zenon COPA-DATA - Bellinzona secures energy supply with zenon

For almost 150 years, the capital of Ticino, Bellinzona, has been supplied with energy and communication by the AMB company. Now it was time to renew the technology and adapt it to current requirements and standards. This complex project was tackled together with the expert COSTRONIC SA and with the zenon software from COPA-DATA.

The Azienda Municipalizzate Bellinzona (AMB) has been securing the energy supply for Bellinzona and the neighbouring municipalities since 1869. Today, around 15,000 households receive an average of 280 GWh of electricity per year from AMB, in addition to fast telecommunications via a fibre-optic network and clean drinking water. The energy is distributed via a 50 kV/16 kV grid. About 20% of the energy demand is generated from hydropower and photovoltaics.

When it came to converting the already outdated and locally distributed operation of the 50 kV/16 kV power supply to a central control system, AMB commissioned COSTRONIC SA with the implementation. Experience in successful cooperation had already been gained in a power plant project.

AMB did not simply want to replace the aging technology, but above all to build a secure and highly available system. A central requirement was the secure fulfilment of the legal requirement for complete 10-year archives. In addition, it had to be ensured that the staff on 24-hour standby duty in the control centre receive their information in real time. A perfect overview of all information and fast access to current and stored data were considered standard anyway.

The system integrator COSTRONIC SA built up the project in several stages and implemented it in a targeted manner. First, a simple sub-project was realised as a basis. This was then expanded to a multi-project management, which functioned as a multi-client. Then came the step to vertical redundancy as a multi-standby server and finally the connection to the higher-level load distributor. Subsequently, 80 transformers (16 kV) and distribution boxes (400 V) were also integrated per IEC 61850.

For Claude Nidegger, Sales Manager of COSTRONIC SA, the decision to use zenon as the visualisation system was obvious:

zenon is perfectly scalable and could thus be ideally adapted to the growing requirements. Above all, the simple reuse of images and symbols as well as the support of many energy protocols made project planning very easy for us. The subsequent visualisation of 80 transformers and distribution boxes was easily realised via the indexed image switching.

Claude Nidegger, Verkaufsleiter der COSTRONIC SA

In the final configuration, several servers and clients use zenon to control and visualise the seven Schneider Modicon M340s via Open Modbus TCP/IP and the 120 Schneider protective relays via IEC 61850. The connection is made via the direct drivers already supplied in zenon. During runtime, the entire network is displayed as a zenon world view and coloured using automatic line colouring. The operators have an overview of the complete network at all times and can zoom into the details at the same time if required.

Each of the servers has an SQL connection. Since the entire technology was designed with vertical and horizontal redundancy, it is also ensured that no data is lost in the event of a hardware failure and that the legal recording obligation is fulfilled without gaps.

The careful implementation convinced AMB:

The project planning fully meets our requirements and specifications. In the course of the project, we have come to appreciate the advantages of open interfaces and simple scaling.

Pasqualino Pansardi, Power Generation Manager bei AMB

zenon at a glance

• 7x Schneider Modicon M340 via Modbus
• 4x 30 Schneider protective relays via IEC 61850
• Integrated direct drivers IEC 60870, IEC 61850 and Open Modbus with time stamp
• Server and multi-standby server under Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.1
• Multi-monitor solution for parallel connection of several images SQL connection
• World view for overview and detailed display of the complete network
• Clear colouring of the lines and their states

About Constronic SA

COSTRONIC SA was founded in 1986 and has since established itself as an expert in the energy sector. The teams of the Swiss integrator have already realised over 2,500 automation projects: For hydropower plants and the transmission and distribution of high, medium and low voltage supply as well as for road and infrastructure projects. COSTRONIC has been a member of the COPA-DATA Partner Community since June 2012.