Low-voltage power distribution in the digital age

Industrial enterprises in almost every sector are implementing digital technologies to make their processes more efficient and flexible, and to boost their productivity. In this context, the electrical infrastructure assumes a double function: As an integral part of digital environments, it ensures safe, reliable, and efficient power supply to plants, machinery, and buildings, supplying important data for the industrial Internet of Things at the same time.

Would you like to integrate your components and systems in the Internet of Things and take advantage of the benefits?

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Planning the electric power distribution for industrial plants, infrastructure, and buildings is becoming more and more complex. Innovative software tools, CAx data, or TIA portal support you – as an electrical planner, a switchboard manufacturer, or a panel builder – effectively in your planning and engineering process. Moreover, the digital transformation offers the operators of infrastructures, industrial plants, and buildings huge potentials for higher productivity and efficiency. Already in the short run, operators can reduce their energy costs by up to ten percent if weak points in the consumption can be detected in a targeted way and eliminated with simple means. By identifying energy guzzlers, avoiding load peaks, and optimizing the energy consumed in production and building operation, even up to 30 percent can be saved. Furthermore, failures and blackouts can be avoided, and power supply can be ensured.

Today, all process steps in electric power distribution can be completely digitally supported – starting with electrotechnical planning. In operation, the continuous recording of power flows provides the transparency and data basis that is essential for digital enterprises – as a foundation for higher energy efficiency and failure safety, as well as for lower costs and CO₂ emissions.

Efficient planning

SIMARIS tools

As software-based planning tools and engineering systems, the SIMARIS software tools support you for efficient planning of the electric power distribution and its integration in digitalization, long before the actual construction of switch-boards, distribution systems, or control cabinets.

SIMARIS planning tools

CAx data

With product data for automation technology and low- voltage switching technology, macros for e-engineering systems, 3D models, and device circuit diagrams, industrial control cabinets are produced based on digital twins – with up to 80 percent lower expenses for planning, configuration, design, documentation, ordering, and commissioning.

Industry Online Support

TIA Portal

Thanks to the integration of communication-capable protection and measuring devices as well as motor management systems into the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) portal, the electrification becomes an integral part of industrial automation. The uniform engineering framework can parameterize all important components, simulate them virtually, test them, and put them into operation in order to optimize the interaction of electrification and automation components.

TIA Portal

Building Information Modeling (BIM)

With BIM data, a digital twin of the building with all its technical installations is created. On this digital twin, errors can be detected and eliminated virtually before they occur in the real world. Studies have shown that change requests are reduced by up to 40 percent in this way – and that there are also considerable cost savings in operation.

BIM electrical planning

Faster Installation Cost-efficient operation / maintenance

BusbarCheck app – better installation

The app, for example, supplies installation instructions to installers.

It identifies the connection points and documents them visually, in order to simplify your SIVACON 8PS installation and documentation. At the push of a button, an electronic bolt protocol is generated from this – as a documentation of the high-quality installation for your customer.

SIVACON 8PS busbar trunking systems – supply of power and data

Wherever more protection, switching, and measuring devices are used for more energy transparency at field level, the measured values, status, and diagnostics data must also be transmitted. SIVACON 8PS busbar trunking systems with powerline technology (BD2, LD, and LI systems) transmit power and data – plug and play – via flexibly pluggable tap-off units, without additional data cables or wiring – even for retrofitting existing installations.

Diagnostics station SIMARIS control – the digital twin of the switchboard

As a permanent diagnostics station in SIVACON S8, SIMARIS control allows for uniform control of your power distribution, including predictive maintenance for higher switchboard availability. Based on energy-relevant data, SIMARIS control helps you to create a digital image of your power distribution for your local control level or cloud-based analysis systems (IoT).

7KN powercenter3000 IoT data platform

The 7KN powercenter3000 IoT data platform transmits energy data to local energy management systems or to open, cloud-based IoT solutions. Depending on the application, it pays off to integrate the data already in the low-voltage main distribution via SIMARIS control, or in industrial automation via SIMATIC S7 (through the engineering in the TIA portal).

