Monitoring of electrical networks

Monitoring system to monitor the entire power grids

1) A system to monitor electricity networks:

Monitoring of electrical networks to effectively manage the electric power is to protect, monitor and control the entire electrical network at any time. It is also, for the operator to optimize the lowest cost without prejudice energy consumption for the activity. This requires a general view in real time all the electrical parameters of the entire installation.
There are solutions to  Monitoring of electrical network systems to modern need are products and services using information technology and communications, built around fieldbus that incorporate intelligent products, such as plants measurement and supervision software such as electrical networks MemoGuard.

2) Different types of electricity networks:

In industrial and commercial establishments, the structure of the electrical installation depends on various parameters. One of them is how the consumer is connected to the distributor. In all countries, there are thus three customer segments:

■ Connection High Voltage. For larger industrial sites consumer of electricity, due to their high consumption above 10 MVA, the client is directly connected to high voltage. In this case, the internal electric network includes a transformer High Voltage / Medium Voltage and Medium Voltage network different BT networks. Furthermore, such an installation will often with cogeneration.
■ Connection Medium Voltage. In the 0.5 to 10 MVA facilities, the client is connected directly to the network medium voltage (20 kV). This is the case for example for a hospital or a manufacturer of electronic equipment. Here, the structure of the electrical network comprises a voltage / Medium Medium voltage station, a network Medium Voltage and Low different voltage networks. This type of installation incorporates increasingly autonomous power sources.
■ Connecting Low Voltage. For small industries or commercial sites such as hotels, the client is directly connected to the distribution system low voltage (400 or 230). The installation can then include several paintings Low Voltage and autonomous energy sources.

3.) Purpose of energy management:

Supervise electrical networks : The needs and facilities management can be highly variable, depending on the industry, the importance of the power grid, the consequences of a failure, the energy consumption overhead or users end and operators. As these needs must be prioritized in order to operate and maintain the best electrical installation, security-related needs of goods and people actually taking precedence on simple comfort needs.

3. 1 • Security of goods and people:

Supervise electrical networks : An electrical network must distribute energy while ensuring the safety of people and equipment. This vital need has always been ensured by the use of different protection relays. Today, digital technologies have increased the performance of these devices. They now have additional features and are increasingly integrated into the monitoring systems through their communication intranets.

3. 2 • Operation and maintenance:

Supervise electrical networks : Depending on the type of installation used, the number of procedures can vary significantly and thus difficult to manage. In addition, many sites have maintenance personnel in sharp decline, quantitatively and even qualitatively. Available human resources are key to the solution of the problem to use. Many installations are controlled and managed remotely, either from a checkpoint in a remote control room on the site itself, or else from an outsourced central supervision of several sites. The concentration of management functions is then a way to optimize all human resources and consequently to improve working conditions for standby and maintenance personnel, through the use of computerized systems and automatic execution repetitive tasks.

3.3 • Availability:

Any industry has its well-defined requirements for the imperative of continuity. For example in a hospital or clinic operating rooms and intensive care are designed to benefit from a high level of continuity. On an industrial site, cuts result in loss of production or machine breakdowns and the cost of such downtime can be enormous. The need to ensure the continued provision of continuity has led to develop highly advanced technological solutions such as load shedding Medium Voltage and Low Voltage different networks, based on the difference between the priority routes and the lowest priority. Manage the supply of defects is one of the functions of control and monitoring systems.

3.4 • Power quality:

The emergence of phase shifting equipment or harmonics generators (inverters, drives, ovens, …). These changes are very often the first cause of serious malfunctions. For example qualitative analysis in a plastic extrusion plant revealed losses of € 65 k whenever the production process is interrupted due to voltage dips or surges. Some distributors set up, new pricing plans indexed not only on the quantity but also the quality of energy, in terms of continuity, and also in terms of harmonics. Instant access to detailed measurements of harmonics can help users quick maintenance prior to the occurrence of a costly failure of the entire system.

3.5 • Cost optimization of energy:

In many companies the need to reduce costs, direct (consumption) and indirect (production losses) of electric power, has become paramount. The direct cost of energy depends on:

1. ■ The number of kWh consumed,
2. ■ From the power demand (kW) according to the schedule, the type of contract and the contract power,
3. ■ From reactive power consumption, savings can be easily initiated by acting on two factors, the level of consumption and tariff offer the distributor.
4. ■ A comprehensive measurement system will provide all data necessary to record and analyze the situation.Centralized management and monitoring allow substantial energy savings with quick return on investment. In addition, a system with automatic load shedding function allows the end user to reduce its consumption according to the price list.

