Reflections on the automation of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP

The process of automation and implementation of ACS is extremely necessary. After all, it is almost impossible to manually manage complex complexes (at least to take a nuclear power plant). But only after major man-made disasters are realized errors and miscalculations in the conduct of the Automation project.
Today, information appeared that the transfer of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP management to automatic mode since 2006 was carried out by the organization of the NPF Rakurs .
For details, see the articles:
1. Industrial control system of the hydrogenerator of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP - January 16, 2007;
2. "Rakurs" automates the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP - 04/11/2007;
3. "Rakurs" modernized the automated process control system of the Shushenskaya HPP - September 5, 2007;
4. NPF Rakurs introduced PTK EGR at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP - September 12, 2007.
Of course, it is not possible to calculate all situations, but I think so that the automation of large power plants, in particular nuclear ones, was engaged in the USSR 30 years ago and during this time it was possible to accumulate enough experience in this field.
And in fact it turned out that the installed ACS at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, if it didn’t lead to an accident, it was obviously completely helpless in an emergency situation: (
In the event of an emergency, one of the main functions of the automated control system of hydroelectric power stations is the timely closing of the valves and the elimination of water access to the rotors and the machine room!
What the ACS at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP did not fulfill and the emergency repair gates at the water lines of the hydraulic units were closed manually. And only 1 hour after the start of the accident, the access of water to the turbine room from the top bay was stopped - see: “Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP (2009)” :(

That is why there are so many victims that could have been avoided:
- if such an emergency situation was calculated at the design stage of the ACS HES;
- if there were redundant backup power systems that would allow the ACS to work even during an accident and still automatically block the access of water to the hydroelectric machine room;
- and as a result, if the ACS of the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP were designed correctly.

And now imagine that technological systems are becoming more complex. The use of automata and robots is increasing more and more, but at the same time the Software systems of their management are still unfinished and not all possible situations are fully calculated at the design stage. What ultimately leads to man-made disasters, the scale of which with the increasing use of machines, instead of people, can only increase.
Although not necessarily, they may decrease, all the same human factor is the well-known one of the causes of accidents. (As the old motorist said: “The whole problem is in the“ laying ”between the steering wheel and the seat ...”)
But the influence of the human factor (in the sense of error) at the design stage of complex Automated Systems becomes obvious one of the causes of man-made disasters.
The same happened at the Chernobolsk NPP, many erroneous safety decisions were laid during the design of the automation and control of the Chernobyl NPP - see: “The Chernobyl Accident” .

Therefore, probably today it becomes important to the crane, then to whom the design of Automated Systems is entrusted (it should be some kind of certified, verified organizations).
And it may be extremely important to have international standards and model international automation projects, so that the verification of many design organizations from different countries would be a certain guarantee of the stability and security of the Automated System.
Maybe today it becomes important to create an international organization that would monitor and contain a database of typical, open and standard ACS projects that could be used as a GPL license or similar, well, like Open source software.
Maybe then the errors at the design stage of the ACS will be less?
')
PS: Publications and discussions of working out the ACS of the HPP at different resources in I-net:
1. “Rostekhnadzor: the emergency safety system at the HPP did not work” - 08/25/2009:
“The emergency safety system at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP did not work during an accident. This was announced at a press conference by the head of Rostekhnadzor Nikolai Kutyin. "The operation of automatic control systems was incorrect," he said.
According to him, this conclusion was made after an external examination of the second, seventh and ninth hydraulic units. He said that during the rotation of the turbine after a half-turn the automatic system should work, but in this case it did not happen.
In total, there were three automatic protection systems at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP, but none of them worked. The valves, which were supposed to close automatically, at the time of the accident, were manually closed by station workers ... "

2. “Accident at Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP: IT equipment was blamed for everything” - 08/25/2009:
“During the meeting on the socio-economic development of the Siberian Federal District, which took place in Ulan-Ude and was broadcast live on the Vesti 24 TV channel, Emergency Situations Minister Sergei Shoigu accused a research and production company of possible involvement in the accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP "Perspective", won the tender for the installation of an automatic process control system (ACS TP). “This is Racurs, a company that supplied bad equipment,” he said. To the question of President Dmitry Medvedev, what this company is known for, the minister said that he didn’t know anything and didn’t have anything to do with either machines or turbines, or their production, or their design. In this regard, Shoigu proposed to the president, in particular, to revise and tighten the FZ-94 on public procurement ... ”

3. Forum with discussion of the article: “Accident at the Sayano-Shushenskaya HPP: IT equipment was blamed for everything”