The Automatic System for Commercial Accounting of Power Consumption project (ASCAPC) in Nornickel’s Polar Division is now at full swing. The project worth of RUB 950 mln is part of the Technology Breakthrough programme that will help digitise and automate most of Nornickel’s mining and processing operations.

The ASCAPC is implemented in accordance with the Federal Law On Energy Conservation and Improvements in Energy Efficiency and provides for real-time metering of electricity, heat, natural gas, cold and hot water, technical oxygen and compressed air at over 20 major Nornickel facilities on the Taimyr Peninsula.

The construction and installation works are currently underway at Medvezhy Ruchey subsidiary of Nornickel. In January 2019, the implementation will start at the key Polar Division assets, including Nadezhda Metallurgical Plant and Copper Plant, Talnakh Concentrator, Komsomolsky, Skalisty, Oktyabrsky, Taimyrsky, and Mayak mines. The project is scheduled for completion in December 2020.

The automated system will help assess the return on investment in the energy-saving initiatives. The ASCAPC collects readings from the metering equipment for processing and storing, and the automated reports are sent to electricity suppliers for billing purposes.

“The core facilities of the Norilsk Industrial District consume energy worth of over RUB 13 bn. The metering system will give the facility’s power engineers a clear view of consumption across all resources and track any deviations from the pre-set values and enable the required resource-saving initiatives,” said Artem Saverkin, the Chief Power Engineer of Nornickel’s Polar Division.

The modern metering systems will be installed at over 1,500 pieces of fuel, energy and water consumption equipment. The system includes electric meters, flow meters, pressure and temperature sensors produced both in Russia and abroad. The previously installed metering units that match the new requirements will be incorporated in the ASCAPC.

Nornickel to keep count of energy consumption