IIoT Solutions in Electrical Metering– An overview 

In this article, we will be talking about what solutions can be provided to fulfill the demand of consumers particularly in electrical measurement sector.

Introduction: 

After progressing with different phases of industrial revolution, the world is currently implementing the Fourth Industrial Revolution. This phase of revolution deals with the production systems having computer technology implemented along with a network connection. With this, the devices are enabled with communication and every device is a part of a single network. This networking generates a “Cyber physical production system” in which system, its components and people communicate via network and the production system is having the freedom to govern itself or control its own affair. 

Electrical metering sector 

With the dynamically changing needs of the market, the major players in the field of electrical measurement and instrumentation look forward towards industrial internet of things (IIoT) as their vision to excel in this sector. But in what context can this sector contribute towards providing IIoT solutions to its customers? As far as electrical measurement and instrumentation sector is concerned, following are the fields where IIoT solutions can be offered: 

• • • For measurement, monitoring and analysis of energy network parameters
    • For measuring, monitoring and recording of physical parameters like temperature, humidity, etc.
    • For visualisation of the parameters measured, over Cloud technology linking the devices in a userfriendly monitoring system

Tools required: 

After understanding the fields in which these solutions can be implemented, we will be talking about the basic requirements for an Electrical Instrumentation industry (or any other manufacturing industry per say) to provide IIoT solutions for its consumers and grow in this field technically as well as commercially. We will also understand in what sense these requirements can be helpful when we talk about Electrical measurement field.

Communication Protocols: 

The basic requirement for facilitating the demand of IIoT solutions is the inclusion of “communication capable” devices in the product basket. Along with the conventional and well-known communication protocols for energy devices such as Ethernet Modbus TCP/IP and Modbus RTU, there is a growing demand in the devices with MQTT, BACnet and Profinet protocols as most of the leading entities across globe has already implemented in their operations.

MQTT is designed as a very lightweight publish/subscribe messaging transport that is ideal for connecting remote devices with a small code footprint and minimum network bandwidth. 

BACnet protocol is “a data communication protocol particularly used for building automation system and control networks.” 

Profinet or Process Field Net is an industry standard for data communication over Ethernet. It defines exchange of data between the devices and controllers in a network.

Cloud: 

Cloud simply means storing and accessing your data over the internet instead of your computer’s hard drive. Cloud is a server that can be accessed over the internet and the software and databases that run on those servers. It enables users to access the data from almost any device as all the storage and computing takes place on servers in datacenter.

In measurement industry, cloud can be a place to store all the data logged by the communication capable measurement devices. This data includes electrical, physical and other parameters measured by the devices on field over various decentralised locations and stored over a single location (cloud). After successful analysis of the data stored on cloud, corrective actions in terms of safety operations, efficient energy consumption and getting incentives over power factor can be implemented in the system. Cloud services can also contribute in the providing access to consumer data such as test certificate of manufactured products, service manuals, and datasheets of the purchased products, thus mitigated the need of physically printing hardcopies of the same and supplying them in Box packing of product. Thus, contributing towards eco-friendly approach.

Our Contribution:

Responding to the needs of the market for IIoT devices, the following can be found in our offer:

• • • Power network meter with recording – ND30IoT
    • Rail mounted power network meter with recording – NR30IoT
    • Temperature, humidity, light intensity, CO2 and TVOC data logger – HT22IoT
    • Data logger – SM61IoT
    • MARC CLOUD

References:

• • • MQTT – the standard for IoT messaging https://mqtt. org/
    • BACnet – the new standard protocol http://www. bacnet.org/Bibliography/EC-9-97/EC-9-97.html
    • Cloud storage: What is it and how does it work? https://medium.com/@anukritisaurabh/cloudstorage-what-is-it-and-how-does-it-work87265f4ebc65

Expertise shared by Rahul Vadinkar, Lumel Expertise