Heat energy at a glance
30 September 2004
Have you ever wondered how much heat energy is used by an Antarctic station? What percentage of the station's energy is generated by the wind turbines at Mawson? How much water is currently stored?
In line with the AAD's recently released strategic direction on the innovative use of data collection systems, this week new software being implemented by the AAD has allowed us to display on the public web pages real-time operational data, updated every five minutes.
Information is now publicly available on how much electrical and heat load is being used at Mawson Station, along with energy generation and water production and consumption.
Click on the figure of the wind turbine above to see a real-time animated graphic depicting the total wind and diesel generation capacity of the Mawson electrical energy system.
 Each of the continental stations has several different control systems monitoring and controlling such things as building heating and ventilation, fuel usage, water making, food storage, power house operations, waste water treatment and lighting. Click on the figure of the boiler on the right to see a real-time animated graphic of the Mawson heating system.
You can also click on the figure of the melt bell below to see an animated graphic of the water making and storage capacity at this moment at Mawson.
 Each system requires specific software and up until now, comparing data and communicating it to a wider audience has not been possible.
An AAD engineering project has been under way for the past few months to integrate the various control systems. The new software provides a platform upon which engineers and scientists can connect a multitude of systems and experiments. It allows data to be viewed in real time on the web before distributing to a database for long term collection.
In the future, the new software will be configured to automate the reporting of State of the Environment (SOE) data such as water consumption, fuel usage and waste water treatment.
A typical screen which gathers data from all of our control systems
Photo: AAD | The software will also provide a path for information exchange between the various control systems and the new computerised maintenance management system. This will mean that it can automatically generate work orders based on alarms conditions or the number of hours that a piece of equipment has been operating. (ie power generation engines and turbines, pumps etc).
The system will assist in simplifying reporting for station based personnel as they will be able to include hyperlinks to web pages containing the monthly operational data. The data can be presented in various graphical formats, along with comparisons to historical data.
The AAD is actively committed to increasing efficiencies in the operations of Antarctic stations and this new software installation provides significant increases in reporting efficiencies and a platform upon which the automation of tasks and experiments can be built.
Mawson is the first of the three stations to come online with this system. It is proposed to install similar software at Davis and Casey in the future, which will further enhance our goal of providing high quality, clear and accurate information which is easily accessible to the public.
See also:
Written by Annie Rushton and AAD Engineers Cohan Drew and Jeremy Bonnice. Animated graphics by Warwick Barnes.
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