CURRENTA
            

CURRENTA manages and operates the CHEMPARK—one of the largest chemical sites in Europe located in Leverkusen, Dormagen, and Krefeld-Uerdingen. Its range of services includes onsite material and energy supply, water supply and disposal, a wide variety of analytical services, modern environmental management, comprehensive infrastructure services, and reliable safety concepts.

The right setup for maximum reliability, efficiency, and safety

CURRENTA is a service company that provides access for more than 70 partner companies in the chemical industry to various energy, technology, and product networks including disposal—and of course with a guarantee of maximum reliability, efficiency, and safety. In a highly regulated market environment, the company is now facing the challenge of transforming in a sustainable way. Having the right setup for maximum reliability, efficiency, and safety is a key building block in the different CURRENTA facilities—with TrendMiner from Software AG.

Being proactive with self-service analytics

Safety is of the utmost priority for service provider CURRENTA. The control systems of the different facilities play a crucial role in meeting this objective. Until now, CURRENTA lacked convenient opportunities for performing deeper analyses and forecasting trends. "The combination of process information system and TrendMiner is perfect for us," says Sven Weise, Head of PLT Energy at CURRENTA. "We don't just collect data: We can now analyze it over a long period of time, increase the efficiency of our plants, and execute very precise damage prevention."

Background: Undiscovered creeping leakage in Leverkusen

Although no limits were exceeded during the leak incident, wastewater still leaked slowly from a stacking tank into the treatment plant. In all, the fill level increased by 0.4 percent over ten days. This value is low and falls within the range of measurement uncertainty for fill level measurement. The operations control system did not have a projected alarm for early detection. A case for TrendMiner? That is exactly what CURRENTA wanted to know, so they tested how reliable the software is in detecting anomalies such as a creeping leak. In the pilot project, TrendMiner succeeded in reliably sounding the alarm for various triggers. Meanwhile, additional use cases were established including optimized energy monitoring using TrendMiner.

Self-service analytics with maximum user-friendliness

CURRENTA deployed TrendMiner in February 2022, with full integration of the software completed in just one and a half months. To date, approximately 30 users work with the software, especially in the water/wastewater segment, and they are enthusiastic about its convenient handling and design with scatterplots, fingerprinting, etc. Creeping leaks can be detected and safely stopped through improved mechanical barriers. And CURRENTA plans to expand use of the software, with future use cases in the powerplant segment already planned for implementation by mid-2023. "For these use cases, our plant engineers can use TrendMiner for independent analyses that would otherwise need to be conducted in collaboration with a data scientist not familiar with the subject,” explains Maximilian Schwarz, Data Scientist in Innovation Projects.

Over the long term, CURRENTA plans to optimize other relevant assets and plants with the goal of improving the overall efficiency, availability, and sustainability of its facilities. Software like TrendMiner is a key building block that integrates early deviation detection and notification into their systems and processes. Thus, further collaboration with Software AG is planned and preliminary groundwork is already underway.

Proactive action for greater sustainability management

The advantages of this approach are obvious: for the environment, CURRENTA can now detect leaks or defects in pumps and machines quickly. Minuscule changes in trends are displayed directly by the software, so countermeasures can be deployed quickly—before a more damaging incident can occur.

And the software delivers measurable benefits for CURRENTA and its customers as well: Standardized deviation detection leads to greater plant efficiency and thereby to cost reductions through the elimination of downtime. Downtimes no longer need to be offset through alternative solutions that consume a lot of energy, which at the same time measurably improves CURRENTA’s own sustainability. And sustainability is at the very top of CURRENTA’s agenda.