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Powelectrics IoT technology has been adopted by Tag Systems, the UK market leader in integrated wireless security, fire and safety services for property and plant at industrial, commercial, utility, construction and national infrastructure sites.
Tag are using Powelectric’s Metron Industry 4.0 kit to monitor the functionality of hybrid-powered CCTV towers. The towers are powered primarily by a set of six batteries. When the battery power falls to a certain point, the site monitoring system automatically recharges the batteries, using a fuel-powered generator.
Prior to Powelectrics telemetry being installed, these generators could run out of fuel without site operatives being alerted. No fuel for the generator would mean that the battery could not be charged and so the CCTV would not be operational. That, in turn, compromised site security and could void site insurance, if an incident did occur.
Furthermore, if batteries were allowed to become flat, they could be damaged. An engineer would need to visit the site, which could be anywhere in the UK, to bleed the air from the system. Over-discharge may even require that the whole set of six batteries needed replacing, at a cost of over £1000. Tag would also be charged to recycle the old batteries.
The Powelectrics solution measures the fuel level in the generator tank, using SPS hydrostatic pressure sensors, connected to our award-winning Metron telemetry hardware.
Hourly level readings and user-defined low level alerts are sent to the cloud, initially to Powelectrics proprietary MetronView data collection and viewing platform.
MetronView delivers regular data and alerts to almost 1000 organisations. It offers customisable dashboards, reporting & alarms. It is proven as a highly secure and scalable IIoT solution, currently processing millions of readings every day, using a fraction of its processing capabilities.
MetronView also has a common API. For this application, the API was used to collect data into Tag’s PRTG Network Monitoring system, allowing operatives at Tag’s 24/7 control centre to see level alerts and advise customers to refuel.
In addition to preventing run-outs and the associated costs to both Tag and their customers, the regular data has allowed Tag to monitor generator fuel usage in its own right. Knowing what represents ‘typical’ usage in an empirical way, has helped define ‘atypical’ usage. A generator using more fuel than normal may need maintenance or may be identifying that the batteries on the CCTV tower are due for replacement.
Ben Hurst, Tag’s Engineering Manager, told us: “This IIoT solution has made a huge difference to our operations. It has helped reduced costs and its improved our relationships with customers, helping us maintain site security for them and eliminating their callout costs.
“The reliability of the Powelectrics kit has been fantastic and their tech support is second to none!
The project is paying back so quickly that our sister companies in the Netherland, Germany and Belgium plan to adopt this Powelectrics m2m solution.”
There are also plans to extend Powelectrics kit to noise, wind and dust monitoring, adding tremendous value to Tag’s offer, by extending their remit from security to encompassing site health, safety and environmental concerns.
Powelectrics offer you 25 years’ experience in sensing, instrumentation and connectivity. Our ’connected sensor’ solutions are employed in many industries including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, Adblue, fuels, oils, LPG, lubricants, food and beverage, waste & recycling, landfill & leachate, agriculture, utilities, pumping and environment, rail and security.
Please get in touch with Powelectrics to discuss your application on +44 1827 310 666 or email sales@powelectrics.co.uk.
