This urban heating project uses SOLISCADA to centrally collect and control parameters such as temperature, pressure, circulation pumps, valves, and heat meters from primary and secondary networks at heat exchange stations. It manages heat exchange stations by adjusting water supply valve openings and temperature settings.

Heat exchange stations are equipped with Siemens PLCs, touchscreens, electrical control cabinets, temperature and pressure gauges, electric valves, and flow meters.

SCADA data acquisition and monitoring control system starts from the needs of users, collecting heat sources, heating pipe networks, heat exchange stations.

The data of facilities and equipment such as the valve room of the unit building can be monitored and managed in real time, so as to achieve on-site unattended and centralized equipment.

At the same time, combined with the operating pressure, temperature and other data of the pipe network, the most unfavorable link of the pipe network is scheduled and optimized.

To achieve the goal of improving the operating efficiency of the heat supply network and saving energy.

System architecture

Heating control can be divided into three levels of control. 

he first level is centralized monitoring and control by the dispatch center, which collects data for analysis and issues dispatch control instructions to each heat exchange station. 

The second level is the station control system, which uses PLC control cabinets and touch screens to perform on-site control in the event of network communication failure with the dispatch center. 

The third level is local manual control, which manually controls the local operation of the equipment when an emergency equipment failure or maintenance occurs.

This project leverages the redundancy feature of SOLISCADA, deploying two data servers (one primary and one backup) at the central dispatch center with a free license for 50,000 tags. 

On-site, the configuration server, real-time/historical data server, and data collector are integrated as an engineer station, supporting configuration, monitoring, alarming, and reporting.

Functionalities 

·Data acquisition and control

SOLISCADA with Siemens communication drivers enables data exchange with PLC devices and remote control of valves and pumps from the dispatch center.

·Configuration screen

SOLISCADA offers user-friendly HMI with flexible operation and rich content. It displays the entire process flow with diverse visualization options, including static/dynamic graphics, 3D objects, and templates. It also supports multiple display methods such as curves, bar graphs, and numbers.

·Alarm Management

SOLISCADA allows enabling alarm settings such as high/low limits and switching quantities for tags, and can manage alarms by partition and operation group through tag grouping.

·Historical Trend Records

The software automatically generates historical trends for data in the historical database, enabling users to view real-time and historical trends in one control element and analyze changes over time.

·Dual-Machine Hot Standby Redundancy

SOLISCADA real-time and historical data server use a dual-machine hot standby redundant configuration. Both servers work simultaneously to collect and process data and store it at the same time. 

During operation, The primary server provides data services to client stations, while the backup server takes over within 1 second if the primary server fails or unexpectedly crashes or drops offline, to avoid any disturbance to the client and ensure stable system operation.

SOLISCADA tackles project management pain points by centrally collecting and analyzing data from heat exchange stations. 

This enables the dispatch center to monitor heat exchange efficiency, optimize hydraulic network balance, and achieve precise, demand - driven heating, all while promoting energy conservation and emissions reduction.