When fire and explosion incidents occur, they not only cause material damage but also affect human health and lives. Therefore, fire and explosion prevention is an urgent task in all areas of social life. Fire and explosion prevention is also particularly important for coal-fired thermal power plants - where equipment is arranged at very high density, spread over a large area. In addition, thermal power plants have many devices that generate high heat sources, high pressure, and flammable materials.

Therefore, mastering technologies for fire prevention and firefighting systems is extremely important, ensuring the ability to make quick, accurate, and flexible decisions in possible fire and explosion incident situations, and maximizing the preservation of facilities and human life after a fire occurs. Consequently, scientists from the National Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering have carried out the national-level project: "Research, design, manufacture, and commissioning of a number of auxiliary equipment systems for coal-fired thermal power plants with unit capacity up to approximately 600 MW".

Engineer Nguyen Van Minh - project leader stated "Currently, fire prevention and firefighting systems for coal-fired thermal power plants in Vietnam are mainly handled by foreign entities, leading to a lack of initiative in the design, manufacture, installation, and operation processes. Domestic companies participate in research but in a fragmented and isolated manner, without a complete set of research documents for calculation, design, manufacture, and system integration.

Therefore, the project was implemented to master the design, manufacturing process, integration process, installation process, and operation of fire prevention and firefighting systems for coal-fired thermal power plants with unit capacity up to approximately 600 MW, ensuring a localization rate of no less than 40% for the first project, no less than 60% for the second project, and no less than 80% from the third project onwards. At the same time, it aims to enhance the scientific, technical, technological, management, consulting, and operational capabilities of domestic scientific and technical personnel, as well as improve the quality of fire prevention and firefighting systems for coal-fired thermal power plants currently under construction or planned for construction in Vietnam."

During the survey and research process, the author team observed that currently no domestic entity possesses sufficient capacity and experience to design and manufacture a synchronous fire prevention and firefighting (FPFF) system. Therefore, the task set for the project was to build an FPFF system that encompasses the entire process from calculation, design, supply, installation, operation, and handover of the system to the investor.

To implement this, the project team collaborated with engineers from Thang Long - BCA Company in research, calculation, and design. The approach method chosen by the team was theoretical research and survey of FPFF systems for coal-fired thermal power plants based on domestic and international documents. At the same time, they cooperated with experienced domestic specialized experts working in the design and manufacture of fire prevention and firefighting systems.

The research team chose to use commercial design software to design mechanical, electrical, and construction drawings; used specialized software (STEP7, WINCC…) to design, program, and simulate fire pump and pressure maintenance pump control systems; used specialized VeriFire software to program the fire alarm system operation. Additionally, they applied electronic engineering, communication engineering, network engineering, and programming techniques to design the system. Standard modules were used to integrate the system, identifying potential risks during the research process to enable self-design and system integration.

After more than 5 years of implementation (from 2016 to 2021), the National Research Institute of Mechanical Engineering, in coordination with the Joint Stock Company and BCA – Thang Long One Member Limited Liability Company, successfully researched, designed, manufactured, installed, and accepted the fire prevention and firefighting system package for the Song Hau 1 plant, with the investor being Vietnam Oil and Gas Group (PVN) and the main contractor being LILAMA.

Among the components constituting the FPFF system, the project integrated and manufactured all central control cabinets and local control cabinets for the system. This is considered the most important part of the FPFF system. The project also fully mastered the SCADA control software.

After trial operation, the results showed that the fire prevention and firefighting system with its technical parameters fully met the criteria set forth in the project proposal, as well as Vietnamese and international regulations and standards. The system was also tested and accepted for all areas of the Song Hau 1 thermal power plant and was evaluated as achieving good results by the main contractor LILAMA and the investor PVN.

Currently, the fire prevention and firefighting system has been put into operation and, to date, has contributed to ensuring labor safety, production, and economic efficiency for the Song Hau 1 thermal power plant. Following this success, NARIME is making strong and comprehensive investments in research and mastering the localization of equipment systems, not only for thermal power plants to be built in the near future but also investing in research and upgrading systems for power plants that are already in operation.