4) The dataloggers to  supervise electrical networks :

Datalogger is a versatile network element that is installed on departure and / or arrival of the network on the electric control panel. This device is actively involved in monitoring, maintenance, management, operation and monitoring of the electrical network, through these different functions:

1. Alarm display:
   The maintenance and operating needs of the electricity network are very important, the center can compile the value of multiple network settings. The gain for the operator is not only economic (as soon as any measure of power and / or energy, the datalogger becomes economically more interesting), but also technical since the central provides additional functions such as storing the extreme values ​​reached by the network.
2.  Capture and conversion of alarms:
   With its many output options, the central measurement becomes an energy meter, transducer or a digital sensor via a serial link, enabling to have and use information remotely.
3. Intelligent information technology:
   processor and memory of the plant, associated with its internal clock, available to the central recording functions. This translates to the operator by curves loads its network, changing settings, and time stamp events (alarms, alerts, malfunction, cuts …).
4. Current dataloggers even monitor the quality of electricity supply:
   harmonic distortion, voltage spikes detection, calculation of residual current in the neutral conductor, etc.

5) Install dataloggers and monitoring of electrical voltages:

Supervise electrical networks : Generally dataloggers find their place in steps of an electrical network, be it production, transport or distribution. For example can be found in:

1. ■ In the various central power generation,
2. ■ On all dispatching Medium Voltage Power Distribution,
3. ■ On switchboards and motor control
4. ■ On departures Medium Voltage / Low Voltage industrial facilities for network monitoring,
5. ■ On very large industrial or commercial sites, for supervision and Submetering Low Voltage
6. ■ For energy consumers for consumption analysis and management of power cuts,

6) Monitoring to  supervise electrical networks   :

The main interest of dataloggers is their function integrated digital sensor in a network dedicated to the supervision of the entire installation. For the operation of this network of sensors and meters, two solutions are available to the operator:
– Integration in a general supervision,
– A “manufacturer” solution from a TV software succession and dedicated analysis.
a) supervising general:
The different measurement stations will assume the role of specialized electrical sensors. We find the most often connected to controllers via an RS485 serial link, the same controller is also connected to the central system of supervision by a much faster communication media (Ethernet, …) using mostly of fiber optics.
In this network supervision system, especially the controller provides control and monitoring functions. On the central supervisory position, the operator can view on the synoptic of operation of the installation, the good state of its circuit breakers, power consumption of each detailed section, the status of the access control system, security fire, temperatures, … and he may also remotely control the opening of circuit breakers, the intensity of the lighting sections, etc.
TV automatic checking records of energy meters by the system allow billing by consumption unit. The supervisory system to monitor and manage key parameters measured (instantaneous values, averaged, maximum and minimum):

• ■ Single and phase voltages on the 3 phases,
• ■ The current per phase,
• ■ The neutral current or leakage current,
• ■ Active power per phase and overall,
• ■ Reactive power per phase and overall,
• ■ The apparent power per phase and overall,
• ■ The frequency,
• ■ Phase Power Factor per phase and global,
• ■ Phase THD per phase voltage and current,
• ■ The active energy, reactive and apparent consumption,
• ■ The active energy, reactive and apparent provided,

7) Network Monitoring & finding

Supervise electrical networks : Measuring stations have developed considerably in a decade to become an intelligent body control and monitoring of any installation. At the same time, the format is remarkably reduced, and in parallel, their implementation and operation is simpler. And it is expected that this development is still in its premises. Central tomorrow will provide access to more information, they will be able to prioritize.
8) Software monitoring of electrical networks :
This MémoGuard TV monitoring software up and power management for PC Windows environment, consists of 3 modules: configuration, visualization, analysis.

■ The setup menu is used to set the monitoring system:
– Transmission characteristics (direct or modem),
– creation of fictitious counting points
– programming of TV automatic checking sessions, counting indexes and load curves, tariff setting,
■ The playback menu allows the supervision of the distribution system by:
– Instant display of all parameters
– alarm display – the display and recording settings to choose from, …
■ The Analysis menu supervision screen shows:
– Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the energy consumption in several forms (table, graph …)
– optimization of consumption by simulations based on configurable criteria (tariff contract, contractual power,).
Indeed, thanks to the remote reading of load curves (every 10 minutes) from the dataloggers and overlay with the tariff contract, the monitoring software can automatically edit an electricity bill.
MémoGuard 2012 is an indispensable tool for the supervision of the electrical system, tariff simulation in the most rigorous way possible, the logging of all consumption data, malfunction and incidents.

In your own interest, whether economic and / or security, please contact us immediately for a presentation and / or demonstration of the solution that allows you to monitor of electrical networks “MemoGuard  by joining us: Tel. 01.60.53.60.53 or Fax. 01.60.37.64.14 or by mail with the contact form

More information about the ‘supervision tool  – How to monitor electrical networks