At the end of January, NSTU scientists together with residents of the Academpark " Tornado Modular Systems", "Unisoft plus", as well as the SPA "Automatics" have created and launched the prototype of an automated system for monitoring the energy efficiency of industrial enterprises. The Process Audit Platform (PAP) program will allow to distantly process terabytes of information in order to detect the problems of production process, that might lead to energy losses, accidents or environmental damage.
The automated system distantly collects data in real time. It processes information on fuel consumption, temperature, pressure and other data which are collected by standard sensors installed at the plants, for example, in fuel supply systems and steam pipelines of CHP. Information from the sensors is automatically sent to the NSTU cloud through digital communication channels, where possible accidents and energy losses are analyzed and predicted. One just needs to open a browser, search a necessary page to see the overall situation of the efficiency of the enterprise`s operation and its influence on the environment.
The specificity of the developed platform PAP is the ability to aggregate information from industrial enterprises and to do geo-information analysis of pollution in the region, to analyze the compliance of emissions of enterprises with accepted standards. The platform will be useful not only for industrial enterprises, but also for the regional administration.
Collecting information about the working of operating procedures, mechanisms, pumps, we can assess whether the device or technological site needs special attention in due time. We can see that it is better to address the problem in time, to prevent failures in production process in the future. So, for example, in one of boiler stations the equipment can stop, and it leads to a stop of supplying steam to the industrial enterprises of the region. If they do not deliver the required amount of the product within the fixed time, they pay a fine, which lead to losses. For citizens that means cold in their flats. And this can be avoided by introducing of such systems for isolated collection and processing of data by industrial enterprises. Thus, we can act in advance said the author of the project, the Assocoate rofessor of the Department of Thermal Power Stations of Novosibirsk State Technical University, Candidate of Technical Sciences Alexander Dvortsevoy
The new program allows to see not only the defects of the mechanisms, but also to determine how many harmful substances were released into the atmosphere, soil and water. With the help of monitoring, it is possible to find out how to use resources efficiently and reduce the amount of environmental pollution.
The idea of creating a software product of this type was born by the experts of FPE NSTU. According to the authors of the development, previously it was not possible to collect authentic information about the condition of the industrial installations in the region quickly due to the using the traditional systems at enterprises with a low level of automation.
Now the University acts as a center of data collection, accumulation and processing of industrial enterprises. Alexander Dvortsevoy together with his team provide consultations and develop recommendations for effective operation of the equipment, justification, and application of new solutions, starting from the results of the monitoring. According to the developers, one boiler house in the city of Rubtsovsk of the Altai territory has already joined the program.
In the near future, scientists plan to make separate modules of the system, which will expand the functionality of the PAP program, and launch a new interdisciplinary phase of the project together with other faculties of the University.
The automation prototype model of smart EnergyGate was successfully tested at the end of June 2018 at NSTU. This device allows to connect to a common system small electrical generating stations quickly and cheaply, and manage their work automatically. The innovative development will not only provide reliable power supply to remote facilities, but in the long term will give the opportunity to earn owners of small power plants: they will be able to sell electricity to the common system.