Continuous flow engine data stream and battery-based power storage facility data stream data handling method and system

The present invention refers to a method of collecting and accessing data streams of at least one continuous flow engine and/or data streams of a battery-based power storage facili ty. Furthermore, the present invention refers to a data man agement device containing a processing unit and at least one data storage, wherein the data management device is adapted to be utilized in an inventive method. Additionally, the pre sent invention refers to a system containing an inventive da ta management device and a data storage. Furthermore, the present invention refers to a computer program product in cluding instructions operable to cause a computing entity to execute an inventive method.

While the generation, storage and distribution of data is a common matter today several fields still suffer from grave drawbacks to make use of all data being generated. Especial ly, it is often a problem in industrial facilities to tackle the challenge that modern sensors provide a huge amount of data material being unable to be handled by a normal opera tor, while a highly specialized expert might handle such data yet is located at a different site. Despite fast internet connections it is, for example, in many cases very difficult to provide an efficient flow of the data to enable some ex pert making use of his expertise and raw data.

Similar problems are observed for battery-based power storage facilities consisting of a plurality of connected batteries utilized to flexibly store electric power. Corresponding fa cilities suffer from multiple batteries being required to be coupled to provide the demanded voltage and the like. Howev er, minor defect in a single battery results in the whole couple branch of batteries being required to be shut down. Monitoring such battery-based power storage facility, howev er, is a major challenge to be solved as the flood to data to be monitored requires a highly sophisticated and extensive server system rendering the benefit obtained by such facility quite low. Also, such facility requires an improved possibil ity to handle the data available and make good use of it to avoid significant losses while keeping the monitoring effort at bay.

Especially, the field of continuous flow engines suffer from the problem of making the data generated by modern continuous flow engines available for further processing. The highly so phisticated monitoring being available already and expected to increase even more produces an amount of data like espe cially sensor data being almost impossible to be efficiently provided to a remote location. Constantly mirroring the data of all devices easily surpasses any bandwidth available and remotely selecting such data is difficult and inefficient.

This and further problems are solved by the products and methods as disclosed hereafter and in the claims. Further beneficial embodiments are disclosed in the dependent claims and the further description and figures. These benefits can be used to adapt the corresponding solution to specific needs or to solve additional problems.

According to one aspect the present invention refers to a method of collecting and accessing data streams of at least one continuous flow engine and/or data streams of a battery- based power storage facility, containing the steps of

- processing at least two, more preferred at least four, even more preferred at least seven, data streams utilizing an data management device containing a processing unit and an appli cation programming interface (API), wherein the data streams contain raw data and aggregated data,

- storing the data streams as historical data on a data stor age being connected to and/or being part of the data manage ment device, wherein the historical data is stored in a hier archical data format,

- retrieving historical data utilizing the API. It was noted that the inventive method is especially useful to improve the data handling in the field of continuous flow engine. The ef fect obtained in this context is remarkable.

The term "hierarchical data format" as used herein refers to the data format as known to the skilled person. Such data format is especially suitable to supports large, complex, heterogeneous data.

The phrase "data stream of at least one continuous flow en gine" naturally does not only refer to data streams generated by the continuous flow engine itself. The person skilled in the art understands such phrase to refer to data streams re lated to such continuous flow engine. Herein, the auxiliaries required to utilize such continuous flow engine are also providing data streams like the temperature of the fuel, the burning and boiling processes in a boiler providing steam for a steam turbine, the temperature of the air in the air inlet of a gas turbine, the oil pressure of hydraulic components controlling various elements required for the utilization of such continuous flow engine, the composition of a fluid to be compressed by a compressor, and the like.

The term "raw data" as used herein refers to unprocessed data acquired from the continuous flow engine or components being related to the function of such continuous flow engine. Like sensor data monitoring the temperature at a specific loca tion, vibration sensor data monitoring the running of the continuous flow engine, a fuel flow measurement device moni toring the fuel consumed, and the like.

The term "aggregated data" as used herein refers to a discon tinuous data acquired in the context of the utilization of the continuous flow engine. Typically, it is preferred that this term refers to a summarized data like a mean value over time. For example, it is the mean value of a temperature of the continuous flow engine. Herein, it is not required that only the aggregated data of some continuous data stream is forwarded. It was noted that it is surprisingly beneficial to forward aggregated data and raw data of the same data source simultaneously. Utilizing the inventive method as described herein and especially hereafter it becomes possible to handle this even further increased amount of data and retrieve rele vant data with high reliability and speed to ensure some re mote unit to provide a very high efficiency.

