Abstract: This paper introduces the characteristics of the fire hazard environment in the petrochemical industry and clarifies the necessity and functional implementation of fire-fighting equipment power supply monitoring systems and electrical fire monitoring systems in the power supply and distribution systems of the petrochemical industry.
Keywords: fire hazard environment; electrical safety; electrical fire monitoring system; fire equipment power supply monitoring
There are tens of thousands of registered petrochemical enterprises nationwide, and the petrochemical industry's contributions to national economic development, improved living standards, and national progress are indispensable. However, the petrochemical industry also presents numerous safety hazards. Its complex production processes inevitably involve flammable substances during extraction, processing, handling, and storage. Static electricity in equipment and pipelines can generate sparks, which can easily ignite explosive air mixtures and hazardous substances exposed to high temperatures or static sparks, potentially leading to fires and explosions. Based on these environmental conditions, the petrochemical industry is prone to electrical fires and therefore requires higher electrical safety standards than other industries.
Loads requiring special power supply are defined as those that, when the normal power supply is interrupted due to a fault or intentionally cut off, require a shutdown to ensure the safe and reliable operation of the enterprise, prevent the further spread of electrical explosions or fires, avoid personnel poisoning and injuries, and prevent the escalation of accidents, while ensuring normal power supply for rescue and evacuation. In petrochemical enterprises, loads requiring special power supply include: communication systems, on-site fire alarm equipment, necessary emergency lighting, and electrical loads within the fire protection system.
Our company proposes two solutions for electrical fire prevention measures in chemical enterprises: ① Install an electrical fire monitoring system; ② Strengthen the monitoring of fire protection power supply load.
1. Install an electrical fire monitoring system
The Acrel-6000 electrical fire monitoring system is a product independently developed by our company, conforming to the national standard ("Electrical Fire Monitoring System Part 1: Electrical Fire Monitoring Equipment"). Its main components are the ARCM electrical fire monitoring detector, the bay layer, and the computer monitoring system. The system's primary function is to detect changes in dangerous parameters that could easily cause fires, such as residual current and temperature, in the protected circuit in real time. When the detected parameters in the protected circuit exceed preset alarm values, the system can issue alarm signals, control signals, and indicate the alarm location on the circuit, enabling managers to effectively control factors that could lead to electrical fires.
1.1 System Structure
The overall system architecture adopts a layered distributed structure, mainly composed of the station control management layer, the interval layer, and the field equipment layer.
•ARCM100-Z monitoring detector
The ARCM series monitoring detectors can measure three-phase current, voltage, power, and power factor; measure four-quadrant energy, fundamental energy, and apparent energy; measure single-loop residual current and monitor temperature; have multiple relay outputs, support fire alarm linkage functions, and use an RS485 communication interface. They are suitable for 0.4kV voltage level TN-CS, TN-S, and local TT systems.
1.2 System Functions
The Acrel-6000 monitoring system primarily offers six functions: monitoring and alarm, fault alarm, control output, self-test, alarm recording, and operation hierarchy. The Acrel-6000 electrical fire system's host computer software features a user-friendly interface, real-time and timed acquisition of residual current and temperature data from field equipment, and alarm prompts including audible and visual alarms. Alarm temperature and leakage current values can be set according to actual needs, and remote reset is possible when an alarm fault is cleared. The system records alarm events, dates, alarm values, and over-limit values, generating and printing reports. The system provides multi-level management access control, assigning different permissions to users at different levels to ensure the system's security and reliability during operation.
1) On-site data acquisition and alarm
The ARCM series monitoring detectors on-site collect real-time data and upload it to the system interface shown in the figure through the monitoring system. When the detector detects that the residual current value of the corresponding circuit is greater than the preset alarm value, the status color of the corresponding alarm unit on the interface changes, which helps to remind on-site personnel to handle and judge the alarm information.
2) Fault Display
The dynamic simulation of the main wiring diagram displays the leakage status and on/off status of each circuit. Audible and visual alarms are triggered on-site or in the control room, and a leakage alarm prompt window automatically pops up on the interface, indicating the specific location or circuit of the leakage alarm.
