Ethernet boosts coal-mine safety and economics

Ethernet technology is helping to drive a resurgence in the UK coal mining byt improving operators’ ability to extract coal economically and safely, according to David Moss, business development manager at GarrettCom Europe:

Gosport, UK - Increasing demands for electricity combined with concerns over reserves of oil and gas have prompted a reappraisal of coal. And with the latest clean coal technologies dramatically reducing carbon emissions and cutting out other pollutants that can harm the environment, coal is proving to be both clean and reliable.

This is good news for UK’s coal mining industry, which is bucking the trend of the last two decades and is on the up. After years of closures, a number of mine are reopening, creating hundreds of new jobs and driving an investment in modern technology.

Coal-fired power stations account for more than 80% of total coal use in the UK, producing over a third of its electricity. But UK coal producers currently meet only a third of UK demand, with the rest imported from the likes of Russia, South Africa, Australia, Indonesia and Columbia.

Some 44 million tonnes of coal were imported in 2005, and imports rose by 14% in 2006 with demand expected to carry on increasing through 2007, demonstrating the potential for domestically mined coal.

Virtually none of the UK’s coal is currently exported, but forecasts suggest that international trade in fossil fuel is expected to double by 2030, thanks largely to the growth of industry in China and India.

At the end of 2006, the UK had seven large deep mines, producing 10 million tonnes of coal annually. But the Unity mine in the Vale of Neath in South Wales was recently reopened and by March 2007 was in full swing, with the capacity to produce a million tonnes of high quality coal a year. Surveyors at Unity believe they have 89 million tonnes to go at, and a business plan has been produced to keep the mine going for the next 25 years and beyond.

The company behind Unity has indicated that it could open four more mines in South Wales, whilst a second company has reopened a mine not far from Unity in Aberpergwm. Further, there are plans to reopen the Hatfield colliery in South Yorkshire, which closed in 2004, and experts reckon that Yorkshire as a whole may have several hundred years of coal left.

UK Energy White Paper

This revitalised activity will have caught many by surprise, particularly with so much emphasis on renewable energy sources. Yet, the government’s own findings suggest fossil fuels will continue to be our predominant source of energy for decades to come. The UK Energy White Paper published by the DTI in May this year concluded that even by 2020 and despite an emphasis on renewable energy sources, fossil fuels will still be supplying the great majority of UK energy needs.

At the same time, the UK Energy White Paper noted that the UK’s reserves of oil and gas are declining, and that we are therefore bound to become more reliant of imports of these particular fossil fuels. However, the Government is also keen to remove the risk of relying too heavily on fossil fuels from overseas sources, which are growing fewer and steadily further away, and which are frequently regions of political instability.

This brings the role of domestically produced coal to the fore. The White Paper confirms that England, Wales and Scotland still have significant recoverable coal reserves, and that these reserves have the potential to help meet our national demand for coal and to reduce our dependence on imported primary fuels.

The Government’s commitment to coal recovery saw it establish the Coal Forum last autumn, bringing together key players from the coal industry and the power sector to develop strategies to maximise economic production of coal.

The Coal Forum will make a detailed report later this year, but its emerging findings suggest that continuing access to supplies of UK produced coal benefits both the generating industry and other industrial coal users; such supplies can help to manage any potential risk to supplies from international coal markets.

Although coal has historically been the dirtiest of fuels, new technologies hold out the prospect of dramatically reducing coal emissions. Collectively these are known as clean coal technology (CCT). One of the key technologies within CTT is carbon capture and storage (CSS), which involves capturing the carbon dioxide – preventing the greenhouse gas entering the atmosphere – and storing it deep underground. This could reduce emissions from coal-fired power stations by as much as 90%.

In his Budget speech this April, the Chancellor announced that the Government would launch a competition to demonstrate commercial scale CSS on power generation in the UK.

