At six o'clock in the morning, the thin mist in Shijiu Port area of Rizhao Port did not dissipate. Accompanied by a long whistle, a heavy-duty coal special train that travels 1269 kilometers via the Waki Railway slowly enters the intelligent green operation area for bulk dry cargo. In the car dumping machine room, a huge robotic arm firmly holds onto the carriage, gently flips it over, and a jet black coal flow pours down, following the belt towards the yard, waiting for the ship to be loaded south. The southern power plant thousands of miles away is waiting for this ship of coal.

Smart dock speed improvement

Ensuring supply requires both speed and accuracy. Coal is different from coal, and the differences in fluidity and viscosity determine that different types of coal require different operating methods. Rizhao Port innovates the single point operation method, customizing exclusive plans for different types of coal, clarifying the sequence of process initiation and the method of overturning operations; Encrypt patrol videos for special types of goods such as lignite, establish exclusive management and protection mechanisms, assign personnel and responsibilities, and respond quickly.

Fast and accurate stable operation and continuous replication rely on technology. After more than two years of renovation and upgrading, the first phase of the intelligent green demonstration port project for bulk dry bulk cargo has been completed and put into use, pioneering a large-scale dry bulk cargo operation system that is applicable to all types of cargo, fully interconnected in the entire process, and fully intelligent in the entire system. In the billion ton level single unit dry bulk cargo operation area covering an area of 5.1 million square meters, more than 200 operation processes flexibly connect various berths and yards; The new generation of intelligent control system for bulk cargo has overcome the difficulties of manual hook removal and cleaning in the industry, realizing the automation of the entire process from unloading to loading, and from unloading to loading. Multiple devices can be started with one click, and the system's operating efficiency has been improved by more than 30%, with a threefold increase in labor productivity for all employees. Since October this year, the coal loading and unloading efficiency in Shijiu Port Area has increased by 26.1% year-on-year.

Data center enhances intelligence

Another landing point of technology is data. A fully operational intelligent central system for data resource pools, breaking down data silos in loading, unloading, warehousing, and transportation, and building an integrated data base; Business personnel use big data BI tools to independently conduct throughput analysis, inbound and outbound tracking, and collection and distribution efficiency analysis; Digital intelligent assessment enables automatic warning of anomalies, forming a monitoring analysis decision-making evaluation loop. In the past, searching for data and creating charts required flipping through several systems, but now it can be completed in just a few minutes by opening the system. Relying on the global intelligent control platform, production scheduling achieves second level response and full domain visibility of yard status; In the intelligent operation center, the digital twin system deduces the operation plan, flexibly coordinates equipment and machinery, and ensures that the train starts immediately upon arrival at the port, there is no gap in process switching, and the entire line cooperates with zero delay.

Moving out of the sea to my doorstep

Ensuring supply is not just about unloading coal, but also about delivering it to the places where it is most needed. Recently, a ship loaded with coal completed loading at Rizhao Port and sailed towards Zhangping, Fujian. Coal is loaded from Xingxian County in Shanxi Province, and then transported directly to Rizhao Port via the Wari Railway's heavy-duty energy channel. It is then loaded onto a ship and transported directly to Huadian Zhangping Energy Co., Ltd. With the support of railway and sea transportation multimodal transport, a coal supply chain with traceable origin, controllable entire process, and efficient transportation is constructed.

As the only port in the country with two thousand kilometer level heavy-duty railways directly connected to the port area, Rizhao Port has a daily coal unloading capacity of over 50 trains and professional loading berths that can accommodate ships of 5000 to 70000 tons. Its annual coal throughput capacity reaches 80 million tons and storage capacity exceeds 10 million tons, making it a true energy reservoir. The other half of the service is the mechanism: the port formulates a coal supply guarantee plan for power plant customers and establishes a 24-hour response mechanism; The production department dynamically adjusts the ship's berthing and departure plans with various units, shares information in real time, and maximizes the compression of ship berthing at the port to ensure that ships arrive and depart immediately upon completion of cargo. Faced with the peak of supply guarantee, the port conducted an early investigation of the arrival of ships, formed a service supply guarantee team, and carried out regular practical exercises.

From the unloading of a train to the long-distance voyage of a ship of coal, from a record breaking event to the launch of a system, every round of acceleration ultimately falls on the ship's arrival and departure upon completion of cargo. Rizhao Port will continue to play a pivotal role as a port hub, strengthen land sea linkage, connect upstream and downstream links such as power plants, traders, and shipping companies, and make every effort to ensure the safety and stability of the national coal supply chain, safeguarding the lights of thousands of households.Editor/Yang Meiling