3) Fault and alarm records
The monitoring software automatically generates event logs (including time, address, alarm type, etc.) and stores them on the hard drive of the monitoring host for easy access by operators.
2. Strengthen monitoring of fire protection power supply load.
Fire safety largely depends on the quality of fire-fighting equipment, and the proper functioning of fire-fighting equipment depends on the working status of the power supply. Without a reliable power supply for fire-fighting equipment, it is useless in critical moments. Therefore, ensuring the normal operation of fire-fighting equipment can play a positive role in the evacuation and rescue of people in the event of a fire.
The AFPM series fire equipment power supply monitoring system is based on the national standard "Fire Equipment Power Supply Monitoring System". The monitoring host is installed in the fire control room and can monitor the power supply of fire equipment in real time. By detecting the voltage, current, and switch status of the fire equipment power supply, it can determine whether there are faults such as open circuit, short circuit, overvoltage, undervoltage, phase loss, phase reversal, and overcurrent (overload) in the power supply equipment, and alarm and record these faults. This system features reliability, real-time performance, digitalization, intelligence, networking, and continuous monitoring. It reflects the power supply status of the monitored equipment in real time and displays it centrally. Fire-fighting electrical equipment in petrochemical enterprises includes: fire pumps, emergency lighting and evacuation indicator lights, fire alarm systems and linkage control systems, fire-fighting electric valves, and other fire-fighting equipment.
The system consists of AFPM100 monitoring detectors, repeaters, AFPM series power monitoring modules, and transmission cables.
The monitoring host adopts a centralized and modular design, equipped with monitoring modules, to track, collect, store, and analyze parameters such as the operating information, fault information, and location information of the monitored fire-fighting equipment power supply, facilitating user management and monitoring. Through a human-machine interface, it summarizes and displays the fire-fighting equipment power supply data, and has multiple functions including management, viewing, alarm, and printing. The maximum network communication distance generally does not exceed 500m.
2.1 AFPM100 Monitoring Detector
It operates 24 hours a day, uses the Modbus-RTU communication protocol, and employs an RS485 half-duplex bus mode, with a transmission distance of 1km (which can be extended via repeaters). To enhance power reliability, in the event of low voltage or power outage of the main power supply (AC220V 50Hz (allowing variations within 85%~110%)), an additional backup power supply can maintain the monitoring equipment's operation for ≥8 hours. The detector can simultaneously provide DC24V power to the connected modules (voltage/current signal sensors).
Its characteristics are as follows:
*Monitoring capacity: ≤128 points
*Display method: 320*240 dot matrix LCD
*Input/Output Module: Built-in Remote I/O Module
*Audible and visual alarm module: Built-in speaker, buzzer, and LED indicator.
2.2 Power Monitoring Module
The monitoring module is used to monitor and collect information on the power supply and operating status of various fire-fighting equipment in real time on-site. It features overvoltage, undervoltage, overcurrent (limited to products with current detection), phase loss (three-phase module), and phase reversal (three-phase module) alarms, and has event storage functionality. The alarm can record the time, type, and parameters of the alarm, allowing analysis of the on-site situation and providing a basis for troubleshooting. Through the RS485 interface and standard Modbus protocol, it can connect to various standard systems, offering advantages such as high integration, networking, high intelligence, and reasonable action characteristics. In practical applications, different monitoring modules with different functions can be selected according to the actual on-site application requirements.
Monitoring modules are divided into three main categories:
AFPM1 indicates a single-phase power supply monitoring module, which can monitor the AC/DC voltage and current of the power supply;
AFPM3 indicates a three-phase power supply monitoring module, used to monitor the AC/DC voltage and current of the power supply;
The AFPM5 is an input/output monitoring module that can monitor switch status and can be connected to an alarm control circuit.
