Actionable Intelligence of Renewable Energy at Remote Sites

Problem:

Wireless telecom operators in North America face various challenges within their offgrid sites. Usually these problems stem from little to no visibility at these sites due to non comprehensive remote monitoring and control solutions, locality and various environmental conditions.

Firstly, operators are unable to gain complete visibility of their site, as they do not have sufficient and actionable data regarding their equipment, such as generator status, run time, fuel level, battery and backup power status, temperature of overall site, and importantly, renewable energy (solar panels, wind turbines) production trends and its optimization.

Due to these blindspots, operators are unable to optimize their OPEX, as well as their total cost of ownership. Due to little to no visibility, generators at these offgrid sites may have a continuous runtime due to fault, which can increase carbon emissions and create a negative impact on the environment. This can also lead to the outage as the fuel consumption is higher than expected. Moreover, this also increases the energy inefficiency at these offgrid sites due to the operating cost of delivering fuel and consistent maintenance visits to repair the generators on site. 

Lastly, as discussed, due to consistent maintenance visits by technicians, operators have to dedicate a large chunk of the overall budget to expensive maintenance costs for each of these offgrid sites.

Operators require a smart remote monitoring and control system that provides them complete visibility of their offgrid sites, which allows them to use real-time data analytics to make real-time decisions, ultimately reducing their generator runtime and the negative impact on the environment, making their sites more energy efficient and reducing maintenance costs.

Solution:

To address the needs of telecom operators, PLC Group has demonstrated its comprehensive remote monitoring and control solution which not only provides environmental temperature control, but insights, visibility, and control of all power sources on the off-grid site. Our controllers and environmental sensors integrate with all energy sources such as wind, solar, batteries and generators, allowing customers to access real-time analytics and alerts over email and SMS to take timely action.

Our system provides real-time analytics and alerts on:

  • Wind and solar energy production and trends
  • Site loads
  • Fuel status, alarms, consumption trends
  • Generator energy, run time, maintenance and fault alerts
  • Overall site temperature, alarms and alerts

We installed our universal controller, TCU NG, as well as various environmental sensors and surveillance cameras, which ultimately provide Actionable Intelligence to our customers to optimize the network in a timely fashion and reduce OPEX. Our solution allows our customers to:

  • Detect failure and allow users to reset it remotely that saves visits and down time
  • Take manual actions in case of failure to turn on/off or reset the devices
  • Reduce maintenance visits
  • Reduce environmental impact due to less generator runtime
  • Increase energy efficiency and reliance on renewable resources

Results:

Through our remote monitoring and control system, our customers were able to experience:

  • 26% fuel savings
  • 15% extra green energy produced
  • 15% overall OPEX reduced
  • Reduced carbon emissions and more 

Let’s make this difference in your mission critical facilities. Let’s talk.

#remotemonitoring #ictcooling #rewnwableenergy #reducecarbon #telecomsites #telecomshetler #telecommonitoring #datacenter #5g #telecom 

The Importance of Remote Monitoring and Control (RMC) – Part 2

As we learned in Part 1: The Problem, operating your business without Remote Monitoring and Control solution (RMC) is similar to flying an airplane through fog with zero visibility. You are operating blind and have no idea whether you are on course or if any dangers lie ahead. To reach your destination, your business needs instruments that show your current status and the target ahead. This allows you to navigate in a pitch-black dark, zero visibility situation. Companies that do not implement Remote Monitoring and Control solution face challenges such as lack of direction, target goals, accountability, and predictive maintenance. RMC is the solution that allows organizations to view real-time analyses and monitor the health of their systems. This is your guide to the advantages of an RMC.

Understanding Where You Are

You have to understand where you are before you can get where you are going. This is true in all types of businesses spanning every industry. Let’s say that one of your company’s goals is to maximize machine performance. This includes minimizing downtime and ensuring that every component of the machine is operating optimally for maximum efficiency. Before you can take the steps necessary to elevate the machine’s performance, you first need a baseline. RMC solution gives you the ability to understand how your machine is currently operating, through real-time numbers and analysis reports so that you and your team can see the steps needed to achieve the desired result.

PLC Group’s RMC solutions are applicable to the following industries:

  • Telecom
  • Data centers
  • Tower companies
  • Critical facilities
  • Oil and gas companies

Identify Areas of Improvement

Let’s go back to the example above, where your goal is to maximize machine performance. To improve performance, you have to identify the specific areas of operation that are working really well, and the areas that need improvement. For example, if the reports tell you that the conveyor belt portion of the machine is running slower than the manufacturer specifications, you know that you need to have the conveyor belt inspected and potentially upgraded. Focus more of your team’s time and energy on the areas that need improvement versus flying blindly and wasting time on areas that are working at maximum efficiency.

Quickly Identify and Resolve Problems

The longer an issue goes unidentified, the bigger the issue becomes, and the more your bottom line is negatively affected. Going back to the problem with the conveyor belt; let’s say that the cause of the conveyor belt’s poor performance has yet to be identified because there is no RMC in place. What is yet to be realized is that the belt is running poorly because it has slightly loosened and is catching on a bolt. Every time the belt catches, it is damaged slightly. Eventually, the belt breaks. The machine is now not just running slow but experiencing downtime until the issue is fixed. Repairs could have been made after-hours, and downtime avoided if the issue was detected sooner with RMC solution.

