Energy always in view
It wasn’t so long ago that energy management was limited to switching appliances on and off manually and, every now and then, letting the meter reader in. Nowadays, energy usage is meticulously monitored and precisely controlled. Even in locations far from the central power supply, energy management is playing an increasingly important role.
As connectivity increases, a whole range of possibilities is opening up for the management and control of electrical energy. Integration into the Internet of Things (IoT) enables precise and continuous monitoring of the energy consumption of every individual device. To manage the resulting flood of data effectively, tools such as our IoT-enabled controller, the sysWORXX CTR-800, are needed; in this case, it functions as an edge controller.
The sysWORXX CTR-800 is a Linux-based industrial controller which, thanks to its extensive range of pre-installed software components, is ideally suited for use in the IoT. Thanks to its wide range of communication interfaces, the device is particularly well-suited to energy management processes. In particular, numerous smart meters can be integrated with minimal effort via Modbus. Fieldbus interfaces such as CAN/CANopen support the connection of additional peripheral devices, whilst sensors and actuators can be addressed directly via digital and analogue interfaces.
sysWORXX CTR-800
The smart edge controller is equally flexible when it comes to software. Suitable programming languages include C/C++, C#/.Net, Node-RED, Java and Python, whilst users of traditional PLC programming in accordance with IEC 61131-3 have access to various protocol stacks in the form of function block libraries and network variables. The sysWORXX CTR-800 can establish a wireless connection, for example via LTE, using radio modems from a wide range of manufacturers.
The sysWORXX CTR-800 clearly stands out thanks to its combination of a freely programmable edge controller and IoT gateway, as well as its capability for internal data pre-processing. This enables collected data to be pre-analysed, weighted and processed directly within the device. The sysWORXX CTR-800 is used as the basis for energy management applications by, amongst others, the German Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits (IIS) and numerous other customers.
Cloud-based energy management
IoT platform for energy management and energy storage
For industrial applications and larger companies, our partner, the Israeli firm Bacsoft, has developed an IoT platform. The aim is energy management and optimisation. To achieve this, Bacsoft relies on data transmission to the cloud, as well as data analysis within the cloud. The solution is currently being used in sectors such as water management and agriculture, as well as in the energy management of buildings and industrial facilities.
To utilise pre-processed data, Bacsoft relies on the sysWORXX CTR-800, as this transmits the data to the cloud of the same name for final analysis and management reports.
Bacsoft Sales Director Guy Gavish explains: “We only transmit the delta – that is, the differences between the measured consumption values. This ensures highly efficient data transmission. Furthermore, we filter out ‘data noise’ – that is, data that is useless for our purposes – and only pass on the data sets that are currently needed.”
To do this, the company uses its own Realtime Agent as the central software component on the CTR-700. This controls the current measurement and, for example, sends a message to the cloud in the event of deviations greater than 10 % of the average, where, depending on the configuration, a warning is triggered and sent to connected smartphones or to the operator's control room. With access via the cloud, responsible parties can also monitor their energy technology systems in real time.
„They give us the freedom to implement our solutions on their devices. This allows us to provide what we believe is the perfect combination of software and hardware.“
App-based energy management platform for local use in the cloud
On-site energy management
Electrical engineer Peter Heusinger from Fraunhofer IIS describes the collaboration between his research institute and SYS TEC electronic in similar terms: “Through this collaboration, we are generating real added value.”
Peter Heusinger works in the ‘Networked Systems and Applications’ department and is involved in the ‘OGEMA’ energy management system, which will run on the sysWORXX controller in future. OGEMA has a wide range of potential applications, encompassing industrial uses as well as energy control in the smart home.
With OGEMA, Heusinger and his colleagues aim to tackle a challenge that is not only ubiquitous in smart homes: the diversity of interfaces and protocols. “This has evolved over time and remains very diverse,” explains the engineer. Bringing together numerous different interfaces on a single platform was no mean feat: “If you want to link these systems in any way to do something meaningful with the energy, then you have to build on all these interfaces.”
The result is a platform with an app-based approach, which aims to provide developers – particularly those devising sophisticated algorithms for energy management – with a platform that includes a future app store.
An app for everything
Apps can be installed in OGEMA, similar to what you know from your smartphone. The apps each cover a specific area. These can be individual devices but also control tasks. For example, one app takes care of the query of inverters - how much energy is my solar system producing at the moment?
Another one queries the current weather report and the forecast for the coming days from the Internet and forwards the data to the next app, which adjusts the energy management for the next period based on the weather data. Other apps take care of querying user defaults, communicating with the electric car, if any, or performing actions in the smart home.
OGEMA is not a feature-oriented platform, however, because special attention is paid to IT security, explains Peter Heusinger: "We have thought security directly as part of the architecture. Keyword: Security by Design. That's how we want to minimize external dangers." To secure OGEMA, the Fraunhofer developers commissioned external penetration tests, among other things.
Standard data model for efficient management
The platform works with an integrated persistent database. This ensures that the system is immediately operational again without data loss even after a power failure. Interfaces are used to read in accumulating (sensor) data such as temperature, energy production or the state of charge of the storage units.
In OGEMA, they are stored in standardized data types. In this way, the apps should be able to work directly with the data without having to convert it beforehand. Included are data models with a focus on energy management, for example for combined heat and power plants or inverters. In addition, they are expandable to be able to map individual data sets, from technical devices of individual manufacturers, in addition to the more usual data.
Fraunhofer IIS offers a basic OGEMA system for integration as open source. The system is licensed under the GPLv3. Developers can thus place their apps and customizations under the same license and use the system free of charge. Alternatively, OGEMA can be licensed commercially with extended features for own non-open source customizations. Since Fraunhofer cannot distribute OGEMA as a finished complete system, the use of the sysWORXX CTR-700 is all the more important, on the basis of which good prototypes of hardware and software can be built.
„With its variety of interfaces and independence from a special programming language, the smart gateway is absolutely convincing.“
Far out
Another area of application for the sysWORXX CTR-700 is the management of off-grid technical equipment, such as mobile phone masts, which are installed far away from the electrical supply.
Such "facilities in the field" are supplied with energy using renewable energies such as solar or wind, via fuel cells or conventionally via generators with combustion engines. Plants that use renewable energy often have additional energy storage devices that bridge periods of low wind or low sun. These batteries, like internal combustion engines, are subject to wear and tear. Therefore, the vital data of such remote energy sites must be permanently monitored. Sensors connected to the CTR-700 perform this task. Data is transmitted in a pre-processed form, as the CTR-700 collects and processes the data. Only when it is determined that limit or expected values are outside a defined range is relevant data sent to the operator.
This has two advantages. On the one hand, transmission volume is saved and on the other hand, the control room is relieved. However, the operator can still access the plant remotely at any time and retrieve the raw data.
In plants with energy supply via fuel cells or diesel gensets, monitoring of fuel consumption and tank levels is important. The CTR-700 sends this level data and runtime consumption to the Network Operations Center (NOC). Based on this data, the NOC can coordinate the routes of the tank trucks as part of supply chain management and thus ensure the availability of the plant at all times.
Get in touch now
Your contact person: Your Sales Team at SYS TEC electronic
Department: We're happy to help:
Email: sales@systec-electronic.comPhone: +49 3765 38600-2110
