Case Study: Early Fire Detection in the Power Plant

Today's power and heating supply in the city of Bern is hardly imaginable without the Forsthaus energy centre (Energiezentrale Forsthaus ‐ EZF). This power plant combines a refuse incineration plant (KVA) with a wood heating power plant and a combined gas‐steam power plant. About 120,000 tons of waste are recovered in it annually. This results in about 360 GWh of electrical energy and 290 GWh of thermal energy. The Swiss company relies on the WASTE‐SCAN infrared monitoring system from InfraTec for the early fire detection.

Monitoring with Seven Thermographic Cameras
On peak days, significantly more than 100 vehicles deliver up to 700 tons of waste in the large storage bunker of the refuse incineration plant, in which several thousand tons of waste are stored. To ensure that this volume can be monitored efficiently and reliably around the clock at ignition sources, e.g. from glowing embers brought in externally or heating induced by the activity of microorganisms, multiple infrared cameras have been used since 2015. Originally started with five cameras, the thermal imaging early fire detection installed onsite meanwhile records a total of seven cameras, which are located in special protective housings. "Two of them are fixed mounted. The employees monitor the hoppers and shredder hole," explains Thomas Andres, operations manager of the EZF. "The remaining cameras are equipped with pan/tilt heads and are used for safeguarding the waste bunker, two storage areas and both crane parking spaces."

Read more about early fire detection in the power plant