Kuopion Energia

The challenge: Increased reporting obligations

“We have used the Once fuel information system provided by Pinja for almost 20 years and our contractors and partners also use it. Now, we are going to expand the Once system from the production environment to cover the energy reporting needs of the whole group. In the future, one system can provide information about our total production and matters related to the district heating network, as well as produce corporate-level financial reports, for example”, says operation manager Samuli Räisänen from Kuopion Energia’s energy production department.

To export data to a system and import various summary reports without errors and delays is invaluable. At Kuopion Energia, almost two million cubic metres of fuel are registered in the Once system during the best years. This translates to more than twenty thousand full trailer trucks or, in monetary terms, a total value of 30 million euros.

“As our equipment base has increased, the relevance of Once has grown so much that we wanted to assign the server maintenance to Pinja. Pinja takes care of it via a remote connection ensuring that our hardware is updated and renewed at regular intervals”, explains operational economy engineer Hanna Kellokumpu, who is responsible for Once projects.

The solution: Systems communicate with each other and problems can be addressed 24/7

“All data that can be obtained from the field will be reliably entered in the Once system. Surprisingly often, we have encountered suppliers who lack skills in this area, which means that much of the configuration work is left to be done by the buyer. However, the cooperation with Pinja has been easy. In many occasions, we have described what we want and they have proposed a viable solution. It is evident that they are familiar with the energy sector”, says Ms. Kellokumpu appraisingly.

Among the personnel of Kuopion Energia, approximately 50 employees will use the Once system after the renewal. When including the fuel suppliers and their drivers, the total number of users exceeds a hundred. User training is organised for new drivers every year, even though, according to Ms. Kellokumpu, drivers have found the Once system easy to use.

With the new reporting system, it will be possible to identify and interpret defects and disadvantages in the district heating network, as well as share information and distribute it to the field.

“Previously, unnecessary visits were typically made when a plant was needlessly left in operation. Benefits gained from the renewal include energy saving aspects, such as optimisation of operative time of pumping stations”, says district heating operation manager Ari Ikonen.