Ventilation Controls Systems (VCS), also commonly referred as Ventilation-on-Demand (VOD) systems, have historically been offered to the mining industry with the initial promise of reducing electrical energy consumption.
Their promotion was also further refined to permit greater production opportunity and improving an energy per tonne metric.
Such ventilation management systems have been suggested, or attempted, as step-change implementations at mine sites. However, the visualisation or control to provide a fully utilised asset-tagging-based or environmentally driven system may be absent.
Operationally, throughout life of mine, using energy savings alone as the VCS/VOD driver is a challenge to sustain as it can compete against typical production incentives. Where site-specific KPIs include EBITDA, they are more heavily influenced by higher production output than energy savings.
A step-change implementation, in practice, is difficult to achieve due to the complexity of the logistics, the learning curve, and the maintenance required.
Today, industry is beginning to shift away from the VCS/VOD energy-savings driver focus, diversifying it into three pillars: safety, production, and energy savings.
Also, there is a trend away from step-change implementations, with industry preferring low-risk, multi-phase, and multi-year projects.
Herein, a multiphase approach is suggested, driven by these the three pillars, to maximise production versus the perceived goal of maximising energy savings.
It is expected that this approach aligns better with existing mine management methodologies and KPIs, with the potential to result in more realistic operational levels of implementation. CITATION:Acua, E, Visage, C, Mohle, H and Durandt, G, 2019. Ventilation control system multiphase implementation approach driven by safety and production, in Proceedings Australian Mine Ventilation Conference 2019, pp 8190 (The Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy: Melbourne).