Trend reports developed with this information allow operators to set the system to respond automatically. Additionally, with this capability, operators can aggregate metered energy/consumption data with production assets throughout the factory to start monitoring energy utilization. Correlating energy with production information allows people to make more informed decisions regarding equipment and production – ultimately resulting in lower energy costs and improved production.
With FactoryTalk® VantagePoint® Energy, the focus is on driving the measured energy usage at the main and sub-station level and distributing it as energy consumption across the enterprise. Operators can manually adjust any of the systems from the control room or a local station if they see a sudden fluctuation in energy utilization or an unpredicted event.
To improve visibility and pull actionable energy data from the control system, the engineers used FactoryTalk® Historian software, which collects up to 10,000 data tags from programmable logic controllers (PLCs) per line. Metrics include station temperature, humidity, carbon dioxide concentration and other environmental data.
The facilities use the Allen-Bradley® ControlLogix® L71 with about 100,000 I/O points across different stations. A typical station includes two pairs of PLCs as communication controllers to pull and aggregate data from different devices.
The facilities also installed several Allen-Bradley switches. The Stratix 5400™ industrial managed switch supports layer 2 switching and layer 3 routing, which enhance scalability and increase versatility with the ability to support multiple network configurations. The Stratix® 5700 compact, layer2 managed switch, embedded with Cisco technology, enables the operators to leverage FactoryTalk® View faceplates and Add-on Profiles for simplified configuration and monitoring.
With the Stratix® 2000 line of unmanaged switches, operators were able to get copper and fiber (SFP) ports with 100 MB or 1 Gb speeds for increased network flexibility and performance. This switch offered an industrial-grade enclosure with an IP-30 rating and extended temperature range for enhanced environmental protection, allowing “plug-and-play” operation for quick and easy integration.
Utilizing energy metered data from sources such as the PowerMonitor™500 provided greater insight into energy consumption across the plant floor and enterprise-wide. It allowed operators to view energy data directly at the monitoring site without additional HMI components. The display provided instant and accurate sub-metering data to keep operators well-informed about power usage, major loads and peak power time. With its compact, space-saving design, PowerMonitor 500 is a cost-effective sub-metering option, providing critical data that helped operators make at-process decisions, reduced energy usage and increased company’s profit.
Results
After implementing the FactoryTalk software suite on top of the system architecture, operators increased visibility into operations across the entire system. With the ability to adjust system performance based on various trends, the customer projects an annual reduction in energy usage of approximately 10 percent.
Additionally, operators are enjoying more convenient, useful reports, dashboards and KPIs from a solution that can now provide information for energy and cost savings throughout the plants.
The results mentioned above are specific to this customer’s use of Rockwell Automation products and services in conjunction with other products. Specific results may vary for other customers.
Allen-Bradley, ControlLogix, FactoryTalk, FactoryTalk VantagePoint, FactoryTalk Site Edition, PowerMonitor, Rockwe4ll Automation and Stratix are trademarks of Rockwell Automation Inc.