This method allows to surprisingly easy access such data with a high resolution while securing the data safety and securi ty. Especially, it becomes possible to provide the raw data for continuous flow engines being a special problem based on the size of corresponding data generated and to be retrieved as required. For example, it even becomes possible to utilize raw vibration data by vibration experts located at some re mote location being able to retrieve data as required. The data management device can surprisingly easily be provided as unit to be introduced into an existing industrial plant uti lizing such continuous flow engine.

According to a further aspect the present invention refers to a data management device containing a processing unit and at least one data storage, wherein the data management device is adapted to be utilized in an inventive method, wherein the data management device contains an API abstrac tion layer, wherein the API abstraction layer is adapted to receive ex ternal data requests, wherein the data management device is adapted to retrieve and forward historical data based on said request.

According to a further aspect the present invention refers to a system containing an inventive data management device and a data storage, wherein the historical data is stored on the data management device and the data storage.

According to a further aspect the present invention refers to a computer program product, tangibly embodied in a machine- readable storage medium, including instructions operable to cause a computing entity to execute an inventive method.

To simplify understanding of the present invention it is re ferred to the detailed description hereafter and the figures attached as well as their description. Herein, the figures are to be understood being not limiting the scope of the pre sent invention, but disclosing preferred embodiments explain ing the invention further.

Fig. 1 shows a scheme of an inventive method showing the data exchange inside an industrial power plant and remotely locat ed devices and a remote user interface.

Preferably, the embodiments hereafter contain, unless speci fied otherwise, at least one processor and/or data storage unit to implement the inventive method.

Unless specified otherwise terms like "calculate", "process", "determine", "generate", "configure", "reconstruct" and com parable terms refer to actions and/or processes and/or steps modifying data and/or creating data and/or converting data, wherein the data are presented as physical variable or are available as such.

The term "data storage" or comparable terms as used herein, for example, refer to a temporary data storage like RAM (Ran dom Access Memory) or long-term data storage like hard drives or data storage units like CDs, DVDs, USB sticks and the like. Such data storage can additionally include or be con nected to a processing unit to allow a processing of the data stored on the data storage.

Continuous flow engines are characterized by a continuous stream flowing through said engine. For example, such contin uous flow engine utilizes a stream of fluid flowing through the engine to rotate a rotor that in turn converts the kinet ic energy into electricity. Such fluid stream can be generat- ed by means of burning a fuel using burner in a gas turbine or boiling a liquid like water in a steam generator. Examples of corresponding continuous flow engines are gas turbines and steam turbines. Alternatively, such continuous flow engine utilizes energy to move a fluid in said continuous flow en gine like in a compressor. Herein, such compressor is often associated to a fridge being an application of the daily life. However, compressors are also utilized in industrial applications like in the chemical industry to continuously compress a fluid like in a cracking process to allow a fur ther processing.

It was noted that such continuous flow engines benefit sig nificantly from the inventive method. It is assumed that the specific data created in such engines is especially suitable to be processed herewith. Supposedly, the amount of data col lected for such engines, the data typically collected, the behavior of these engines and correlated created data, as well as many other factors result in the surprisingly high benefit obtained when applying the inventive method in this context .

A battery-based power storage facility contains a plurality of battery arrangement consisting of connected batteries to provide the required output. Such battery-based power storage facilities can be utilized to compensate for a lack of power resulting, for example, from fluctuations during the power generation utilized renewable energy. Herein, a significant number of, for example, lithium batteries needs to be coupled to provide the required output. While such system is flexible and a very good addition to supporting the renewable energies with high-speed adaptable power generation units like gas turbines the battery-based power storage facility suffers from the required processing of data to monitor such facility and its batteries.

According to one aspect the present invention refers to a method as described above. According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the data streams contain high frequency sensor data. Such high frequency sensor data provides values of the corresponding sensor with a frequency being at least 10 val ues per second, more preferred at least 30 values per second, even more preferred at least 100 values per second. Examples of such high frequency data being typically available for the specified applications are vibration data, combustion data and acoustic data.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the data streams contain vibration data of the at least one continuous flow engine, preferably raw vibration data. It was noted that processing such data is especially beneficial for gas turbines indicating deviations from the expected state at an early stage utilizing such data.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the data streams contain acoustic data, pref erably raw acoustic data. It was noted that such data can be very beneficially utilized in the context of gas turbines and steam turbines. Corresponding profiles allow to gain signifi cant insight in the wear of components utilizing such means.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the data streams contain combustion data of the at least one continuous flow engine, preferably raw com bustion data. It was noted that such data is very beneficial ly utilized for gas turbines to optimize the work of the gas turbine. Especially, corresponding data can be utilized to avoid combustion problems during significant workload changes as required to compensate for the fluctuations of renewable energies .

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the data streams contain vibration data and combustion data, preferably raw vibration data and raw com bustion data.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the historical data is midterm historical da ta. The term "midterm" historical data preferably refers to historical data of at most the past 4 months, more preferred the past 3 months. It was noted that the inventive system is especially suitable to process such data in corresponding ap plications .

