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EASYCON has built its own industrial solution for the energy sector and manufacturing companies on the Unipi Patron S117 platform.
About the customer
EASYCON Solution s.r.o. is a Czech technology company that develops its own software and hardware solutions for two demanding industrial segments – the energy sector and manufacturing companies. Its key product is the combination of the ESCON industrial switchboard and the software EASYCON PRO platform, which together form a comprehensive system for real-time monitoring, control, and data collection.Industrial energy consumers and energy producers alike face growing pressure to actively manage their energy portfolio. Large-scale consumers have a contractually agreed reserved capacity – and if they exceed it, they pay substantial penalties. Energy producers, such as operators of photovoltaic power plants or battery systems, need to respond to market conditions in real time so they can trade energy surpluses as efficiently as possible. In both cases the same rule applies: those who do not manage their resources actively and automatically needlessly lose money.
The same logic applies in manufacturing plants. Unplanned energy peaks directly drive up operating costs, and an unmonitored machine condition poses the risk of a costly production-line outage. Continuous monitoring of production equipment, OEE (overall equipment effectiveness) tracking, production planning, and real-time product tracing are therefore key tools for keeping a modern manufacturing company competitive.
The challenge
One of the company’s key products is the in-house-manufactured ESCON switchboard. It is deployed in installations with total power ratings reaching up to several tens of megawatts and, in combination with the EASYCON PRO platform, provides complete control of energy sources as well as the digitalization of production processes.As customers’ demands on system functionality grew, however, the original control unit was no longer sufficient. EASYCON’s development team was hitting its limits on several fronts at once – the computing power could not keep up with the growing volume of data, the available RAM constrained the running of optimization algorithms, and insufficient internal storage complicated the local archiving of measured values. A chapter of its own was the integration with the database technologies that form the backbone of EASYCON PRO.
Examples of ESCON switchboard applications
- Photovoltaic power plants
- Diesel generator sets
- Battery systems
- Other energy sources
- Manufacturing companies
- Electricity meters
The solution
The EASYCON team was looking for a control unit that would meet the strict technical requirements of industrial deployment while integrating seamlessly into their own ecosystem. Three factors were decisive.
Solution architecture – a custom version of the Unipi Patron S117 controller in the ESCON switchboard
The first was performance: The Unipi Patron S117 delivered significantly higher computing capacity and ample RAM for the smooth running of algorithms even when processing data from dozens of connected sources simultaneously. The second factor was software openness: Unlike closed, proprietary platforms, the Unipi Patron S117 allows full integration with the customer’s own software – in this case with the EASYCON PRO platform – without having to adapt the system architecture to the limitations of the hardware supplier.
The third factor was the ease of working with the unit.
“We were looking for hardware that would fit perfectly into our EASYCON PRO solution without compromise. With the Unipi Patron S117 we found it. Working with the unit is straightforward, and integration into our system went smoothly.” – Michal Krbeček, Project Manager, EASYCON
The EASYCON PRO platform
Results
The switch to the Unipi Patron S117 brought a significant increase in computing power and memory capacity. Direct integration with the database tools of the EASYCON PRO platform streamlined the archiving and processing of operational data.
OEE module
Future plans
The positive experience with the Unipi Patron S117 is feeding directly into the development of a new generation of the ESCON switchboard, which will be designed with an emphasis on more compact dimensions and expanded connectivity options – including wireless data transfer via LoRa technology. The new-generation switchboard will also act as a local data concentrator in environments where cabling infrastructure would be technically complicated or inefficient.The EASYCON PRO platform is designed with future scalability in mind, and in its further development EASYCON plans to use higher Unipi controller model lines, which will allow increased performance and the implementation of new features without major changes to the existing system architecture.
