Energy monitoring and management using PLC-SCADA

[PLC-Easy]

Reducing climate change and managing energy is a challenge that is becoming higher on the priority list for many companies.

Managing energy starts with monitoring consumption and creating operator awareness through dashboarding etc. This requires a significant investment that encompasses the installation of instruments, IT infrastructure, monitoring and dashboarding software, adding to the workload of operations and possibly requiring additional subject matter expertise.  

Energy monitoring is the first step, energy managing is the second. To automatically manage and control/optimize energy consumption will require integration of the monitoring system with the control system (PLC-SCADA or DCS). This comes with an inherited set of challenges for integrating IT technology with OT (PLC-SCADA) infrastructure encompassing management of cyber security risks and conflicting IT - OT requirements.

The PLC-Easy solution has energy monitoring incorporated. When building a PLC-SCADA application with PLC-Easy, energy consumption is instantaneously displayed on the SCADA system for each device (control module), cluster of devices (equipment module), unit and process area’s (process cell). This gives an operator an instant overview of the total energy consumption and how this is made up by each unit/cluster/individual consumer.

New and/or existing instruments (4-20mA, fieldbus, Ethernet) connected to the PLC are utilized to measure energy consumption, or energy consumption can be calculated in the PLC by using available signals such as the percentage opened of a control valve. As the energy values are collected in the PLC, control schemes can be made without any of the afore mentioned IT challenges and investments associated with conventional energy monitoring systems.

This makes energy monitoring and control feasible without major investments.

If you would like to learn more about the standardized energy monitoring and control possibilities, please visit us in the Schneider Exchange digital product section: 

https://shop.exchange.se.com/en-US/apps/60580/plc-easy/features

[Rodrigo_Garcia]

Thanks for sharing!