Unified dispatch center: the basis for managing enterprise engineering systems.
Carrying out such a large-scale reconstruction was necessary due to the high probability of failure of the life support systems of buildings , as well as the operation of outdated equipment.
Only by ensuring the uninterrupted operation of engineering systems can we guarantee the continuity of the bank’s business processes as a whole.
It is unnecessary to explain how critical a failure in the work of the country’s main bank could be for the entire financial system of the country. A minute of downtime in the electronic payment system results in millions of losses. In addition, the continuity of such processes as: communication with the exchange, servicing accounts, making payments, etc., implies operation 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. This regime requires qualitatively different approaches to organizing the uninterrupted and trouble-free operation of facilities. To solve the problem, the following solution was developed, called the Unified Dispatch Center (UDC).
Prerequisites for creating the concept of the UDC
The CHERUS company, since 1994, has carried out a range of works on the design and implementation of engineering support systems at the central office of the Bank of Russia, as well as a number of its divisions. The complex of engineering systems for facilities included power supply systems, ventilation systems, air conditioning (including technological), fire protection systems.
Engineering systems, in principle, require highly qualified service, and such service that would correspond to the level of the installed equipment Neither the Central Bank, much less other banks, had it then.
Initially, neither the leadership of the Central Bank nor we planned to automate engineering systems, but as the work progressed, it became obvious that a unified system for monitoring and managing the entire engineering complex was needed. Firstly, any equipment can fail, and therefore it will take time to restore it.
In addition, it is necessary not only to reduce the response time to emerging incidents, but also to be able to prevent failures and failures in the operation of systems, always know what is happening with the equipment at the site and receive proactive messages.
Previously the situation was like this: the response occurred only after a series of calls from the site or, even worse, the calls came after a series of incompetent actions by maintenance personnel, which subsequently led to serious problems with the equipment.
The second important prerequisite for the implementation of a control system is the impossibility of assigning a corresponding specialist to each type of equipment: ensuring the presence of a highly qualified electrician, air conditioner or other service employee is physically impossible in each of the 1,200 branches of the Central Bank, especially if these facilities are located in remote parts of the country.
After conducting a comprehensive analysis, it was decided to begin work on creating a monitoring system from the power supply system, since this is the most critical life support system for objects, and the most technically complex equipment of this system is UPS (uninterruptible power supplies).
Very often, the maintenance of UPS or maintenance of diesel generator sets is transferred to the company that installed them, i.e.
the company that supplies these devices also services them. However, such dependence on external contractors reduces the reliability of the system and is not always feasible at remote sites.
So, the first stage in the development of a unified system was the creation of a system for monitoring and controlling the operation of all uninterruptible power supplies.
After some time, the specialists working on the project realized that the task was much broader and more complex than originally thought. Firstly, it is necessary to control not only the energy supply system, but also the entire engineering complex. Secondly, it became clear that it is impossible to ensure the uninterrupted operation of engineering systems using software alone (even using the most powerful SCADA systems). To ensure reliable and trouble-free operation of the facilities, it was necessary to develop a set of organizational and technical measures. The solution came in the creation of a Unified Dispatch Center (UDC). Its main task is to control and manage the entire complex of engineering systems of a large geographically distributed company in order to ensure stable and trouble-free operation. Looking ahead a little, we will say that the EDC is also an effective tool for reducing the operating costs of companies.
Solution architecture
The EDC model, created by specialists of our company, consists of three interconnected components:
• electronic passport of the object,
• monitoring system,
• call center (or call center).
Each the component performs its function and provides a solution to certain system problems.
The electronic passport is a comprehensive description of the object and contains all the information related to the life cycle of the equipment and necessary for its maintenance and repair (see Fig. 1).
In order to create an electronic passport of the entire facility, it is necessary to make a complete inventory of the equipment located on it. This applies not only to complex technical equipment, but also to any parts that were purchased, including spare filters, belts, etc. Components of the equipment — filters, fans, etc. – are also subject to inventory and are included in the electronic passport of the product and the entire object.
An electronic passport allows the company’s operational services to keep records of equipment and have a complete picture of what is on their balance sheet. With its help, you can also quickly obtain information about which service contracts correspond to a particular installed equipment, what routine maintenance has been carried out or is planned to be carried out. You can enter information about the cost of predicted repairs into the electronic passport. This makes it possible to compare the cost of maintaining current equipment and purchasing new equipment. As a result, it is significantly simplified to make decisions about whether it is worth further servicing the equipment or whether it is time to replace it.
Thus, the electronic passport allows you to keep track of the total cost of ownership (Total Over Cost) and all costs in real time. related to the life cycle of equipment. An example of calculating the total cost of ownership is shown in Fig. 2.
But, let's return to inventory. Today, there are three ways to carry out equipment inventory:
• the most common and most ineffective method is the classic application with a marker, paint, etc. inventory number for objects;
• second – barcoding;
• third, the most “advanced” method – radio frequency identification (RFID).