Stop Procrastinating and Start Planning

Manually tracking systems is time-consuming, costly, and prone to human error. RMC solution gives you a clear picture of the current status of your business’s operations from one easy-to-access centralized location. This frees up you and your team to stop procrastinating and focus on making a plan to maximize your systems’ health. Understand where you are, identify areas of improvement, and quickly identify and resolve issues with RMC.

Final Thoughts

Complete visibility is one of the most powerful tools you can have in your arsenal when running your business effectively. Implementing remote monitoring and control is one of the best ways to increase your bottom line and stay at your respective industry’s forefront. Click here to get started with PLC Group’s comprehensive RMC solutions!

Innovation keeps businesses in the game. Contact us for more information on how to streamline your business efficiently.

#remotemonitoring #5g #telecom

Case Study: Benefits of Using Generator Remote Monitoring (RMC) for Telecom Enterprises

Be Safe, Be Efficient, Reduce Operating Costs:

Benefits of Using Remote Monitoring and Control

As Safety is at the forefront of every business, regardless of scale. Essential services organizations are no exception.

In this particular case, the ones that provide and support reliable communications for households, the field staff’s safety while maintaining minimum physical contact is imperative.

Case Study in Safety, Efficiency and OPEX reduction

In the increasingly competitive environment, MSO’s are continuously challenged to keep the network availability high while keeping operating costs low.

Backup generators play a vital role in case of power outages to keep the services running. There are several points of failure while dealing with the Generators, such as Fuel levels, leakages, startup batteries, block heaters, etc.

Generators require continuous testing to ensure availability in case of power outages due to natural disasters such as snowstorms, hurricanes, and others. This requires ongoing internal or third-party field resources. This task becomes even more challenging in extreme weather conditions.

The current pandemic has made it even harder for adequate safety measures and planning to ensure physical contact and compliance with the health regulations. The safety and security of the personnel coupled with the inefficiency pose a big issue for MSO’s. This is one of the many challenges that may be solved with the PLC AI-based Generator Remote Monitoring & Control Solutions.

This particular case involved multiple installations over a large geographical area, some of which were quite remote. A set run schedule was requiring extensive labour hours, vehicles, drive times, and expenses, taking the time away from other equally critical issues.

Problem Identified

These are the problems identified regarding the Generators’ reliable, safe, and cost-efficient operation for Mission Critical Operations.

  • Genset Periodic and on-demand testing requiring field resources and expertise.
  • Genset Fuel levels and leakage issues could only be physically detected. This could result in non-availability of the fuel when required, as well as environmental impacts.
  • Not detecting Genset battery failures in time, resulting in not running when required.
  • Block heaters year-round fuel consumption.
  • Often times block heaters’ issues remain undetected until the Genset fails to start.

Problem Solved

PLC has made its mission to enable Telecom companies to safely and reliably maintain their facilities network using Remote Control and Monitoring. The added benefits are the OPEX reduction requiring less driving and travel times.

A comprehensive Generator Remote Monitoring solution was deployed, enabling the safe remote testing of the Generators to monitor the following parameters and stats on the go:

  • Real-time fuel monitoring
  • Real-time leakage detection
  • Real-time battery fault detection
  • Real-time block heater energy optimization and failure detection

All of these steps resulted in huge OPEX reduction and improvement in reliability of the Genset assets.

A comprehensive report was issued from the deployed hardware and software that could provide insights into the maintenance of the assets.

Results Delivered and ROI

With many initiatives are competing for the CAPEX within the organizations, it is crucial to choose the initiatives that provide the highest Return on Investment (ROI).

Our Generator Remote Monitoring solution was estimated to deliver the ROI of fewer than 18 months, resulting in ongoing OPEX savings, as well as the following intangible benefits:

  • Network reliability improvement
  • Improved customer client retention
  • Carbon footprint reduction
  • Safe and rapid response time in case of natural disasters
Benefits of Remote Monitoring Solution

Solution Deployed

PLC deployed its proven TCU-800 hardware with various fuel, temperature, and other sensors. The firmware and software provided state-of-the-art GUI that enabled the remote users with easy to perform steps and checks to test the full functionality of the generator operations.

The only requirement from the user was having access to a browser (Such a high bar!). A local 7 inch display was also provided on for local interfacing. The users are able to initiate testing remotely and locally and produce reports in PDF format that could be saved or emailed.

The next step is to initiate predictive maintenance scheduling using AI and automated system-generated testing based on weather forecasts to ensure smooth operations pre-empting any potential issues.

Bringing smart solutions to business problems is especially necessary as businesses face increasing competition. Every dollar saved through efficiency can be reinvested back into your business.

PLC Group’s RMC solutions are applicable to the following industries:

  • Telecom
  • Data Centers
  • Tower Companies
  • Critical Facilities
  • Oil and Gas companies

Innovation keeps businesses in the game. Contact us for more information on how to streamline your business efficiently.

#generator #fuel #telecom

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