Visualization and control of HVAC and refrigeration systems at the Alau Ice Palace in Astana, Kazakhstan

The Alau Ice Palace in Kazakhstan's capital city Astana was built to mark the 2011 Asian Winter Games, which were held here between January 30 and February 6, 2011. In the future, the stadium is expected to be used for organizing international speed skating competitions as well as important cultural and other sporting events.

Control system

During the construction of the stadium, HVAC and rink refrigeration systems as well as a water treatment system for the Zamboni ice resurfacers were installed. To reliably control these systems, Hitachi PLCs together with a SCADA/HMI system and Exor Electronic R&D touch panels were used. The control and visualization systems were installed by the Dutch company Boukens Enkhuizen B.V.

To provide comfortable visualization, the Reliance 4 SCADA/HMI system was installed on an industrial computer in the technical room. Another computer, fitted with Reliance 4 Web Client, was placed in the main control room. The Reliance 4 Web Client application allows operators to access the visualization of each process. Communication between the Hitachi PLCs and Reliance is provided via Ethernet using an OPC server.

Using several well-arranged visualization screens, Reliance provides:

• Visualization and control of the stadium's HVAC systems
• Real-time monitoring of the ice rink's temperatures
• Visualization and control of the refrigeration process
• Visualization and control of the water treatment process (necessary for the Zamboni ice resurfacers)
• Display of historical operating data shown in well-arranged charts

Among the advantages of the visualization project is its multilingualism. There are several language versions to be selected on the main overview screen. The following languages can be chosen by the operating personnel: Kazakh, English, and Dutch. The selected language setting will be applied each time the user logs on to the system.

Also, the so-called user levels are implemented in the visualization project. In practice, this means each operator is assigned certain rights. Therefore, a particular operator has rights to only view the visualization of a particular process. If the operator has higher rights, he/she can not only display the process, but also control it.

Examples of visualization windows

The main visualization window

Visualization of the ice rink's real-time temperatures

Visualization of the rink's refrigeration system

Visualization of the air-conditioning system

Visualization of the water treatment process used for the Zamboni ice resurfacers

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