A considerable quantity of data is produced by the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), which also has to be stored. In order to meet this expanding requirement for data storage management, more data centers are required, which raises energy consumption. The demand to increase energy efficiency for heavy-load equipment and devices is also noticed by factories, supermarkets, and other high-power consumption applications. Operators of data centers and owners of applications have to discover ways to run multiple servers and power-hungry equipment efficiently. PDUs are used to manage and distribute power to different equipment. Due to the growing demand for remote monitoring, intelligent PDUs with metering and switching capabilities from remote sites have undergone considerable market expansion in recent years. In fact, the primary driver of PDU market development, according to a recent industry report, is the growing demand for data center monitoring solutions. By recording daily power consumption for payment computation and energy management, monitoring PDUs in your application not only enables you to reduce your energy consumption but also enables you to gather information about the condition of your PDUs for device maintenance.


An energy management system (EMS) requires gathering and collecting meter data from PDUs, allowing operators to regulate, monitor, and improve the performance of the PDUs.  Additionally, remote power panels (RPPs) can be utilized as an extension of PDUs to add extra circuits, boosting the power distribution capacity. As a result, it's crucial to keep an eye on the circuit breakers and current transformers to guarantee that power is balanced across all circuits.




Smooth and efficient power distribution requires a reliable connection between the EMS and power components like PDUs and RPPs. Here are some tips and suggestions you may take into account to make sure there is consistent connectivity.


Do you require new construction, or are you in the process of retrofitting? Understand your developmental stage!

Depending on your implementation strategy, you can enable connectivity once you've decided to monitor the PDUs and RPPs in your application environment. Paying attention to the following points can help you figure out the best solution before connecting power meters, circuit breakers, and current transformers that may use different protocols and interfaces than your EMS: 

  • Are you planning to deploy a new PDU or retrofit an existing one? 
  • Does the space allow for your wiring design?
  • How many PDUs are you going to connect to the network?
 
Depending on your responses to these questions, you'll be able to figure out whether you need a single-port or high-port-density connection solution. For example, a single-port connectivity solution can be the best choice if you have limited space for upgrading your current PDUs, and if you have enough room to install multiple new PDUs, high port-density connectivity solutions can lead to significant savings.

 

Lower Your Installation and Maintenance Effort

A simple networking solution can help you save a great deal of time and effort. Wiring can be challenging when connecting lots of PDUs to a single network. As an effective wiring solution across several PDUs and RPPs to the EMS located in the control center, Ethernet cascading is one feature you should look for in your connection solution. Your networking devices may periodically need backups and upgrades even if your PDUs and RPPs are active. Device configuration and maintenance can be made easier if your connection solutions include user-friendly software tools.

 

Keep improving operational reliability

Power consumption calculations can be miscalculated when meter data is lost due to unexpected network failures, which results in incorrect billing and incomplete data for analytics. You must think about backup strategies from several angles if you want to increase the reliability of your power monitoring system. Begin with the networking devices.  Features like dual power inputs and high EMI immunity protect your networking equipment from disturbance. Develop a redundancy system for your network communications next. The market offers a variety of network redundancy features. Check the recovery times of these selections to see whether they are suitable for your power monitoring application.



Easy World is Moxa's official distributor in the Middle East. For any further information, please contact us via sales@eworldme.com.