How to secure PLC against unexpected power outage?

Find out how you can easily secure your Unipi control units against an unexpected power failure.

Have you ever had the seamless run of your units interrupted by an unplanned power outage? Or do you want to prevent exactly that? Take a look at the solution to avoid it.

Why is it important to secure the unit against power failure?

• even a short outage can mean a complete restart of the unit (i.e. the unit will return to its initial state and all ongoing processes will be lost)
• an outage can cause serious damage to the connected technology, or product degradation, even disruption/stoppage of the entire production process, etc.
• securing unit prevents data loss and interruption of scheduled processes (e.g. production)
• you can react to the situation in time (e.g. to secure the controlled technology) thanks to notification by e-mail, SMS, etc.

You can connect a battery-backed power supply to all Unipi control units to ensure an uninterrupted power supply even in the event of a sudden power failure.

How does security work?

Let's see a solution that uses three types of extra devices: a power supply, a converter, and batteries. In this case, with the following parameters:

1. switched power supply Mean Well DRC-60B with UPS function
2. DC/DC converter Mean Well DDR-15G-24
3. two batteries CSB HR1234W 12V/9Ah

The batteries are connected to the power supply and start powering the unit continuously at the moment of a power failure. Thanks to the connected converter between the power supply and the Unipi unit, you don't even have to worry about any fluctuations in the voltage that could otherwise damage the unit (the converter at the output ensures a safe constant value).
The power supply is equipped with two signal relays. The first signal relay alerts the unit (and thus the operator) that a power failure has occurred while the unit is powered by the batteries. The second signal relay will turn on and alert the unit (and thus the operator) when the batteries are about to discharge.
Using this solution, battery-powered units (e.g. Unipi Patron S207) last up to 72 hours.

Benefits of this solution:

• simplicity: it doesn't take up much space and doesn't need additional cooling, so you can easily use it in your existing projects
• reliability: thanks to the smooth transition to battery power, there will be no disruption to your project (e.g. production stoppage)
• autonomy: the power supply automatically starts recharging the batteries as soon as the power supply is restored
• safety: prevents data loss, damage to the unit, interruption of production, or disruption of the entire control process
• awareness: you will have time to react to the situation (e.g. thanks to SMS or e-mail notification) and secure connected technologies if necessary

Check out the detailed tutorial for this solution