Hydro Tasmania extends access to critical data

Tasmania is known for its natural beauty. It boasts more than 1000 mountain peaks, pristine coasts and four mild seasons. More than 40% of the main island is protected as national parks and reserves, which are home to some of the world’s rarest animals.

Tasmania has been extremely successful in protecting its largely unspoiled natural environment. National Geographic Traveler magazine’s Sustainable Tourism Initiative ranked Tasmania third in the world for wise land stewardship.

Hydro Tasmania plays a significant part in keeping the state clean. As Australia’s leading renewable energy business, it contributes 50% of the country’s electricity from renewable energy sources. Hydro Tasmania generates approximately 10,000 gigawatt hours (GWh) of electricity annually through 28 power stations, numerous lakes and over 50 large dams.

Previously, Hydro Tasmania stored all historical alarm and process data in an internally developed database. The company’s old system was nearing the end of its life and depended on a few individuals with the appropriate knowledge. Only the Critical Systems department could access the data, requiring team members to respond to time-consuming requests for data rather than focusing on ensuring reliable operation of the control network. Delays in providing data to others could often be extended into weeks as IT personnel shuffled priorities. On top of that, it was nearly impossible for the team to create the custom reports it needed to assess operational performance.

To increase efficiency, the power company looked at operations optimisation solutions from Matrikon. Specifically, Hydro Tasmania looked at Matrikon Alarm Manager and Matrikon Operational Insight. Alarm Manager seamlessly collects and stores all alarm and event data and automatically generates web-based, standards-compliant key performance indicator reports that give users an accurate look at the current state of alarm management. Operational Insight serves as the window into plant data, providing a web-based dashboard for all those who need to access the data.

Matrikon assisted Hydro Tasmania in implementing Operational Insight as the visualisation toolset drawing data from Alarm Manager and the AspenTech InfoPlus.21 real-time data historian. Matrikon also developed a custom OPC-style interface to provide data to the AspenTech InfoPlus.21 data collection mechanism and, in turn, access to Hydro Tasmania Remote Terminal Unit (RTU) time-based data from across Tasmania, Victoria and South Australia. Matrikon configured more than 37,000 individual tags to be collected at a one-minute poll rate.

In addition, Matrikon imported seven years worth of historical data from the current historian into the IP.21 historian to allow users to access all previous and current data. The system can store approximately 15 years of data without the need to add more hard disk space.

“Matrikon listened carefully to our needs and provided us with a solution encompassing alarm management and a process data historian with powerful but easy-to-use web-based visualisation and reporting tools,” said Gerard Flack, manager of integration operations at Hydro Tasmania.

Alarm Manager retrieves alarm and sequence-of-event data automatically and continuously and stores it for performance reporting. It allows operators to monitor operations and analyse contingent events, determining compliance with design and operating standards. All relevant parties, including those beyond operators, can access the data quickly, from any web interface, through Matrikon Operational Insight. With Operational Insight, users trend time-based tag data and produce schematics, overview screens and dashboards.

The Operational Insight dashboard provides a comprehensive view of all operations, showing lake levels and system, station and machine loads.

Hydro Tasmania employees across all levels, from operators to senior managers, have configured their desktop dashboards to display the information they need for their various responsibilities. Instead of waiting for operations staff to provide data from the production database, employees are empowered to retrieve that data when they need it from Operational Insight dashboards.

“Previously, access to this data was limited to people with access to our production database and hence delays were common for those without access,” Flack said.

The Matrikon solutions enabled Hydro Tasmania to realise its objective of extending data access and thereby freeing the Critical Systems team to stay focused on its primary role of assuring network reliability. In addition to enhanced staff productivity, employees have the timely insight they need for decisions regarding asset management — to ultimately keep operations safe and efficient.

“Data is now turned into valuable knowledge, making for more effective decision-making and it continues to do so as more people tailor dashboards to fulfil their information requirements,” Flack said. “The rate at which people are seeking out accounts for the system is testimony to its value to the organisation.”

Matrikon Asia-Pacific
www.matrikon.com