Easy monitoring of power consumption
Issue 02-2016:
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The solution developed by Inlon Engineering SRL enables monitoring the power consumption in small and medium-sized industrial plants in order to provide companies energy balances and key performance indicators (KPI).
One of the main requirements was that the measures undertaken take over control of compressed air (kWh, Nm3 air), water (kWh, liters) and aspirators (kWh, operating hours) via standard protocols such as Modbus and M-Bus. Additionally, the solution should be capable of processing more than just trends and data. Another requirement was to generate performance indicators, such as for compressed air, water, and aspirators. finally, the solution should perform reporting and dashboard visualization.
Wireless monitoring for industrial sites
To achieve these goals, and avoid wiring, which would still cause a delay in the implementation of the solution, Inlon Engineering used RF power meters from EnOcean, then converted to Modbus for integration into the fieldbuses used by the power measuring devices.
The device used is the Pressac Sensing wireless CT Clamp. Powered from the measured conductor itself, the measured current value is reported every 10 seconds (or every 30 seconds if the current is found to be below 3A) using the industry standard wireless EnOcean protocol. Capable of measuring currents up to a maximum of 63A (50 Hz or 60 Hz), the Pressac Sensing Wireless Current Transducer is easily installed with no disturbance to the measured conductor.
For monitoring, the Loytec platform was used, with a web server that allows taking data from the fieldbus, preparing it for display on the monitoring PC with a dedicated graphics management software. This architecture allows the local area network (LAN), already available for business management applications, to be used to access the graphics display pages via the Internet remotely, making it easy to use and store the company’s systems management data, thus allowing for considerable savings in time and money.