Rosenergoatom (part of the Electric Power Division of the State Corporation "Rosatom") together with JSC "VNIIAES" (subsidiary of the Concern) launched a project to develop a predictive analytics system for nuclear power plant equipment at power unit No. 1 of Novovoronezh NPP-2 and its replica-tion to power unit No. 2 of Novovoronezh NPP-2, as well as power units No. 1, No. 2 of the Lenin-grad NPP-2 and power unit No. 4 of the Beloyarsk NPP (branches of Rosenergoatom).

The project is aimed at improving the safety and operational reliability of the NPP equipment and min-imizing the cases of its damage or failure by detecting defects at an early stage of their development. Timely information about the defects found in the equipment and the nature of their development will also allow optimizing the volume of maintenance, repair and operation of the equipment.

Let us remind that Rosenergoatom started the practical implementation of the pilot project in May 2020. As a result of this project, a pilot sample of a predictive equipment analytics system was devel-oped, which was successfully tested and put into commercial operation in December 2022 at power unit No. 1 of the Novovoronezh NPP-2.

“As part of the pilot project, 49 predictive models of several types of equipment were developed - these are a turbine generator, a steam turbine plant and circulation pumps of power unit No. 1 of NVNPP-2. These models were verified on historical data and put into operation to analyze the current state of the equipment in real time. As part of the pilot operation, with the help of the system, it was possible to determine in advance several deviations in the operation of the equipment, which proves the effectiveness of the chosen solution,” said Andrey Druzhaev, head of the department for digitali-zation of technical support for the operation of NPP Power Units of JSC VNIIAES.

Based on the results of the pilot project and confirmation of the practical application of predictive ana-lytics, they decided that it would be expedient to expand the types and quantity of analyzed equip-ment and the need to replicate the system to similar equipment of other power units.

“Now we can safely say that the use of predictive analytics technologies will not only improve the safety and reliability of Russian NPPs in general, but also reduce the risks of fines during unscheduled shutdowns, as well as reduce the duration of downtime due to repairs, reduce minimize the number of violations and failures in the operation of equipment,” commented Viktor Tsaranu, head of the project office for the implementation of digital solutions in the operation of nuclear power plants of Rosen-ergoatom.

The main contractor of the project is JSC VNIIAES, on the basis of which a divisional competence center was created in the direction of predictive analytics of the state of NPP equipment.

In turn, Oleg Shalnov, director of the IT Project Management and Integration Department at Rosen-ergoatom, emphasized that predictive analytics is currently one of the most important areas for the de-velopment of digitalization for Rosenergoatom. “The accumulation of competencies in predictive ana-lytics and data analysis in the division, the successful experience of implementing a pilot project, as well as the availability of a high-performance IT infrastructure create optimistic prerequisites for creat-ing our own import-independent solution in the sphere of predictive analytics in the future,” he said.