RFID and barcoding technologies are very similar — the difference is that in the case of RFID, it is not the barcode that is read, but the radio frequency signal. This inventory method is very convenient if the equipment or system is located in a hard-to-reach place (for example, behind a wall, behind a ceiling, etc.).
In addition, the barcode is extremely sensitive to environmental influences (humidity, temperature, sunlight, etc.), is erased over time and may lose the ability to be read. The RFID method is the most reliable and durable, not sensitive to environmental factors. In addition, to read an RFID tag, it is enough to be within the range of its radio frequencies (from 5 cm to several meters). In this case, the object does not necessarily have to be in the line of sight.
This advantage is especially important when it is not necessary to carry out an initial inventory of the object, but its repeated audit.
As a result of the inventory, all data (no matter which of the three methods they were identified) is entered into an information database in which each inventory number corresponds to the name of the product, its location, information about the specialist or company that services it, the cost of maintenance and repair etc. An important feature of the EDC is that all information systems and the Call Center are integrated into a single information space.
The monitoring system is the second component of the EDC. Registers information about the condition of the object and equipment and presents it in a form convenient for the operator.
The main functionality of the system is control and monitoring of the operation of all engineering systems located at the facilities.
For the monitoring system of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, the CHERUS software department developed its own software product “CHERUS-macro system” (monitoring and control of remote object systems). Essentially, this is a BMS (building management system) class system, and, of course, this solution has analogues on the market. Any other SCADA system combined with a maintenance and repair system, which is part of the electronic passport of the equipment and related to maintenance and repair, can act as a monitoring system.
Like any monitoring and control system, the monitoring system has a classic three-level structure. Elements of the first level are located directly on the object and are sensors built into engineering equipment. They record equipment operating parameters (voltage, temperature, etc.) and transmit them to a controller, which can be installed at each facility, or control the operation of several facilities located fairly close to each other.
The controller converts the information received from the sensors into digital form and transmits it to the dispatch center, which can be located at any remote point (for example, in the central office). Here it is displayed on the operator’s monitor screen in a format familiar to him (graphs, electrical diagrams, etc.). The system can be configured so that, in the event of critical messages, the information is duplicated on the phone, pager, laptop of several responsible persons. Communication between the controller and the EDC can be carried out in various ways: via the Internet, via an optical cable, via a radio channel, satellite communication or any other existing method. Can be specially protected and encrypted. Thus, the dispatch center located in Moscow controls the operation of all enterprise facilities.
If, for example, there is a malfunction in the air conditioning unit, this information is transmitted to the information processing point, which is a complex of software and hardware (sensors — controller — computer). Next, the system classifies the category of the incident, identifies the event and issues regulations for the necessary repair work, and, if necessary, an invoice for the work. In addition, the processing (monitoring) unit works not only with current failures, but also with planned maintenance, and also issues regulations and invoices for planned work. Thus, the monitoring system performs the task of registering and transmitting information about the state of engineering systems at facilities to the accounting system.
The current state of engineering systems is displayed on-line on the monitor screen in a form familiar and convenient for the operator. In the event of an incident, information about it is automatically transferred to the accounting system, which contains a list of possible failures, work regulations and estimates for eliminating them are defined. Thus, due to some failure in the same supply ventilation system, the system signals a malfunction, identifies the nature of the malfunction, issues regulations and an estimate of work.
In addition to the monitoring system that records information about failures, the EDC model includes a Call center. It represents a single entry point for all problems related to the state of engineering systems. Center operators accept requests directly from operational services and tenants, coordinate the implementation of requests for maintenance and support of infrastructure elements.
The main tasks of the Call Center are the operational management of equipment failures and the organization of the work of service departments.
System reliability
System reliability is ensured by all components of the EDC:
1. Thanks to the electronic passport of the object, scheduled repairs of equipment and timely replacement of parts become possible, which significantly reduces the risk of problematic situations.
2. The monitoring system sends proactive messages about failures or changes in system operating parameters, which allows you to respond to a problematic situation in a timely manner and solve it with the help of a qualified specialist.
3. The monitoring system allows you to predict failures. By detecting the repetition of any equipment failure, it signals a system error. A specialist who monitors the proper operation of an engineering system, using the data received, has the opportunity to contact the service department of the company servicing this equipment before a serious malfunction occurs, such as, for example, a failure of an uninterruptible power supply.
4. Integration of all information systems and the Call Center allows you to quickly and efficiently resolve equipment malfunctions. Since the monitoring system itself is not immune from failures, because consists of various equipment, it is designed in such a way that, with a qualified approach to troubleshooting, the time to fully restore its functionality does not exceed 30 minutes. This condition is specified in the Terms of Reference.
Results
Today, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation has implemented most of the EDC concept.
In the central office of the bank, located in Moscow, the SBGE monitoring system has been introduced.
The number of subsystems of this energy supply system is in the hundreds.
It is worth noting that there is no shortage of monitoring system offerings on the market, but the fundamental difference between the EDC is that it offers a set of technical and organizational measures, which, taken together, make it possible to ensure trouble-free operation of facilities.
The system is focused on the fact that it is possible to make correct informed decisions only by creating a single information space, a single point for processing all information and a single decision-making center.