Electrical power distribution in buildings

Connection to MindSphere The systematic recording and analysis of energy consumption is the most important requirement for greater energy efficiency and reliability. Integrated in open IoT operating systems such as MindSphere, this optimization potential can be increased even further: Huge volumes of data from countless devices can be quickly and efficiently recorded and analyzed in real time.

Fail-safe power supply

Values for electricity, voltage, and energy can be used, for example, for detailed analyses and systematic management of processes in production and building automation. Malfunctions in technical systems are identified at an early stage, failures are avoided in advance, and operation is made more energy efficient as a whole. Companies benefit from increased production, the more efficient use of their facilities, and an overall increase in competitiveness.

Future-oriented integration in cloud-based analysis systems

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Portfolio Small and medium-sized companies, in particular, are often confronted with the question of how to deal with the digitalization topic. Or, in concrete terms: What does digitalization mean for your processes? Which products, systems, technologies, and measures do you consider useful to provide the greatest benefit? Our portfolio of field devices and tools offers manifold possibilities.

Reliable protection against short circuit, earth fault, or overload faults: The 3WL air circuit breakers make the infeed of electric energy particularly safe.

Thanks to integrated measuring functions, the 3VA molded case circuit breaker acquires current, voltage, energy, and consumption data for seamless transfer to higher-level automation and energy management systems.

With the 7KM PAC measuring devices, up to 200 measured values are acquired via standard bus systems – with a clear assignment of the energy consumption to individual cost centers.

Benefit from extensive protection, monitoring, and control functions, as well as from detailed operational, service, and diagnostics data with SIMOCODE pro – also for fail-safe disconnection of motors. Using OPC UA communication, this data is available for cloud-based solutions such as MindSphere.

The busbar trunking systems BD2, LD, and LI from the SIVACON 8PS product portfolio not only transmit power, but also energy data directly via the busbar conductors by using powerline technology. The data is therefore at your disposal via plug and play for higher-level automation and energy management systems or cloud-based systems (IoT).

The 7KN powercenter3000 IoT data platform collects energy and system data from up to 40 connected measuring and protection devices, and submits it to local energy management systems or cloud-based solutions such as MindSphere. Thus, small and medium-sized companies can get into cloud-based energy management in an economic and flexible way to become more energy-efficient.

Parameterize, operate, and monitor all communication-capable switching devices – installed in the SIVACON S8plus switchboard – uniformly, and support predictive maintenance with “Health Status” for higher system availability. SIMARIS control is also used for connection to energy management, automation, as well as cloud-based analysis systems (IoT) such as MindSphere.

The powermanager power monitoring software displays important electrical characteristics for individual loads or complete systems in a clear dashboard, and analyzes the energy consumptions. Saving measures can be derived directly, and faults are easy to locate. With the latest version of the software, the data can be directly transmitted to open IoT operating systems such as MindSphere. This way, comprehensive evaluations such as location-independent analyses are possible.

References

Rexel Germany GmbH & Co. KG (former Hagemeyer)

Maisach

Cloud-based power monitoring in the IoT

Transparency of energy flows in the sales and logistics center
Cross-locational analyses of current power consumption values and identification of optimization potential
Development of new business models in consulting for its own customers on all aspects of cloud-based energy data management

Rexel Austria GmbH

Weißkirchen

Austria

The only carbon-neutral logistics center in the country

Up to 15 percent electricity savings
CO₂ emissions reduction of up to 60 tons
New business model with power monitoring and MindSphere

Sello

Espoo

Finland

Sustainable shopping center

Intelligent power monitoring of lighting, heating, and ventilation in a shopping center with 170 shops and approximately 24 million visitors each year
Savings of 680 MWh in electricity and 800 MWh in district heating thanks to cloud-based energy management from Siemens
Savings of €93,000 in energy and heating costs compared to the previous year