[Chinese Mainland] Henan Issues Technical Standard for Central Control System Construction of Urban Sewage Treatment Plants, DBJ41/T374-2026 to Take Effect in February Next Year

The Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Henan Province issued Announcement No. 92 of 2026, approving the "Technical Standard for Central Control System Construction of Urban Sewage Treatment Plants in Henan Province" as a local engineering construction standard of Henan Province, with the number DBJ41/T374-2026, effective throughout the province from 2027年2月1日. The standard applies to the design, construction, and acceptance of central control systems for newly built, expanded, and renovated urban domestic sewage treatment plants with a capacity of 1万m³/d and above, covering the entire process units of pretreatment, biological treatment, advanced treatment, sludge disposal, chemical dosing, disinfection, and deodorization, and proposes the design philosophy of "on-demand collection, hierarchical control, and intelligent optimization."

I. Scope of Application: A Unified Benchmark for Central Control Systems in Plants Above 1万 Cubic Meters per Day

According to the announcement and the simultaneously released compilation interpretation, the standard applies to the design, construction, and acceptance of central control systems for newly built, expanded, and renovated urban domestic sewage treatment plants with a capacity of 1万m³/d and above. This threshold means that the vast majority of urban sewage treatment plants at the county level and above in Henan Province will be incorporated into a unified technical framework, while small-scale facilities in townships may refer to it for implementation according to their capabilities.

The compilation objectives are clearly defined as four points: to thoroughly implement the "National Standardization Development Outline"; to standardize the construction of central control systems for urban sewage treatment plants in Henan Province; to ensure the safe, stable, and efficient operation of sewage treatment facilities; and to unify the technical requirements for central control system construction and enhance the automation, intelligence, and refinement of operation management.

It is worth noting that the standard text has been made public on the portal website of the Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development of Henan Province and is administered by that department. This is equally important for equipment suppliers and operators—increased transparency of technical requirements means greater predictability in bidding and acceptance processes.

II. Three Compilation Characteristics: Coordination and Unity, Scale Differentiation, and Equal Emphasis on Construction and Management

The standard emphasizes three main lines in its compilation approach:

• Emphasis on coordination and unity with relevant regulations and standards—The standard is coordinated with the "Outdoor Drainage Design Standard" GB 50014, the "Measures for the Supervision and Administration of Urban Sewage Treatment Plant Operations in Henan Province," and other relevant national and Henan provincial regulations and standards. The relevant provisions and requirements comply with current laws, regulations, and mandatory engineering construction standards, ensuring consistency of the standard within the legal framework and industry normative system.
• Emphasis on scale differentiation and implementability—In response to the current status and differences among sewage treatment plants of different scales, processes, and operating models in Henan Province in terms of central control system configuration, system functions, data transmission, operation monitoring and control, and operation management, the key factors causing uneven levels of construction and operation management are analyzed, and hierarchical and categorized differentiated construction standards for central control systems are formulated to ensure the standard is implementable.
• Equal emphasis on engineering construction and later operation and maintenance management—The standard not only makes specific provisions for the engineering construction of central control systems but also puts forward specific requirements for later maintenance, operation scheduling, and safety management of the project, ensuring the standardization of both construction and operation.

The third point is particularly worthy of industry attention. Central control systems have long suffered from the problem of "built well but used poorly": full functionality at acceptance, but after two years of operation, alarms are disabled, historical data is missing, and instrument drift goes uncalibrated. Writing maintenance, scheduling, and safety management into the same standard effectively extends the chain of responsibility from the delivery endpoint to the entire operation lifecycle.

III. Seven-Chapter Table of Contents and Main Technical Content

The table of contents of the standard is: 1 General Provisions; 2 Terms; 3 Basic Requirements; 4 System Requirements; 5 Design; 6 Construction; 7 Acceptance; Appendix. The key points of each chapter are as follows:

