As of January 18, the intelligent heat supply control system in Gangfangyao Station along the Datong-Zhungeer Railway of Xinshuo Railway Co., Ltd. a subsidiary of China Energy, had been under smooth trial operation for 20 days. It not only achieves smart heat supply regulation in the 4,100-square-meter railway station area, but also significantly improves the efficiency, safety and reliability of heat supply, marking another step towards the goal of “peaking carbon emissions by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2060.”

A worker operates the intelligent heat supply system.

The intelligent heat supply system upgrades the traditional centralized heat supply mode with boilers as the heat sources used along the railway through introducing front-end detecting devices such as temperature and pressure sensors, ultrasonic heat meters, and wireless communication master stations, so as to realize intelligent control, save energy, reduce emissions, and enhance efficiency. It features a data processing system integrating 4G/5G transmission and background analysis software, achieving automatic data collection and analysis, heat supply adjustment, real-time boiler remote control, and unmanned operation. One can monitor boiler operations in the real-time manner via the big screen in the scheduling center and carry out precise statistics of key data, thus effectively enhancing the safety coefficient of boilers. Besides, the system can remotely modify heat supply parameters, switch on/off boilers and water pumps, monitor heat supply and power use in a real-time manner, and review historical data. Once any abnormal situations happen to the heat supply equipment, its server will send alert signals to the terminals, so that operators can handle problems as quickly as possible. Important information collected by the smart balance valve will be immediately sent to the heat supply server, and then the system will adjust the temperature automatically based on analysis results, thus achieving balanced heat supply. In addition, through upgrading heat supply equipment and facilities along the railway, the system can achieve real-time and remote transmission and control of operating modes, data and video systems, and form statistical statements to help operators conduct analysis of historical data, for the purposes of reducing energy consumption and labor costs, improving management capacity, and enhancing safety.

Workers inspect data of the system.

Xinshuo Railway Co., Ltd. focuses on building “intelligent logistics,” with an aim to “meet employees’ aspiration for a better life.” It insists on incorporating the concept of energy conservation and emission reduction into every aspect of logistics work. The upgrading of heat supply equipment is a priority in the drive of energy conservation and environmental protection. Through constantly innovating approaches, improving service quality and using information technology, the company has carried out integrated R&D of the “intelligent logistics” project, so as to build a smarter logistics brand better serving people’s needs.

After it was officially put into operation, the intelligent heat supply system has effectively solved problems such as imbalanced heat supply, electricity waste, and inability to monitor offline-operating equipment, and achieved computer-aided basic data management, visualized heat supply management, and intelligent production scheduling and user service. It can save human labor by 70%, and reduce equipment malfunction rate by 45%. Each electric boiler (240KW) can save electricity of more than 60,000 kWh each year. The system will be used in 83 electric boilers along the railway.