Smart monitoring of systems in critical operations in free trade zones
How the common-property administration of an industrial park in a free trade zone will implement Reveal to centralize the monitoring of energy, critical infrastructure, and the Fire Protection System, over a LoRaWAN network ready to grow with the industrial park's warehouses.
- Location
- Colombia
- Scale
- 4 common-property systems, network ready for 32 warehouses
- Assets
- Energy metering points, Fire Protection System (RCI)
- Gateway
- LoRaWAN network: 1 Border Gateway (PS LoRaWAN) and 3 Relay Gateways
Summary
The common-property administration of an industrial park in a free trade zone is implementing a remote monitoring solution for its critical infrastructure, using the Reveal platform and a LoRaWAN communications network. The solution centralizes information from the energy and Fire Protection System (RCI) systems, enabling visualization, alarm generation, historical queries, and analysis.
The LoRaWAN network is also designed as shared technology infrastructure, ready for the future integration of the energy meters of the industrial park's 32 warehouses.
01 — The problem
The free trade zone needs to ensure the proper operation of its critical systems, which were supervised mainly through physical inspections. Under this approach, identifying an anomaly, failure, or change in operating conditions depended on the visits made, without a continuous view of the equipment's status.
On top of this, the consumption of the different users and warehouses was managed manually to distribute and recover the value of a consolidated energy bill, a process prone to discrepancies due to reading times, consumption variations, or errors in recording the information.
The challenge was to have centralized, timely information to know the status of the critical infrastructure in real time, quickly identify events or anomalies and, at the same time, have reliable historical information to support the management, billing, and reconciliation of energy consumption.
02 — The operational signal
Fire protection system activation
Reveal displays the status of the RCI and generates configurable alarms and notifications for events defined in the operation.
RCI operating variables
Acquisition of states, operating variables, events, and alarms from the Fire Protection System.
Consumption and electrical variables
Measurement of energy consumption (kWh) and instantaneous electrical variables: voltage and current per phase, frequency, active, reactive, and apparent power, and power factor.
03 — How Reveal detects and analyzes it
The solution combines hardware and SaaS software. The energy metering points and the RCI system connect to Modbus-to-LoRaWAN converter modules, which transmit the information to the LoRaWAN network and, from there, wirelessly to the Reveal platform.
The solution includes:
Energy: monitoring of three (3) common-property energy metering points through instrumentation cabinets that integrate energy meters and Modbus-to-LoRaWAN converter modules.
Fire Protection System: integration of one (1) Fire Protection System (RCI) through a Modbus-to-LoRaWAN converter module for the acquisition of states, operating variables, events, and alarms.
LoRaWAN network: supply, installation, configuration, and commissioning of a LoRaWAN communications infrastructure made up of one (1) Border Gateway (PS LoRaWAN) and three (3) Relay Gateways, enabling wireless transmission of information to the Reveal platform.
Reveal platform: a centralized platform with a rules engine, alerts, and events, plus dashboards that make it easy to view information in real time and at a forensic level.
04 — What decision it enables
- Reveal centralizes and analyzes information from the integrated systems, making it possible to identify events, alarms, and operating conditions relevant to infrastructure management. With this implementation, the team can:
- Know the status of the critical infrastructure in real time, without depending on inspection visits.
- Quickly identify events, anomalies, or abnormalities from the configured alarms and notifications.
- Have reliable historical information to support the management, billing, and reconciliation of energy consumption and other operational situations.
- Progressively integrate the warehouses' electrical energy data and new devices within the same network, which makes it easier to centralize information continuously.
05 — What it improves
Operational result
Centralized remote monitoring
the status of energy and the Fire Protection System is available from a single platform, without depending on inspection visits.
Configurable alarms and notifications
events defined in the operation trigger alerts so the team can quickly identify anomalies or failures.
Historical queries
variables, events, and critical events are recorded for later analysis and forensic review.
Greater visibility of critical infrastructure
the administration has a continuous view of the availability and pre-operation conditions of the common equipment.
Business result
A foundation for energy reconciliation
continuous metering provides reliable historical information for billing and reconciling consumption against the consolidated energy bill.
Communications infrastructure ready to grow
the LoRaWAN network is shared infrastructure that will make it possible to progressively add new metering points, including the energy meters of the 32 warehouses.
A technology foundation for the park
the project makes it possible to expand the monitoring deployment and progressively consolidate information from different systems and points of the industrial park in Reveal.