How Digital Technologies Help Energy Enterprises

From the development of the energy component, its timely reconstruction and modernization depends on the successful operation of enterprises, and therefore the entire economy. Digitalization and digital twins are an integral part of this process. A number of projects have been implemented, others are under implementation. What will be the digital future of the Belarusian energy system, experts have learned.

Mikhail Shevaldin. Digitalization in the energy system of our country is everywhere. This applies to the entire range of technical devices, up to digital substations, says First Deputy General Director - Chief Engineer of GPO "Belenergo" Mikhail Shevaldin.

- Digitalization is coming into our operations. We use various software and technical complexes to solve applied problems. Digitalization has reached the training of the staff of our organizations, he notes. This is especially true for operational personnel - drivers, dispatchers, duty officers. That is why digital simulators have become an integral part of the training of our specialists, including for the Belarusian NPP.

Significant assistance in this work belongs to the state corporation Rosatom, namely, one of its structural divisions of JSC ITC JET. A few years ago, at the TIBO forum in Minsk, an agreement was signed between this engineering and technical center and the Belarusian enterprise Belenergoremnadka with the task of developing a comprehensive computer simulator for training operational personnel on the operation of power units of Minsk CHPP-4. The task was successfully accomplished. Then the organizations agreed to develop a computer simulator for training operational personnel of the Gomel CHPP-2.

Alexei Kovalevich. According to Alexey Kovalevich, General Director of JSC ITC DJET, such technologies are already used in the Russian power system and provide an increase in the efficiency of equipment use and, accordingly, a reduction in production costs.

A logical continuation of digital simulators should be the introduction of digital twins of enterprises of the Belarusian energy system.

- We understand the digital twin as a kind of digital shadow, a physico-mathematical model of a technological object, which in 24/7 mode completely repeats its state, notes Alexey Kovalevich. We distinguish three levels of twins – digital twin design, development, digital twin operation. First of all, this approach affects the reduction of labor intensity, the timing of the same design, while not reducing the quality of the object. This reduces the number of errors at an early stage. Relatively speaking, the correction of one error at the design stage is a ruble of costs, at the commissioning stage of equipment - 10-100 rubles, and so on.

- We need consolidation of the expert community to prepare a regulatory document regulating the requirements for the development, implementation and operation of digital twins, he says. Develop knowledge

Andrey Zhuravlev. Belarus has extensive experience in creating and using simulators. In particular, 50 years have passed since the introduction of the first simulator of OJSC Belenergoremnadka (BERN), the leading organization of this direction in the structure of GPO Belenergo. In recent years, notes the chief engineer of the branch "Engineering Center" Andrei Zhuravlev, the competence of the organization has increased significantly. This, among other things, was prompted by the sanctions policy of unfriendly countries, which complicated the acquisition of modern software that meets all the requirements for the development of simulators.

- At the meeting of the technical and economic council of the GPU "Belenergo" on the development of digitalization of energy facilities of the Belarusian energy system in terms of creating digital simulators, an increase in the share of work performed and competencies of BERN was confirmed, Andrei Zhuravlev emphasizes. It was decided to recognize the experience of implementing a comprehensive simulator at the Minsk CHPP-4 as positive, to continue work on the introduction of simulators at the main power plants of Belenergo.

By the way, the simulator, which will appear in the near future in Gomel, will be localized by almost 50 percent. And in the future, the task is to increase this figure. However, BERN specializes in both simulators and digital twins.

- Obtaining the status of a specialized organization requires the maximum amount of competencies from Belenergoremnadka, ensuring an integrated approach and taking responsibility for the results of the work performed and guarantee obligations, Andrei Zhuravlev emphasizes.

InnoTech Solutions LLC, a manufacturer of Belarusian software for energy, also plays an important role in this work. According to the technical director of this organization Dmitry Goryachko, the company has done large-scale work over the past five years:

- Today, there are more than 16 million parameters in the general information model that describe one or another electrical equipment of the Belarusian energy system, which is not just somewhere in the files, but has full-fledged electrical connectivity from the point of view of the topology of the entire electric grid of the Belarusian energy system. The next step was to saturate the outline of this information model. That is, we did not just create it, but with real data. And this information model is constantly saturated. Today it appeals to more than 2.5 billion dimensions. Explosive growth. The complex of analytical data is growing. That is, it began to form as a kind of intellectual ecosystem for solving subsequent problems.

Alexander Melech. Digital simulators have already shown their advantages in application, says Alexander Melekh, head of the Department of Automated Process Control Systems at RUE Minskenergo. He reminds that personnel training is the main element of preparation and safety of modern equipment:

- At the CHPP, as at the NPP, there is an active digitalization of our technological process. We get reliable software and hardware systems that control systems in automatic and semi-automatic mode. And the staff end up with fewer error options associated with the software product.

But preparation is becoming more difficult where digitalization has not yet taken place. According to Alexander Melekh, the staff needs a modern digital tool that will help to cope with the challenges of operating electrical equipment.

- Traditional teaching methods do not give an opportunity to feel the object, to work with it in terms of feedback. Therefore, it is important to move to practice, he explains. This can be done in two ways: either to work on a living object, including it under the supervision of a responsible person, which is inefficient, since there is a high risk of error, or to use simulators. Their advantage is that they allow you to simulate actions, simulate non-standard situations. This gives not only the development of skills, but also the confidence of the staff in any situation.

Before the introduction of digital simulators, power engineers exchanged experience with the Russian Federation, visited existing facilities and simulators. But, Alexander Melekh notes, Belarusian power engineers faced a more difficult task, since all operating facilities had different equipment, and the simulator had to be universal.

- We went further, taking into account these features, says Alexander Melekh. - And we did it.

arteaga@sb.by

Photo by BelTA, Kirill Stasko and from open Internet sources