UK – Automated Energy Analytics for Food Manufacturer
GridLENZ enables automated HTML / web reporting & analytics for food manufacturing business
Overview & Client Problem
Blue Sea Foods, a Devon-based sea food manufacturing business, had installed multiple solar photovoltaic systems across their multiple roofs at their main site in Paignton, Devon. They had no access to the generation and / or on-site usage of the generated energy. In addition, they had no data to verify whether their feed-in-tariff & export payments were correct.
The client needed a solution that would determine & provide access to multiple real / near-time objective values which were:
how much energy they were generating,
how much energy they were importing from the Grid, and
how much of their generated energy was being used on-site, whilst
receiving regular projections of their income from the solar assets.
In addition, given the high reliance on electricity for their manufacturing plant, Blue Sea also needed greater clarity on their electrical consumption across their main plant and some of their sub -processes.
More recently, they are looking to determine how to move towards zero carbon over the next few decades by using the data to support a considered process.
Argand’s Solution
After an initial survey at the site, it was determined that the client already had multiple modbus-enabled electricity meters installed on their main incoming distribution board.
Argand Solutions supplied a data monitoring hub to interface with these meters and extract real-time demand data from the main incoming supply and all of the sub-meters representing electrical consumption not only from their main incoming supply but also for the separate areas of their business supplied by sub-distribution boards. This data was collected at 30 minute intervals and was available to view in real-time via our GridLENZ platform. This provided them with a solution that leveraged their existing infrastructure i.e. meters without the need for an expensive retro-fit.
We then supplied individual GSM electricity meters for each of the existing solar installations to extract the solar generation in real-time - visualised via the GridLENZ platform.
All of the data also allowed Argand to determine the on-site use (by using export data from their main incoming supply meter) and allowed the client to determine the effectiveness of the system towards their zero-carbon objectives.
In addition, we provided a branch monitoring solution for one of their manufacturing distribution boards to enable greater visibility
Client Benefits
As a result of the analytics system, the client is able to get value from the following:
Electrical demand data for their main supply and also for 10 of their sub-distribution boards
Power quality data from each of the above meters to ensure that the supply of electricity is within regulated levels and is not detrimental to downstream equipment e.g. voltage levels, current imbalances, harmonic risks etc
Performance analytics on their solar to ensure they are not under-performing and to initiate pro-active O&M in the case of any under-performance.
Monthly predicted income data from the solar sites to enable better financial management of their existing installations
Data to establish whether further investment in solar PV would be appropriate
Real data to feed into the development of their zero carbon plan