Unfolding a Safer and Secure World, With SCADA,  In the Mineral Sector By (Pradeep Kumar), Ex-G.M. CMPDI Coal India Limited

 1.0 INTRODUCTION

Application of State-of-the-Art technique, for safer and secure  extraction of minerals from the Bowel of the Mother Earth, is an issue of paramount importance. To this end, a host of tools & pathbreaking techniques are continually being deployed in the Mining / Mineral Sector. From a broader perspective, for any mine, the Mining /Mineral Resources Development Cycle typically constitutes of different stages, as illustrated, diagrammatically, below:

More specifically, for any Operational mine, the different stages of Mineral/ Mining Cycle typically constitute of the following stages:

• Drilling,
• Blasting(as required)

(iii)       Mineral Extraction, and

• Transport of the excavated mineral to the targeted/ desired destination.

With the recent advances in the State-of-the-Art in the arena of technology and infusion of money, once the targeted mineral has been optimally extracted, after drilling and blasting, based on meticulous Scientific Study for implementation of advanced monitoring, control and automated systems, the application of automation techniques like Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition(SCADA)- particularly, for transport of the mined out mineral has become a shining light of automated and efficient transport of Mineral – with enhanced Fail-Safe/ Safety & Feedback features – subsequent to accurate Data Acquisition from the Operational System-  to the desired destination in a mine.

For SCADA System, in order to have better supervision, safer operation and precise control of the targeted Mineral output, Microprocessor based programmable logic controllers (PLC), with two processors- (Main processing unit and memories) one for normal operation and another as standby, suitable for industrial control system- are provided.  The PLCs, in the Network, have the facilities of remote monitoring and sequential control, including local operation of individual equipment, audio and visual fault annunciation, normal status display, signalling, data logging, data display and printing etc. Micro-processor based monitoring and control system with associated software (IIOT devices) enable real time remote monitoring, thereby ensuring safer and sequential control of the Mineral Handling Plant.

The SCADA system is installed to control, protect, record and monitor all the 6.6 kV feeders and ACB Incomer and Bus coupler of all the substation and power transformers

The SCADA system shall contain the following main functional parts:

• Intelligent Electronic Device (IED)/ Numerical Relays, IEC 61850compliant, independently for each feeder having feeder protection, control, monitoring & metering functions. Thus, an IED is capable of using its wisdom, based on System Feedback, for the Control of the System Network.

All these IEDs / Numerical relays shall be connected in star topology network since it’s a network that involves connected components, isolated from each other, thus, ensuring enhanced safety/ Fail-Safe features in the Control System. For that reason, any failure of a single linked device does not impact the way that the rest operates, except for disabling them to communicate with the failed device. However, the flip side is that the malfunction of the central node disrupts the operation of the entire network. So, continual effort so as to negate/ minimize any malfunction of the Central Node in the Mineral Handling network, becomes the Order of the day.

This is to be noted that this kind of topology allows for connecting new components to the network or removing existing ones.

In sharp contrast, the non-SCADA based network infrastructure have no such benefit  of scalability, modularity etc.  and, in addition, are limited by the distance up to which the extracted mineral could be transported, with lesser System Reliability and have lesser Flexibility in the Network design, in case, certain IIOT nodes are to be added.

The Mineral Handling Plant of one of these mines, having SCADA based network System- one that typically ensures Scalability, modularity and is independent of the distance up to which the extracted mineral is to be transported- is further illustrated diagrammatically as follows:

Benefits of SCADA:

In general, the benefits of implementation of SCADA based System over conventional Systems may be enumerated as follows:

1. remote monitoring
2. Sequential Control

iii. Local Operation of  any specific equipment

1. Audio-Visual Fault Annunciation
2. Normal Status Display
3. Signalling,

vii. Real time Monitoring

viii. Safer& “Intelligent” Control

Nowadays, application of A.I. capable IEDs -in the SCADA System network- are fast becoming the “Holy Grail” for mega-scale Engineering projects

The II0T enabled system would develop remote web browser/application software-based access to authorized persons. The system would also generate necessary reports on daily/weekly/monthly and yearly basis and automate the reports availability to concerned mine official email Id. The web-based software solution would generate alert notifications to concerned support mine official through SMS and E-mail. There would be provision for selection of all displays including graphics, trend, overview, group view, loop view, alarm page, turning page etc.

COST  ESTIMATE:

Thus, implementation of SCADA would typically cost ~ Rs. 1.80 Crore with the numerous benefits as mentioned previously. The details are given in the Table as follows:

The Above cost is tentative and varies with specific requirement.

CONCLUSION:

The benefits readily available with the implementation of SCADA System, instead of the earlier Conventional System for the Mineral Handling Plant, are summarized, in nutshell, as follows:

1. Human Machine Interface[HMI] ( CCD/CD for Substations) for control of Electrical Drives- supplied by Sub station, complete with microprocessor based PLC, for SCADA
2. Audio-visual signalling
3. Fault annunciation system, interlocking, printer, VDUs etc and
4. Dovetailing of sequence operation of Conveyors, flap gates, snub drives ,vibro feeders , traffic control console etc., as per requirement
5. The SCADA System is not limited by the distance up to which the Mineral is to be transported since Data acquisition and communication takes place via “Cloud”.

6.. Application of Artificial intelligence(A.I.) based Control System with the use of SCADA.