Visualization and control of the central heat distribution system in the town of Valasske Mezirici

October 30, 2017 | Reliance SCADA

Since 2001, the Energie MaR company has been building and maintaining the central heat distribution system in Valasske Mezirici. The system was built on Honeywell's XL5000 and Enterprise Buildings Integrator (EBI).

After 15 years of operation, the integrator has become obsolete and has had to be replaced. After carefully considering all the circumstances, it was decided to choose the Reliance SCADA system as the replacement because Energie MaR had already had experience with Reliance and XL5000 as part of a single project.

In the very beginning, there was a lot of resistance from the existing operating staff to the new visualization software. They were not happy about getting rid of the old system and unwilling to accept anything new, even though it was a big step forward in many ways. However, the new visualization and control system was successfully tested, revealing the great benefits the Reliance system offers – speed, good data management, and pleasant operation. It can be said that choosing Reliance was the right thing. It fulfilled the customer's expectations and Energie MaR, as a service organization, makes big savings on managing, maintaining, and expanding the system.

The essential part of the central heat distribution system in Valasske Mezirici is the heat-exchanger plant. Its large steam exchangers are used to prepare the heating water and – using circulator pumps – distribute it throughout the town.

Control system

In total, there are 190 facilities connected to the distribution system. They are equipped with local heat exchange stations for which Honeywell's XL50 control system is installed. These exchange stations provide the heating of a particular facility's heating water and hot water. All the exchange stations are communicating with one another and data is transferred to the central control room's PC equipped with the Reliance SCADA system. It is a backbone optical network interconnecting all localities (communication nodes) within the town. Each locality's exchange stations are linked via a metallic cable connected to the optical network through a communication node. Some small localities are connected directly via the Internet.

The central control system consists of two workstations – 1 server and 1 client. Data is replicated and, in the event of a failure, the workstations can substitute for each other. In addition, the Web client is used for remote access.

During 2017, all the 190 heat exchange stations' control systems are going to be replaced by new ones – either a new type of Honeywell controller or Tecomat Foxtrot. The SCADA system will remain unchanged and new control systems will be – in full operation and without major changes to the system's graphics and functioning – gradually integrated into the Reliance data structure.