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the communication between a remote unit and the data management device is secured against unallowed access, preferably en crypted. The term "remote data processing unit" as used here in refers to a data processing unit being preferably at least located outside of the industrial facility containing such continuous flow engine providing such data stream being pro cessed. For example, it can be located at a central location retrieving data from a number of locations generating the historical data. However, such facility containing such re mote data processing unit might also contain an own data man agement device. The communication between such data manage ment device and the in this case local data processing unit does not necessarily have to be encrypted.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that it is preferred that the hierarchical data format is HDF5 format.

It was noted that storing the data in this format is espe cially suitable and enables to further improve the data pro cessing and forwarding significantly for historical data of continuous flow engines. It is assumed that the data generat ed for such devices is typically very suitable for such for mat and task providing a typically improved benefit compared to different technical devices.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the historical data is stored on at least two types of data stor- age, wherein the at least two data storages contain at least one fast access data storage and at least one slow access data storage, wherein most recent historical data is stored on the at least one fast access data storage.

For typical applications it is preferred that such fast ac cess data storage is RAM for typical applications. However, it is also possible to utilize different types of storage providing a fast access to data stored thereon. For example, solid state discs (SSD) and the like can be utilized despite the slightly worse reading and writing speed. As slow access data storage, for example, a normal hard drive can be uti lized as the inventive method allows to still access and re trieve the data in a sufficient timely manner even from such data storages.

Such most recent data can be limited according to predefined functional characteristics like a process executed or a pre defined time interval or a combination thereof. For example, it can be preferred to predefine a combination of a time lim it like the last two hours as well as storing whole processes resulting in an extension of the limit to additionally in clude process steps extending beyond such time limit. For ex ample, such process can be a change between different perfor mances to always include the corresponding behavior as a whole during such change extending beyond the 2 h mentioned before.

The term "most recent historical data" as used herein refers to the historical data of the recent time like the last hour, preferably the last 10 minutes, wherein the data includes the most recent data of the corresponding data sources being available .

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the most recent historic data is simultaneously stored on at least two data storage devices. Storing the data twice allows to further increase the access speed as well as allows to se cure a fast access to such data in case of emergency. It was noted that during alarms such data might be requested from multiple remote as well as local processing units essentially simultaneously. In this context, the additional copy allows to secure the retrieval of specific high priority data re quests being a surprising problem especially occurring when allowing such remote access and processing as described here in.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the API is transporting data in a binary format. It was noted that such binary format is not only very suitable for the data provided for such continuous flow engines. It was further noted that the review and analysis actions taking place at the remote locations typically significantly benefit from such data format and further increase the reaction speed, for example, during alarms. An example of a typically beneficial ly utilized API in this context is gRPC. This API is an exam ple of an especially suitable API to be utilized in the in ventive method. Herein, it is not only the open-source char acter of the API that renders it very beneficial. In fact, it was noted that the binary format is surprisingly beneficial to process not only the requests and interactions between the remote units and the

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the API utilizes http/2 for forwarding the historical data. Surpris ingly, this network protocol is very well suited to effi ciently transfer such data.

For many applications it is preferred that the API transport data in a binary format and utilizes http/2 for transporting the data. For example, gRPC fulfills this requirement and can be easily utilized to realize the inventive method. It was noted that such API in combination with the specified data sources provides high performance. Furthermore, such API ena- bles to allow an easy access by means of a different computer simply by opening a port as required. Additionally, it was noted that such API is able to run using almost any operating system.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the collected historical data contains data streams of at least two continuous flow engines, more preferred at least three continuous flow engines, even more preferred at least 5 con tinuous flow engines.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the continuous flow engine is a compressor, a gas turbine, a steam turbine, or a combined cycle power device, more pre ferred a gas turbine, a steam turbine, or a combined cycle power device, even more preferred a gas turbine.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the at least one continuous flow engine contains at least one gas turbine, wherein the historical data contains combustion data of the at least one gas turbine. As discussed herein, it was noted that the inventive method is typically especially beneficial when being applied to such gas turbine.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the historical data is retrieved by a remote user, wherein a communication of the remote user and API is se cured. For example, such security can be achieved by encryp tion like software or hardware encryption. Based on the sig nificantly improved possibility to access the data externally it is surprisingly beneficial to already include such securi ty based on corresponding threats that according to the eval uation of experts will be expected in such context.

According to a further aspect the present invention refers to a data management device containing a processing unit and at least one data storage, wherein the data management device is adapted to be utilized in an inventive method, wherein the data management device contains an API, wherein the API is adapted to receive external data requests, wherein the data management device is adapted to retrieve and forward historical data based on said request.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the at least one data storage contains a RAM data storage.

