STARDOM and FAST/TOOLS integrated scada solution for heat and CO2.
One of three major energy companies in the Netherlands, Eneco Energie, provides an integrated range of services to the market gardeners in the community.
Eneco Energie was looking to update its system for transferring heat and CO2 from a power station to greenhouses because replacement parts were no longer available for its existing system, and communications were frequently disrupted. After proposal evaluation the project was awarded to Yokogawa based on its plan of minimising total cost of ownership through:
* Reducing cabling costs by using a commodity GPRS network infrastructure.
* Making full use of existing components.
* Reducing software costs by using web-based technology.
* A long-term service contract.
About the project
The ROCA power station in the Netherlands burns gas to generate electricity; the waste heat and CO2 are by-products essential to growth and photosynthesis in plants. As a service to agriculture Eneco Energie built a network of pipelines to transfer this heat and CO2 to the greenhouses of 138 market gardeners. To regulate the transfer STARDOM FCN autonomous controllers were installed in the greenhouses and FAST/TOOLS was installed at the central control room in Rotterdam to perform data acquisition and remote monitoring and control.
Challenges and solutions
Reduced cabling costs
The deciding factor in opting for Yokogawa’s solution was the use of GPRS for (TCP/IP) network communications between the local STARDOM controllers and FAST/TOOLS. Besides reducing the costs of cabling this new communication platform has also proved more reliable. “The error-proneness we experienced with the previous fixed line network has been greatly reduced. The new STARDOM controllers are equipped with a mobile communication module, which transmits the I/O status to the Rotterdam head office over the GPRS network,” says Ton van Koppen, Eneco Energie.
Utilisation of existing infrastructure
The company preferred to continue using existing cabinets, CO2 meters, and energy totalisers. “We found the STARDOM controllers fitted perfectly in the cabinets and connected easily to the previously installed equipment. Each site controller is installed in an existing cabinet, and controls both the heat via an exchanger, and the CO2,” explains Van Koppen.
Web-based technology
The FAST/TOOLS package that performs data acquisition and control from the central operations room features web-based implementation that enables a standard browser to be used as the control system interface. It also provides a link to the Eneco website that allows the gardeners to make changes to heat and CO2 settings and view a number of account parameters via the Internet. No specialised software is required on their PCs, so there is no need to develop software upgrades.
No maintenance worries
The heat and CO2 network is a typical small-scale process that calls for an off-the-shelf industrial automation system with fast-track implementation. Although the project was quickly implemented, Yokogawa was able as a system solution provider to guarantee a long-term service contract to its customer.
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