TECHNINEIGE develops the snow coverage remote control

Technineige integrates Alert in its artificial snow coverage systems

The past winter seasons were not optimum for main of the French winter sport resorts because of a fickle snow coverage. To balance snow heights and guarantee optimum snow coverage, the winter sport resorts invest in snow production systems.

Snow Blowers Functioning Process

Snow blowers can produce a significant quantity of snow on the sine qua non condition that the temperatures are low enough. The snow production is strictly speaking natural. The snow blowers just blow tiny droplets in the air. On contact with air, the droplets crystallize and turn into snow. This network is made up of a water storage basin (generally in the form of an artificial lake), a pumping station and a pipe network which dispatches water to each of the snow blower).

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Technineige Solution

The Technineige company is specialized in artificial snow coverage and proposes complete and secure systems. So as to tackle with team organization and incident localization, Technineige has decided to equip its systems with Alert. About 10 French winter sport resorts are equipped with these systems. " Val d'Isere " is one of the resorts equipped with Alert: this resort has 6 snow production systems which guarantee a permanent snow coverage on 23 Km. " Megeve " is also a good example: this winter sport resort comprises 154 snow blowers and is also equipped with Alert.

Alert Software Roles

Primarily, ALERT makes it possible to send reminders to the operators concerned when the system needs to be switched on.

ALERT is also used to ensure that the system is functioning correctly. The water discharge pressure, which governs the size of the droplets, and the air temperature, another crucial factor in the process, are both monitored. In addition, the entire system is checked constantly and the slightest anomaly detected in the computerised communications between the systems is flagged by ALERT immediately.

A remarkable result

This system enables a better stability and quality in the snow production. Moreover, the supervision of such a system was not very simple for two main reasons:

  • first of all, the snow is mainly produced during the night (temperatures are lower during the night).
  • Secondly, it was not very convenient for the staff to supervise all the snow blowers at the same time.

Thanks to Alert, the skiers are certain of finding an excellent snow and the operators of the snow coverage systems are much more mobile