Fortum – AVEVA manages hydro power stations with central remote monitoring and reporting

Fortum project in a nutshell: 

Fortum's Imatrankoski (178 MW) and Tainionkoski (62 MW) hydropower plants, together producing over 10% of Finland's hydropower, have modernized their automation with AVEVA System Platform. The goal was unified control, real-time monitoring, and remote operation from Fortum's central control room in Espoo.

The solution integrates 22 PLCs from Rockwell, Siemens, and Schneider into a centralized system, connected via a reliable fiber optic network. The AVEVA software provides redundant operations, real-time data collection, and remote control capabilities. The upgrade improves reliability, simplifies reporting, and allows easy system expansion.

The project was implemented by Comatec Automation Oy, an AVEVA-certified partner.

Key goals in the automation and reporting renovation of the power plants were:

• Guaranteed and efficient joint use and reporting of the two hydropower plants
• Combining the different automation devices used in the power plants into the same control room and reporting system at the Imatrankoski hydropower plant
• Easy and secure unmanned local automation outside working hours with a remote control solution from Fortum's central control room in Keilaniemi, Espoo
• Fast project planning and maintenance of the new system, including real-time updates.

Fortum's Imatrankoski and Tainionkoski chose AVEVA automation software as their joint automation solution.

AVEVA software connects 22 PLC systems from various manufacturers

The facilities use 22 PLC systems from several manufacturers: Rockwell Automation, Siemens, and Schneider, all of which have ready interfaces in AVEVA software.

The local AVEVA servers of Imatrankoski and Tainionkoski were connected with a fast, approximately 10-kilometer-long fiber optic cable, which was duplicated for sufficient reliability. The separate servers of the two power plants can act as duplicates of each other if necessary, significantly increasing reliability.

The power plant's automation and reporting applications were created using the AVEVA System Platform application environment, which manages connections, user interfaces, data collection, and reporting. For local operation, the network has three InTouch control room workstations and one remote control room workstation located 300 kilometers away in Fortum's central control room.

The Historian automation database of the AVEVA System Platform handles data collection, storage, and reporting, and compresses data into a small space. Furthermore, one workstation is connected to the same local network for system application development and maintenance.

Achieved Benefits

Significant improvements were achieved with the selected AVEVA System Platform automation and reporting solution compared to previous operations:

• The power system has paid special attention to fail-safe redundancy and duplication. AVEVA System Platform applications and servers used in parallel operation of the two power plants can replace and manage each other's functions if necessary.
• Fast and accurate data collection and reporting by AVEVA software automate the maintenance and service of power plants
• The operation of power plants and the use of different suppliers' automation devices and their information can be monitored in real-time with the same AVEVA software
• Flexible remote monitoring, where all local control room functions can also be managed remotely
• AVEVA software is easy to expand if necessary, and new automation and measurement solutions can be integrated
• AVEVA continuously updates and releases new software versions to match the latest Microsoft environments, ensuring new versions of automation applications and associated security solutions, among others.

The automation solution for Fortum's Imatrankoski and Tainionkoski was implemented by Comatec Automation Oy (Imatra), a certified AVEVA Partner and project house by Klinkmann.