Dong Energy, which generates more than 50% of Denmark’s power through traditional plants and wind farms, has 85 sites across the country.
It also produces, distributes and sells energy and energy-related products in the UK, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Poland and France, as well as through hydro-electric plants in Sweden. It employs around 6,000 personnel, who mostly work at its Danish sites.
Access all areas
Dong’s new, multi-site, access control system means employees are now able to use the same card to access all sites anywhere in the country. It comprises 6,000 contactless smart cards and proximity cards, 79 door controllers, 617 readers or proximity coupling devices, and four printers.
The system is also installed in smaller substations and office buildings throughout Denmark and has the capability for future expansion into other international locations.
The project included the implementation of new systems and the replacement of old, third-party systems, as well as the facility to interface with Dong’s internal database, which holds company information on human resources and finance.
Siemens developed two applications specifically for Dong’s system, so that it had ‘Present/Not Present’ and ‘Muster Station’ functionality.
The ‘Present/Not Present’ feature was developed to save time during day-to-day operations by enabling key personnel to be located quickly whenever intervention or specific actions are required, Siemens said.
Getting in control
The ‘Muster Station’ capability makes up part of the evacuation application. Dedicated readers are installed on pillars at key assembly points, or muster stations, where employees and visitors present their cards to confirm they have safely evacuated in case of emergency. Emergency response teams can then use the system to print a list of all members of staff that are still on site.
A spokesman said: “The advanced central controllers of the access control system play a crucial role, as they are the interface between the integrated software and the field-level devices, reader interface modules, input-point modules, and output-point modules.
“Two types of controllers are installed, which work in tandem on the same site. Communication between all the controllers in the system takes place peer-to-peer, independent of the server. So if connection to the server should be interrupted, operation of the system is unaffected.”
Following the installation, Siemens was awarded the service contract for three years.
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