According to further embodiments it is preferred that the da ta management device contains a hardware security module.

Such hardware security module is a physical device containing a processing unit, wherein said hardware security module safeguards and manages digital keys, performs encryption and decryption functions for digital signatures, strong authenti cation and other cryptographic functions. Implementing such type of security is typically very beneficial especially in case an upgrade is considered, wherein with little effort a significant amount of security should be achieved right from the start. Furthermore, it was noted that the overall securi ty can be further increased this way being of special im portance for the invention based on the new opportunities provided by it.

According to a further aspect the present invention System containing an inventive data management device and a data storage, wherein the historical data is stored on the data management device and the data storage.

According to a further aspect the present invention refers to a computer program product, tangibly embodied in a machine- readable storage medium, including instructions operable to cause a computing entity to execute an inventive method.

The term "distributed database" as used herein refers to a decentralized database like a blockchain, a distributed ledg er, a distributed data storage system, a distributed ledger technology-based system, a manipulation proof database, a cloud, a cloud service, a blockchain in a cloud or a peer-to- peer database. Herein, such distributed database can be a public database like a public block chain or a nonpublic da tabase like a private block chain. Typically, it is preferred that such block chain is nonpublic and can only be accessed by authorized persons. Herein, such access right might also be granted for external persons to allow a review of for ex ample the production data of specific products.

The following detailed description of the figure uses the figure to discuss illustrative embodiments, which are not to be construed as restrictive, along with the features and fur ther advantages thereof.

Figure 1 shows a scheme of an inventive method showing the data exchange inside an industrial power plant and remotely located devices and a remote user interface. Herein, the gas turbines 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d as examples of the continuous flow engines generate data streams containing vibration data and combustion data. The corresponding data streams containing even smallest vibrations and deviations of the combustion process are forwarded to the data management device 1. The data management device 1 stores the data streams as histori cal data on a data storage 4. Herein, the historical data is stored in a hierarchical data format. The hierarchical data format used is HF5 that was identified to be very beneficial for a broad range of application cases in the field of con tinuous flow engines and especially gas turbines in general.

Herein, the most recent historical data is additionally stored on a RAM data storage data 5 being part of the data management device 1. Herein, the historical data is also stored on this data storage on a historical data format. This allows to further increase the access speed for the most re cent data stream data to, for example, react to some specific situation like an alarm requiring to quickly review the cor responding data. The data management device provides connections to remote units being located outside the industrial power plant 3. Herein, the data management unit utilizes an application pro gramming interface (API) to communicate with the remote units. Exemplarily shown are a user interface 6 and a remote monitoring device 7. The communication between the remote units and the data management device 1 is secured in multiple means. The communication is typically at least partially en crypted to secure that at least specific data is secured against third parties being able to gain insight. For exam ple, requests and the like are preferably encrypted with a higher standard. However, the generic data transferred in re sponse to such request is typically, for example, secured us ing VPN. This allows a higher data throughput and further im proves the utilization of the inventive method in typical ap plication cases.

The API utilized in the example as shown in figure 1 is a bi nary based API, more detailed gRPC is utilized. This API is especially beneficially utilized to realize the inventive method.

It was noted that such system is especial suited to handle big amounts of data and enable such data to be efficiently reviewed even from remote locations taking into account the limitations resulting from limits of the connection and the like. For example, it is very suited to handle and forward raw vibration data and raw combustion data that based on the sheer amount of data pose a significant problem to be handled this way. While it becomes possible to even handle such raw data efficiently it is still also beneficially to include ag gregated data. Herein, the data management device 1 further receives the aggregated data of the vibration data and the combustion data and stores it as historical data on the data storage 4 and data storage 5. Short term data is temporarily stored on the RAM data storage 5 providing an especially fast writing and reading speed. Simultaneously, the short-term da- ta is stored along other data like the midterm data on the data storage 4.

Additionally to such vibration data a plurality of further data streams is received and processed. For example, data re garding the temperature at specific locations of the gas tur bines 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, pressure data and air flow data of the air inlet are continuously received and processed by the data management device 1.

The data management device 1 has been introduced into the in dustrial power plant 3 as upgrade. Herein, the data manage ment device 1 as well as the data storage 4 have been con nected during such upgrade to the existing network. Addition- ally, the data management device 1 was connected to the in ternet and configured itself based on data retrieved from a distributed database provided by the manufacturer of the data management device 1 and being connected through the internet. The present invention was only described in further detail for explanatory purposes. However, the invention is not to be understood being limited to these embodiments as they repre sent embodiments providing benefits to solve specific prob lems or fulfilling specific needs. The scope of the protec- tion should be understood to be only limited by the claims attached .