EcoXpert Brings IoT to the Heart of the Amazon

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The value delivered from Critical Power EcoXperts

Every year Critical Power EcoXperts from across Latin America get together for training and professional development, and they share with each other some of their success stories and interesting applications of power management solutions. The combination of geographic diversity, electrical deregulation, expansion of renewable energy and some of the most highly-skilled engineers in the world create a backdrop for some very interesting projects. At this year’s event in Fortaleza, Enerwatt Engenharia, a Certified Critical Power EcoXpert from Brazil, shared their challenges and unique experience, in bringing electrical grid intelligence to the Amazon.

Taking IoT to the Amazon

Earlier this year, I wrote about the human side of the Internet of Things (IoT). I made a case for developing a strong network of integrator partners to achieve the benefits promised by internet-enabled technology. In this power management project, which spanned 95 remote power generation assets across the state of Amazonas, the utility company selected our EcoXpert partner, Enerwatt, as their IoT integrator because of their experience and technical prowess. Enerwatt needed design a solution that would enable the utility to satisfy their reporting requirements with the government regulators, by installing electricity and fuel meters, in a system that provided real-time power monitoring and historical reporting reliably. Renato Campos, Enerwatt’s Commercial Director summarized the challenge, “Our contract was awarded with a requirement for completion within two years, and in that time, we spent over 260 days just in navigating between the remote locations. The only access to many sites was by river boat, to install and commission a communication network across the territory.”

A tailored EcoXpert solution

The solution designed by Enerwatt provides their customer with the ability to track fuel levels and validate consumption by the remote generators. The fuel data, collected by a Modicon PLC,  is compared with revenue grade meter data using an ION8650 power meter and transmitted through a satellite modem to a head-end EcoStruxure™ Power Monitoring Expert software solution that is maintained by Enerwatt. Reporting outputs from each of the plants are pushed to the government regulators who then issue equalization payments back to the utility. The solution is typical with other retrofit power management projects, but the scale of the challenge is unique. Despite an approximated €30Million investment in this project by the utility, a break-even return on investment was made in just six months of completion! While clearly proud of his company’s achievement, Renato is even more excited about the future opportunities they can unlock with their customer, “Now that we have reliable communication to connected devices, we can start to show some of the other capabilities of this powerful solution.” Highlighting patented features of the ION8650 meter, such as Disturbance Direction Detection or the ability to integrate controls with the local supervisors, are all next steps with Enerwatt as they explore future possibilities of IoT in the Amazon.

Become an EcoXpert and unleash your growth potential through EcoStruxure

Trained and certified by Schneider Electric on our IoT-enabled EcoStruxure architectures and platforms, our EcoXpert partners are implementing innovation in power management and beyond at every level to customers all over the world. Discover more about the EcoXpert Partner Program and learn how it can help you can grow your business and deliver smart building performance to your customers.

Pretty great EcoXpert success story, would you agree? I invite you to leave your comment below so we can start a conversation!