Visualization and control of the energy system at a meat production facility in the Czech town of Policka

September 28, 2020 | Reliance SCADA

MASO UZENINY POLICKA (translated as "Meat and Smoked Meats Policka") is a Czech joint-stock company specializing in the production of meat and meat products. It is one of the largest beef suppliers in Czechia. The company's customers include many well-known brands, such as Lidl, Kaufland, Ahold, Penny, BILLA, Makro, and COOP. It provides supplies to more than 2,000 retail shops and companies, butcher shops, restaurants, and cafeterias throughout Czechia and other European countries. The company is the only supplier of beef to McDonald's restaurants in Czechia.

In 2018, it was requested that the energy system of the company's production facility be completely renovated. Based on previous projects implemented in collaboration with ELG-ELECTRIC and CERGOMONT, the GEOVAP company was approached to participate in the creation of the project documentation (together with the TEVA-elektro company) and to be involved in the tender process.

Once the solution, which includes the robust Tecomat Foxtrot control system and the Reliance SCADA/HMI system, was approved, assembly and engineering work could begin. The particularity and difficulty of this project are that all work was performed during business hours and that there was a minimum number of factory shutdowns when in transition to the new system (on weekends only).

Control system

The Tecomat Foxtrot system is decentralized and installed in 13 control cabinets throughout the production facility. For data exchange, the PLCs are interconnected through PLCNet. Each control cabinet is equipped with an HMI panel for local control.

The Reliance SCADA/HMI system is installed on a computer located in the control room with 24/7 service. The prime objective of Reliance is to gather data from the PLCs and present it graphically so that the operator is notified immediately of the status of the production facility's technological systems and is able to identify and solve potential problems.

All operating data is logged to a database. Energy data logging is also an integral part of the project. The meat production company's power engineer can view the data via Reliance's Web server using reports or trends. This data is used by the customer to analyze the operation of the production facility.

The control system is used to control and monitor:

• 2 Bosch steam boilers as the main sources of steam (Modbus communication)
• Steam pressure
• 4 steam–water heat-exchanger plants
• Heating and distributing water throughout the production facility
• Wastewater treatment plant with hot water heating and distribution for sludge handling
• Air-conditioning units
• Refrigeration compressors and the utilization of their waste heat for the preheating of hot water
• Consumption of electrical power, gas, water, and heat (M-Bus communication)

To enable working with the logged energy data in more detail, the AVE system is likely to be part of the project in the future.

Examples of visualization windows

Visualization of the entire production facility

Visualization of the steam boilers

Visualization of the process of heating hot water

Visualization of a heat-exchanger plant

Visualization of sludge handling

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