Geothermal power is one of Iceland’s most prized national assets, so keeping the country’s newest power station safe from the effects of fire is a real responsibility, says Yasmin Butt.
Iceland is a small island with a population of just 300,000. It lacks coal reserves, but is endowed with massive glaciers that produce huge volumes of water that can be harnessed to generate electricity. It also happens to straddle a volcanic boundary called the mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rift in the earth’s crust that keeps significant reserves of heat bubbling near the surface.
All electricity on the island is generated through geothermal or hydroelectric sources. The latest development in Iceland’s renewable energy programme is the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. Orkuveita Reykjavikur, (Reykjavik Energy) owns and operates the plant, which sits in snow-covered hills 13 miles outside of Reykjavik, south of the 803-metre high volcanic Mount Hengill.
Electricity production started in 2006 with two 40-45 megawatt turbines. In 2007 a 30 MW low pressure engine was commissioned, and two 40-45 megawatt turbines have since come on line. A hot water plant will begin operation in 2009. When this is complete, the plant will generate 300 megawatts of electricity and 400 megawatts of thermal energy. The engine hall and other facilities have been designed to provide maximum flexibility, so the central building contains the control rooms and shared equipment for the whole plant. Any additional production facilities for electricity and district heating will be located on each side of this main facility.
Dependence
With such dependence being placed on the new plant, and with plans for its future expansion if Reykjavik’s energy demands increase, very careful thought was given to the plant’s fire detection and alarm installation. This was designed by electrical consultancy, Rafteikning hf, as a multi-phase project to run alongside the phased commissioning programme that started in 2006. It is being installed and commissioned by Icelandic fire safety specialist, Ark Security, and incorporates the latest sensing technology from Hochiki Europe. This is integrated with a number of Kentec Electronics’ Syncro fire control panels that will ultimately divide the installation into between 60 and 70 zones.
To date, in excess of 500 Hochiki devices have been installed, but this will rise to between 700 and 800 when the plant is completed at the end of the year. At the moment this is around 350 ESP – Enhanced System Protocol – analogue addressable sensors, 95 call points, 49 beam detectors and 219 analogue addressable relay controllers. These relay controllers allow multiple inputs and outputs at one physical address, which maximises functionality and minimises the number of modules. The plant is protected by a number of different types of sensor, including photoelectric smoke sensors, multi-heat sensors, beacons and beam detectors.
“We chose Hochiki devises because of their proven immunity to false alarms,” said Kjartan Scheving, managing director of ARK Security. “A power plant is a high hazard environment where fire safety is absolutely critical, so fast and reliable fire detection is essential. The Hellisheidi plant is a particularly challenging environment, so it was agreed with Reykjavik Energy that the site needed sensing technology that allowed every device to be automatically re-calibrated every 24 hours, to compensate for any environmental contamination in the plant. This way we could be sure that every sensor will continue to operate reliably at the specified sensitivity.”
False alarm management was deemed to be crucial. Hochiki’s ESP provides what is called ‘full digital transmission’ that delivers exceptionally secure signalling. It also incorporates Hochiki’s Checksum error checking to safeguard the integrity of the data and ensure reliably correct communication, and has high immunity from electrical noise, so there are no false alarms due to corruption. The system also has a suite of false alarm management tools called ARM (alarm reduction management), which includes ‘drift compensation’ that, when activated by the control panel, is what automatically recalibrates the sensors every 24 hours. This particular feature is continuing to prove to be especially useful during the construction stages of the project.
Flat response
The optical sensors at Hellisheidi incorporate what Hochiki calls flat response chamber technology, which optimises the sensor’s sensitivity to both smouldering and flaming fires. The settings on each sensor can be changed at any time, and they react to a wider range of inputs than is possible with less sophisticated devices. The multi-heat sensors incorporate a variable temperature heat element and a rate-of-rise heat element, both of which are controlled from the control panel. This allows either of the thermal elements, or both elements simultaneously, to be active in making the fire decision.
Power generation plants are well known for their huge turbine machine rooms and Hellisheidi is no exception. Beam detectors spaced at 17-metre intervals are able to detect smoke scattered over a large area, with emitters and receivers that cover a distance of anything between 5m and 100m, and a total area coverage of 1,500m2. However, the decision was taken that some areas of the plant would be best protected using high-sensitivity smoke detection equipment which is also designed to differentiate between smoke, dust and steam in ‘dirty’ environments, where it is able to sense the very smallest amounts of smoke.
Hellisheidi is one of just five power plants in Iceland, so its ability to continue functioning at all times – particularly as the island is so dependent upon generating its own geothermal power – is of critical importance.
Icelandic winters are long, cold and dark, with mean daily temperatures dropping to below freezing for five months of the year. So losing production resources that will ultimately generate 300 megawatts of electricity and 400 megawatts of heat due to a fire is chilling, to say the least.
Yasmin Butt is marketing manager at Hochiki Europe.