The Government intends to launch the competition in November, with the aim of having the demonstration operating early in the next decade. When operational, this will make the UK and world leader in this globally important technology. Successful demonstration of CSS would be a major contribution by the UK to global efforts to tackle climate change.

Coal, then, has turned around its image of an environmentally damaging fuel, and is firmly on the Government’s agenda for meeting the UK’s energy needs for decades to come. If it can be mined in Britain, so much the better, because in addition to reducing our dependence on imported fuels, it also contributes to the economic vitality and skills base of the regions where it is found. But for the UK’s re-emerging coal mining industry to be successful, that coal has to recovered both economically and safely.

Safe and economic coal extraction

Meeting the need for increased safety and efficiency, mining operations are being equipped with sophisticated industrial controls and sensors. In many mining operations, live video data is joining with information from sensors and industrial controls. Of course this dramatically increases the bandwidth requirements for the network, and quickly exceeds the performance limits of serial technology. But industrial Ethernet is emerging as a rugged and reliable solution for the mining industry, delivering an unbeatable combination of high performance, interoperability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.

GarrettCom has recently demonstrated the value of an Ethernet-based solution in an upgrade of an environmental control system for a mine. The environmental control system operates seven days a week, around the clock, and is critical to keep the mines safe and also for management of the control systems. Using the environmental control system, the mine’s operators can evaluate air quality and determine whether it is safe for workers to enter the mine. Carbon monoxide (CO) sensors and methane sensors are used underground to monitor the air quality.

The mine extended for 18 miles and had long used serial technology for information. In designing a systems upgrade, the mine operators had run into limitations, both in the distance into the mine and in the number of serial end devices that could be supported. Further, they wanted to add the capability for live video data to monitor the equipment in the mine, instead of sending manned vehicles to the equipment location to get operations status data.

All of the mine equipment and environmental information needed to be available without interruption in order to support operating decisions and to avoid compromising safety.

The Ethernet

Ethernet technology opens up the ability to have an industry-standard common network for all of the real-time information that is crucial for safe operation of a mine. Bandwidth and number of end-devices limits, which had been considerations for serial lines, are readily handled by shared Ethernet media. Fibre media is future-proof for speed, and single-mode fibre easily handles the huge distances. For high availability in this instance, the mine operators implemented a single-mode fibre loop in the mine shaft to establish a ring structure that can provide self-healing fault recovery.

The company chose GarrettCom’s managed Ethernet switches S-ring redundancy management software to meet its application requirements. It chose GarrettCom because of the cost-effective range of managed Ethernet products, fibre port configurability, industrial rating, AC and DC power options, and proven track record in industrial networks.

The mine’s control network of SCADA systems and VLANs keep track of PLCs, environmental conditions, Longwall mining machines, Beltline conveyors, and pump stations. In addition, the company is in the process of adding many IP phones and video cameras. All these networks are connected via the GarrettCom switches. 6K25 managed Fibre switches are used in the main office to interconnect with other switch brands. Further, 6K16V switches are used in the underground control stations and are attached to end device. In addition, GarrettCom mP62 switches with environmentally-protected enclosures are employed in the mining area.

The use of Ethernet products in the coal mine has provided operator with safe mining operations. The S-Ring redundancy manager software and the Ethernet switches have effectively eliminated network downtime inside of the mine, keeping information flowing at all times and informing the company when the mine conditions are safe for workers to enter the mine.

The sealed enclosure of the mP62 switches is ideal for the mining environment, providing protection for the switch’s internal electronics from dust and dirt. Also, the per-port configurability of the GarrettCom 6K product line provides the mine operators with flexibility and cost-effectiveness should future expansion be required.

So the future is looking good for the UK’s coal industry. With the publication of the Energy White Paper, the UK Government has finally acknowledged the vital role of our domestic coal mining industry in meeting our energy requirements for decades to come, whilst clean coal technologies mean we can continue to rely on coal-fired power stations and still meet our commitments to cleaner energy supply.