In the second half of 2019, Technoelectric – a company with Romanian capital that produces electrical panels and integrates systems for automation in the field of refrigeration installations, started a large project for the Mega Image store network. Its objective was to implement a system for monitoring the temperature of refrigeration equipment, BMS control, recording electricity and water consumption, and by 2022 it will be implemented in all stores of the retail chain. So far, the innovative system has been implemented in over 400 locations in Bucharest and the country.
The technology underlying the refrigeration equipment monitoring and BMS control is managed by a Boss Carel monitoring system and is divided into two categories: the first refers to temperature monitoring and the second to BMS control and recording electricity consumption and water. The first category includes monitoring stores through wireless sensors and Carel controllers or thermostats. The advantages of wireless sensors are that they can be used regardless of the type of controller or thermostat that is part of the refrigeration equipment and that it is not necessary to create a wired communication network. The wireless sensors are powered by a battery that has a lifespan of 3 to 8 years, depending on the desired sampling rate. Among the benefits of using Carel controllers or thermostats can be mentioned the reading and modification of the controller parameters, but also the direct and easy access to a wide range of extremely useful information (defrost status, fan, lighting, etc.).
Equipment with hot technology, light advertisements, beverage refrigerators, air curtains, and the like that support the activity of stores are monitored and controlled according to an individual operating schedule, but also by certain external factors (outside temperature, light intensity, etc. ) with the help of a PLC from the CpCO Carel family that works based on a software developed by the Technoelectric team. Also, the take-up of electricity consumption is done by using energy meters connected directly to the monitoring system through the RS 485 data network, water consumption is recorded using reed relay water meters, and all pulses are taken over and processed by a PLC. The items listed provide the end-user, on a single page, with the information needed to optimally monitor the operation of each store.
One of the objectives of the project developed and implemented by the Technoelectric team for Mega Image was to identify the right technical solution for monitoring in one place a large number of stores with a fast pace of development. With the experience of our team and the technology of our partners Carel Italia, we created and provided a solution based on a cloud server called RemotePro, which monitors and stores the information transmitted by each Boss Carel monitoring system installed in Mega Image and Shop & Go stores. Thus, not only did we meet the objective, but we optimized the entire process of coordination and control of refrigeration equipment, we helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions and supported our customer’s cost optimization strategy, says Valter Laurențiu Carp, General Manager Technoelectric.
Each store entered in the server is located by configuring geographical coordinates and can be easily viewed on the map. Reports and benchmarking are generated from Remote Pro and include key information about refrigeration equipment operations, normal energy or water consumption based on certain factors (sales area, number of refrigerator consumers, and more), and automatic report generation. HACCP, and those on the complete situation of alarms generated by refrigeration equipment. All these reports have selection filters that generate new ones depending on the selected period, the type of MT / LT refrigeration system, the geographical area, and the service or maintenance company. They are an effective tool for verification and control so that both the end-user and the technical departments receive an overview of the state of the monitored installations and easily observe the effects of changes in the installations.
Increasing energy efficiency is a key element in the strategy to reduce the impact of our business on the environment. Starting from the motto: “to measure is to know”, we set out from the beginning, from 2017, to implement a simple Smart Metering system, which would measure, in real-time, the consumption of utilities in the Mega Image network.
We evaluated the existing solutions in the market at that time and concluded that the solution offered by Technoelectric – a leader in the field of atomization in the industry, with the integration of equipment and applications developed by Carel – will bring us more benefits than simply measuring the consumption generated utilities, especially electricity and water. Thus, we can now monitor the temperatures in all controlled spaces and we can replace the manual thermograms with some issued automatically, in compliance with HACCP conditions, automatic control of important electrical consumers in our stores, removing errors generated by the human factor, based on a program implemented in a Cpco controller. We have also improved the service and maintenance activity by remote access to refrigeration equipment and by constantly monitoring their operation. In addition, the centralization of this information in the RemotePro application provides centralized reports, very useful to the responsible staff in our organization, especially those that highlight, in real-time, the deviations that occur. From the data accumulated so far, from the stores where we implemented the Smart Metring system, there is an improvement in energy efficiency between 9-12%, says Vasile Casian – Center Of Expertise Technical Manager.
