Vattenfall – Migration and upgrade PCS 7 district heating

From the central control location in Diemen, Vattenfall provides district heating for Amsterdam Zuidoost, Diemen, and Almere. The existing server hardware was still running on the outdated Windows Server 2003, while the uninterrupted heat supply to the connected municipalities had to be guaranteed at all times.

The entire server infrastructure and PCS 7 environment had to be renewed while the heat supply to Amsterdam Zuidoost, Diemen, and Almere continued uninterrupted — a large-scale migration without the plant ever coming to a standstill.

The execution consisted of a phased migration per location with minimal operational impact. Key activities included: upgrading the PCS 7 software, renewing the hardware to Windows Server 2016, migrating eight multi-projects, transferring operator and automation stations, replacing more than 20 Industrial PCs, and implementing redundant domain controllers with centralized time synchronization.

With the successful migration, Vattenfall now has a modern and future-proof Siemens PCS 7 environment. The upgrade was carried out without interruption to heat supply and forms a stable foundation for future expansions.