A power company customer of USRIOT operates more than 20 hydropower stations on the Pearl River. Almost all hydropower plants are fully automated, therefore, remote monitoring is needed.

 

The power company realizes this demand through the Internet of Things. Through the Internet of Things,  information about output, machine parameters such as temperature or current water level can be retrieved. In addition, the power station is partially under video surveillance and the screen of the control system is remotely controlled.

 

Previously, Internet were connected via cables. Today, for cost and technical reasons, this is no longer practical, which is why 4G industrial routers are used. Through the 4G network, they use Open VPN wireless to establish Internet connection, which is safe and reliable, and has various interfaces, providing further advantages.

 

 

In order to monitor the hydropower station safely and reliably, the routers used must meet the following requirements:

Suitable for industrial applications

24 V power supply

Open VPN support

SMS alerts

Link monitoring

Solutions

 

With the widespread use of industrial routers, the power company has connected all the equipment that meets the requirements to the network to achieve optimal remote monitoring of its power station.

This powerful, programmable, compact device is designed for a temperature range of -20°C to +70°C and uses a wireless operator network to connect the hydropower station to the Internet. Depending on availability, the mobile radio standard will automatically switch without any interruption.

 

In order to connect to a terminal or switch, the router is equipped with an Ethernet port. In addition, these devices have two digital I/Os.

 

 

USR uses the console.usriot.com. The server is used to access the router from the control center to access the systems in the plant. To this end, the router links to the transparent transfer cloud through the Open VPN tunnel. The cloud platform acts as a connection manager, making it possible to connect devices in the plant from the control center.

The power company's power station is monitored in different ways. In principle, there are three possibilities: passive query of power, temperature or water level by PLC in the power station, active remote access to the central computer and video surveillance. In addition to these measures, SMS is sent through the industrial router in case of emergency.

 

 

The industrial router USR-G781 is designed for high availability and all-weather operation. To this end, several mechanisms are often used to check connections and hardware.

 

Some power stations are also equipped with wireless LANs through 4G industrial routers. This allows employees to connect their laptops to the network and work wirelessly when changes or start-ups occur. Emails can also be accessed, or questions can be recorded directly in the company's own ticketing system.

 

Using industrial routers, the power company has created a good professional solution that meets their needs and makes daily work quite easy.