The module adopts a standard modular design and is rail-mounted for convenient on-site use. It utilizes a high-performance microcontroller with embedded data acquisition and communication programs to achieve reliable data acquisition and transmission. Sensor monitoring modules are installed in each area according to the nature and purpose of the fire-fighting equipment, responsible for monitoring the power supply information of the corresponding area's fire-fighting equipment. The monitoring modules are connected via a dedicated RS485 communication network.
2.3 Repeater
Repeaters are suitable for systems where the monitoring host and field monitoring modules are far apart. When the transmission distance exceeds 500m, repeaters are used for expansion, with each repeater managing up to 32 monitoring modules. Repeaters not only increase the system's communication distance but also provide power to the connected field monitoring modules, solving the problem of communication signal and power output attenuation caused by long distances. The repeaters transmit the power information of the connected field monitoring modules and the repeaters to the monitoring host via a communication bus.
This article addresses the specific electrical safety needs of the petrochemical industry, introducing Acrel Electric Co., Ltd.'s provision of power supply monitoring and electrical fire monitoring products and solutions for power distribution systems to petrochemical enterprises, leveraging its strong R&D capabilities and high-quality pre-sales and after-sales services. These solutions aim to meet the requirements of electrical fire prevention and early alarm systems in buildings, thereby curbing electrical fires and safeguarding the electrical safety of petrochemical enterprises.
3. Company Profile
Acrel Electric Co., Ltd. [Stock Code: 300286.SZ] is one of the few leading domestic companies that provides intelligent power monitoring, power management, and electrical safety system solutions for smart grid users.
Since its establishment in June 2003, the company has focused on the research, development, production and sales of smart power meters for users. Its product line covers low-voltage power signal acquisition, measurement, metering, monitoring, protection and system integration for smart grid users. The main products include network power meters, smart motor controllers, DIN rail mounted energy meters, power sensors, photovoltaic combiner boxes, active filters, medical cleanroom power cabinets and other products, as well as system solutions such as smart power monitoring and energy management, building energy consumption analysis and management, electrical fire monitoring, data center power monitoring, photovoltaic power station monitoring, and ZigBee (Internet of Things) wireless power management.
The company possesses a Jiading District-level technology center and is a high-tech enterprise and software enterprise. It has participated in the drafting or compilation of several national and industry standards for power meters, including GB/T22264-2008 "Installation-type Digital Electrical Measuring Instruments", JB/T10736-2007 "Low-voltage Motor Protectors", GB/T15576-2008 "Low-voltage Complete Reactive Power Compensation Devices", and GB/T22387-2008 "Residual Current Operated Relays". As of December 2011, the company held over 100 authorized patents and over 70 computer software copyrights; its ACR network power meter was listed as a national key new product, and the company was designated as one of the key smart grid enterprises by the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Information Technology.
In 2007, the company's production base in Jiangyin, Jiangsu Province, was completed and put into operation. The first phase of the factory covered an area of 10,000 square meters and was the first enterprise in the intelligent power meter industry to adopt lead-free SMT production technology, providing a guarantee for the industrialization and large-scale implementation of the company's products. In March 2010, the company underwent technological upgrades, including anti-static renovations to the workshop, further improving the production environment. Simultaneously, an MES management system was introduced, with barcode scanning at each stage of the process, enabling control over the entire production progress and process. This essentially achieved paperless management, saving production costs and improving management efficiency.
Ankerui's trademarks and products have been recognized as famous trademarks and brand-name products in Shanghai. Its products have been widely used in major domestic and international projects such as the Shanghai World Expo, the Guangzhou Asian Games, the Costa Rica National Stadium, the Beijing-Tianjin High-Speed Railway power monitoring, the Dunhuang 10MW photovoltaic demonstration power station, the Bank of China Pudong Data Center, and the India 500,000-ton coking plant, winning a good market reputation.
References:
[1] HG/T20664-1999 Technical Regulations for Power Supply Design of Chemical Enterprises.
[2] Acrel Electric Co., Ltd. System Solutions. Version 2013.1.
[3] A Brief Analysis of the Design and Precautions of Electrical Fire Monitoring Systems Cui Yujun, Xu Yushan, Pei Shanyong
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