flexibility of CIMPLICITY HMI Plant Edition enabled us to implement such changes during full power plant production. Previously, only data from the local production block could be viewed from an operator station. Now, with the proper authorisation, data from any block can be accessed using CIMPLICITY Viewer,” added Kunc.

The new concept has involved modification of some CIMPLICITY screens, so the operator acknowledges which server he is connected to and which block he is monitoring. The Control Systems Supervisor can also monitor and control block operations. He uses a PC with CIMPLICITY Server that is connected to the Common Control Center via a Gigabit Ethernet link. This enables him to oversee the operation in real time. A certain amount of production data is collected in a ‘data-warehouse’.

This is replicated in a control room in Prague from where it can be interrogated.

New Common Control Center

The new Common Control Centre was built on two floors, the top floor housing the room for the operators and floor underneath with the equipment. The workplaces are layed out in a circle, the circle being completed by workplaces for the chemical water treatment control system operator and the desulphurisation control system operator.

CIMPLICITY Server software on a number of PCs provides communication with the control system, logs data into Microsoft SQL Server, and distributes data for operator workstations. Upgrades to the system can also be made. CIMPLICITY Viewer software is installed on operators’ stations, enabling monitoring and control of technological processes.

For each production block there is one workplace with one operator, instead of the two operators employed previously. For redundancy purposes, each operator has two computers running CIMPLICITY Viewer, and each computer has two monitors. The system enables an operator to operate from any given workplace and to choose which block he wants to monitor. Computer redundancy not only makes for higher system availability but also enables smooth cooperation of operators during start-up operations.

The block CIMPLICITY Servers were left in their original locations to maintain the in tegrity of the control system and for safety reasons. A redundant Ethernet 100Mbit LAN provides communication between the block servers and the viewers.

The Benefits

The centralisation of operators in one location has brought the expected reduction of operational expenses. Return on investment was achieved in only six months. The Control Systems Manager, Milan Rychtr, commented, “Since all our operators are located inone room, they can react to unexpected situations more efficiently and they can cooperate with other operators easily. This application has demonstrated GE Fanuc’s CIMPLICITY software as ideal for building key SCADA systems. The monitoring and control of the power plant, from any PC with CIMPLICITY software installed, has enabled total flexibility in day-to-day plant operation, enhanced safety and reduced maintenance costs.”

Project Summary

Configuration for one block:

-2pcs of redundant servers (8000 I/O, 6000 archived I/O)

-4pcs of viewers

-1pc of SQL server

Configuration for data collection:

-1pc of SQL server (2000-5000 I/O, scan 10s)