When it comes to ensuring a successful energy transition, it is essential for us to make use of all available opportunities. The aim here is to increase efficiency and sustainability in all phases of power generation and distribution, as well as enhance flexibility in use. Effective energy management relies on continuous recording of the actual state and ongoing monitoring. This is where our PC-based control technology brings data transparency to all areas – with system-integrated energy measurement and high connectivity. Opportunities like this open up scope for companies to tackle upcoming challenges while simultaneously increasing profitability.
Where will you take action with Beckhoff?
- generating renewable energies from sun, wind, and water
- implementing intelligent distribution grids with bidirectional energy flow
- developing new energy sources such as hydrogen
- ensuring energy-efficient operation of buildings, machines, and systems
In which sector could you benefit from intelligent automation?
Power generation
Control and monitor power plants, wind farms, solar plants, and hydrogen production efficiently with PC-based control.
Smart grids
Ensure intelligent energy distribution with transparent monitoring of availability and demand.
Sustainable buildings
Unlock potential savings through end-to-end building automation from the office to the production hall.
Efficient machinery
Optimize machines and plants with energy management and resource-saving automation.
Our highlights for energy management
Power and energy measurement
Energy monitoring often involves the use of cost-intensive specialized solutions. With its complete measurement chain from the sensor to the cloud, Beckhoff brings transparency to your energy and data flows. This means you can count on customized solutions based on standard components – including as a retrofit for existing systems. Functionality such as this enables monitoring of availability and requirements as a prerequisite for smart grids and the improvement of efficiency at consumer level, as well as documentation in accordance with ISO 50001.
TwinCAT Analytics
The evaluation of energy monitoring data requires suitable analysis software. This is where the TwinCAT Analytics product family provides the building blocks for a complete workflow – from data acquisition, communication, and data historization to analysis and visualization in web-based dashboards. This makes it easier for you to set up your own energy management system.
EtherCAT
Outstanding performance and simple configuration are the hallmarks of EtherCAT – the Ethernet-based real-time technology from Beckhoff. EtherCAT not only offers incredibly fast cycle and synchronization times, but also a high bandwidth for data-intensive measurement applications. With this outstanding performance, EtherCAT enables efficient energy management from the wind turbine or production machine to the building.
Energy projects implemented with Beckhoff
System-integrated measurement technology for the energy supply of western Switzerland
Romande Energie SA, one of the five biggest energy suppliers in Switzerland, is using system-integrated measurement technology from Beckhoff in its substations. It implements the EL3453 power measurement terminals and other EtherCAT Terminals to assure grid availability and reduce costs and installation work. This is implemented via a secondary data acquisition system that can compensate for a failure of all or part of the main data acquisition path. Romande Energie produces, distributes, and trades electrical energy in the canton of Vaud and parts of the cantons of Valais, Fribourg, and Geneva. As the operator of the supply grid, the company is also responsible for the 125 kV grid. More than 300,000 customers are supplied, which corresponds to around 500,000 people. The grid infrastructure comprises 45 transformer stations (high to medium voltage), 3,200 substations (medium to low voltage), 10,000 km of power lines, and 720 km of fiber optic lines.
Fully automated building operation offers significant energy savings
Building H is a pioneering property spanning 82,000 m2 in the Wuhan Economic and Technological Development Zone (WEDZ). The H-shaped floor plan makes optimal use of natural light for illumination, while the rooftop photovoltaic system boasts an energy generation capacity of over 200,000 kWh per year, which roughly covers the annual electricity consumption for illuminating the building. The building also features a rooftop rainwater collection system with a volume of 300 m3, which supplies recycled water for cleaning the building and watering the plants. This serves to minimize the consumption of both fresh water and energy. All of these systems are connected to the PC-based control system from Beckhoff, which ensures reliable operation.
PC-based control connects energy data acquisition and big data
When it comes to achieving optimal energy management in public buildings, it is essential to stay informed about water, electricity, and heat consumption through frequent energy monitoring intervals. Taking its cue from the city of Aachen, the Aachen urban region has partnered with the city’s municipal building management agency and the IT service provider regio iT GmbH to introduce the e2watch monitoring system, based on an integrated data logger solution from Beckhoff. The e2watch energy monitoring system makes energy consumption analyses publicly available online to building users as well as interested members of the public. This kind of transparency encourages building occupants to be more mindful of their energy consumption habits.
Generating sustainable growth with PC-based control
In terms of action already taken, Beckhoff implemented a successful energy management system in 2016 and was certified by TÜV Süd in line with ISO 50001 standards in the same year. The energy management system helps to steadily reduce the company’s costs and energy consumption by continuously recording all relevant consumption. Analyzing this information reveals potential for further measures to reduce energy consumption. In this way, Beckhoff not only demonstrates its compliance with legal requirements, but also lives up to its responsibility for climate and environmental protection. After all, less energy consumption automatically leads to a massive reduction in carbon emissions, which is set to be the major challenge for all companies going forward as we look to achieve a climate-neutral economy.