Geothermal power is one of Iceland’s most prized national assets, so keeping the country’s newest power station safe from the effects of fire is a real responsibility, says Yasmin Butt.
Iceland is a small island with a population of just 300,000. It lacks coal reserves, but is endowed with massive glaciers that produce huge volumes of water that can be harnessed to generate electricity. It also happens to straddle a volcanic boundary called the mid-Atlantic Ridge, a rift in the earth’s crust that keeps significant reserves of heat bubbling near the surface.
All electricity on the island is generated through geothermal or hydroelectric sources. The latest development in Iceland’s renewable energy programme is the Hellisheidi geothermal power plant. Orkuveita Reykjavikur, (Reykjavik Energy) owns and operates the plant, which sits in snow-covered hills 13 miles outside of Reykjavik, south of the 803-metre high volcanic Mount Hengill.
Electricity production started in 2006 with two 40-45 megawatt turbines. In 2007 a 30 MW low pressure engine was commissioned, and two 40-45 megawatt turbines have since come on line. A hot water plant will begin operation in 2009. When this is complete, the plant will generate 300 megawatts of electricity and 400 megawatts of thermal energy. The engine hall and other facilities have been designed to provide maximum flexibility, so the central building contains the control rooms and shared equipment for the whole plant. Any additional production facilities for electricity and district heating will be located on each side of this main facility.
Dependence
With such dependence being placed on the new plant, and with plans for its future expansion if Reykjavik’s energy demands increase, very careful thought was given to the plant’s fire detection and alarm installation. This was designed by electrical consultancy, Rafteikning hf, as a multi-phase project to run alongside the phased commissioning programme that started in 2006. It is being installed and commissioned by Icelandic fire safety specialist, Ark Security, and incorporates the latest sensing technology from Hochiki Europe. This is integrated with a number of Kentec Electronics’ Syncro fire control panels that will ultimately divide the installation into between 60 and 70 zones.
To date, in excess of 500 Hochiki devices have been installed, but this will rise to between 700 and 800 when the plant is completed at the end of the year. At the moment this is around 350 ESP – Enhanced System Protocol – analogue addressable sensors, 95 call points, 49 beam detectors and 219 analogue addressable relay controllers. These relay controllers allow multiple inputs and outputs at one physical address, which maximises functionality and minimises the number of modules. The plant is protected by a number of different types of sensor, including photoelectric smoke sensors, multi-heat sensors, beacons and beam detectors.
"We chose Hochiki devises because of their proven immunity to false alarms," said Kjartan Scheving, managing director of ARK Security. "A power plant is a high hazard environment where fire safety is absolutely critical, so fast and reliable fire detection is essential. The Hellisheidi plant is a particularly challenging environment, so it was agreed with Reykjavik Energy that the site needed sensing technology that allowed every device to be automatically re-calibrated every 24 hours, to compensate for any environmental contamination in the plant. This way we could be sure that every sensor will continue to operate reliably at the specified sensitivity."
False alarm management was deemed to be crucial. Hochiki’s ESP provides what is called ‘full digital transmission’ that delivers exceptionally secure signalling. It also incorporates Hochiki’s Checksum error checking to safeguard the integrity of the data and ensure reliably correct communication, and has high immunity from electrical noise, so there are no false alarms due to corruption. The system also has a suite of false alarm management tools called ARM (alarm reduction management), which includes ‘drift compensation’ that, when activated by the control panel, is what automatically recalibrates the sensors every 24 hours. This particular feature is continuing to prove to be especially useful during the construction stages of the project.
Flat response
The optical sensors at Hellisheidi incorporate what Hochiki calls flat response chamber technology, which optimises the sensor’s sensitivity to both smouldering and flaming fires. The settings on each sensor can be changed at any time, and they react to a wider range of inputs than is possible with less sophisticated devices. The multi-heat sensors incorporate a variable temperature heat element and a rate-of-rise heat element, both of which are controlled from the control panel. This allows either of the thermal elements, or both elements simultaneously, to be active in making the fire decision.
Power generation plants are well known for their huge turbine machine rooms and Hellisheidi is no exception. Beam detectors spaced at 17-metre intervals are able to detect smoke scattered over a large area, with emitters and receivers that cover a distance of anything between 5m and 100m, and a total area coverage of 1,500m2. However, the decision was taken that some areas of the plant would be best protected using high-sensitivity smoke detection equipment which is also designed to differentiate between smoke, dust and steam in ‘dirty’ environments, where it is able to sense the very smallest amounts of smoke.
Hellisheidi is one of just five power plants in Iceland, so its ability to continue functioning at all times – particularly as the island is so dependent upon generating its own geothermal power – is of critical importance.
Icelandic winters are long, cold and dark, with mean daily temperatures dropping to below freezing for five months of the year. So losing production resources that will ultimately generate 300 megawatts of electricity and 400 megawatts of heat due to a fire is chilling, to say the least.
Yasmin Butt is marketing manager at Hochiki Europe.