• General Provisions — Clarify the purpose of standard preparation, scope of application, and alignment with other standards.
• Terms — Define key terms such as the central control system, information layer, and control layer of wastewater treatment plants to ensure consistent understanding.
• Basic Requirements — Set forth provisions on the classification standards for central control system construction, network security, data storage, visual monitoring, and data transmission.
• System Requirements — Specify the monitoring, control, and automation functional requirements for the central control system of each process unit, covering the entire process including pretreatment, biological treatment, advanced treatment, sludge disposal, chemical dosing, disinfection, and odor removal. Clarify the automation functional requirements of each process unit, including monitoring, data acquisition, remote control, automatic regulation, alarm management, and event logging, embodying the design philosophy of "on-demand collection, tiered control, and intelligent optimization."
• Design — Provide specific provisions for software and hardware design. The hardware side includes system architecture, classification standards, key performance indicators, operator stations, engineer stations, databases, networks, uninterruptible power supplies, and equipment room facilities. The software side includes functions, screen configuration, video surveillance, report statistics, alarm management, and data interfaces.
• Construction — Put forward normative requirements for construction organization and management, civil engineering supporting construction, equipment installation, cable laying, system hardware and software commissioning, and integrated commissioning and testing, clarifying the technical key points of on-site operations.
• Acceptance — Comprising four stages: construction quality, system functions, trial operation, and completion, specifying acceptance test items such as hardware, software, process linkage, network security, data acquisition, and alarm functions, and stipulating the submission requirements for the full set of completion documents, paper and electronic archival materials.

One statement in the acceptance chapter carries significant weight: Ensure the central control system is constructed completely with genuinely functional and usable features, and that on-site operating conditions are consistent with the data displayed by the system. This effectively makes "digital-physical consistency" a hard acceptance criterion, directly targeting long-standing industry problems such as persistent discrepancies between instrument data and central control screens, and manual reporting replacing automatic data collection.

IV. Industry Observation: Why the Central Control System Has Become the Lever for Standardization

Singling out the central control system for standard-setting reflects a deeper shift in the operational logic of wastewater treatment plants.

First, discharge standards are becoming stricter and more granular. The amendment to the Discharge Standard of Pollutants for Municipal Wastewater Treatment Plants (GB 18918—2002) has added instantaneous values for major water pollutants such as Chemical Oxygen Demand, ammonia nitrogen, Total Nitrogen, and Total Phosphorus, and adjusted pH, color, and fecal coliform count from daily average values to instantaneous values. In the era of daily average assessment, manual sampling and after-the-fact statistics were sufficient; instantaneous value assessment, however, requires continuous controllability throughout the entire process, making the data acquisition density, alarm response speed, and control precision of the central control system part of compliance capability.

Second, pressure from energy and chemical consumption has been transmitted to the control layer. Precise aeration control, closed-loop chemical dosing regulation, and pump group operation in high-efficiency zones — these savings potentials all depend on reliable process data and control logic. Without a trustworthy central control system, energy-saving retrofits often remain at the level of equipment replacement only.

Third, plant-network integration and performance-based payment require data endorsement. Many regions are promoting the "plant-network integrated" operation and maintenance model and performance-based payment assessment and settlement, and the basis for settlement ultimately rests on traceable operational data. The data storage, network security, and interface specifications of the central control system therefore carry commercial significance, not merely technical details.

For equipment and solution providers, the introduction of the standard means that the procurement language on the demand side will become more standardized; the approach of tiered and classified construction will also make plants of different scales more rational in investment intensity, avoiding the waste of "large systems for small plants" and the under-configuration of "small systems for large plants."

V. Three Tips for Operating Units

• Conduct a self-assessment against the classification standards in advance — The standard takes effect from 2027年2月1日. New construction, expansion, and renovation projects will be the first to apply it. Projects under construction and planned projects should verify design documents against the new standard as early as possible.
• Prioritize completing the data chain — The integrity rate and calibration records of online instruments, historical data storage periods, and closed-loop alarm handling records are the areas most likely to expose shortcomings in acceptance testing, and should be organized in advance.
• Treat network security as an acceptance item — Network security is explicitly written into the basic requirements and acceptance test items. Boundary protection, account permissions, and log auditing of industrial control networks need to be improved simultaneously.

Overall, Henan's move to unify central control system construction requirements in the form of a local standard is a pragmatic attempt at the provincial level to push "Smart Water" from concept to engineering specification. As similar technical regulations are introduced across various regions, the intelligent construction of wastewater treatment plants is expected to move away from isolated efforts and enter a stage where standards can be followed.

TIANYI LIMITED has long been deeply engaged in the fields of wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse. Centering on three major directions—low-carbon processes, resource recovery, and smart operations—it provides full-chain services ranging from solution design, equipment manufacturing, and engineering construction to operation management for municipal wastewater treatment plants, industrial parks, and various water-using entities. With the goals of "stable compliance, energy saving and consumption reduction, and resource recycling," the company continuously helps customers reduce operating costs and enhance system resilience in their green and low-carbon transformation.

Source: Announcement No. 202692 of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department of Henan Province, the compilation and interpretation of the "Technical Standard for Central Control System Construction of Urban Wastewater Treatment Plants in Henan Province," and publicly available information on the official website of the Housing and Urban-Rural Development Department of Henan Province.