Cloud-connected load monitoring provides industrial automation engineers with a wide range of options. In addition to intelligent scheduling (taking advantage of times where power is cheap), data can also be fed into predictive maintenance or billing systems.

Deploying the Carlo Gavazzi EMS10 adds significant flexibility to the concept of smart meters. The power meter provides a variety of cloud-integration options, exfiltrating collected information in the format most easily ingestible into the rest of the IT system at hand.

Internet connectivity can be established via the integrated Ethernet and Wi-Fi interfaces. The device has two ports, enabling cascading between multiple Carlo Gavazzi devices while requiring only one Ethernet port on the uplink interface.

Data can then be forwarded via one of the following interfaces:

Modbus BACnet, MQTT, FTP, SFTP, FTPS, Rest-API

The energy monitor is certified for both Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure. This means that the collected information can be ingested directly, enabling its use in a variety of artificial intelligence-based industrial automation solutions.

One System Monitors Up to 10 Three-Phase Loads

The EMS10 base unit has three inputs: they can either monitor a single three-phase device or keep tabs on three single-phase devices. With the ESY3, Carlo Gavazzi provides designers with an expansion option. Its deployment, as shown in the figure below, expands the monitoring network to a total of up to 30 channels' worth of information.

Regarding actual sensor placement, the system is highly flexible. In the data sheet, Carlo Gavazzi states the following about the supported current transformers:

Compatible with any 333 mV current transformer and with any current transformer with 5 A secondary current. It can be installed in systems with a rated current up to 10 kA, even in retrofit applications when used with openable transformers such as CTA or CTD S.

In addition, a version with internal shunts is provided. Technical details about the individual current transducers found in the versions can then be retrieved from the image below.

For the main control unit, SKUs such as EMS10AV5S1X work with 5 A current transformers. SKUs such as EMS10MV5S1X, instead, use the 333mV system. SKUs ESY3XMV and ESY3XAV5 implement the aforementioned expansion feature, with each module providing three channels of data acquisition capability.

Conclusion

Designers seeking to expose current consumption information to the cloud can do so comfortably with the EMS10. Thanks to the vast array of supported network and communication protocols, data ingestion to ERP, billing, and artificial intelligence systems is a complete non-issue. The wide array of supported current transducers ensures the system can be easily integrated into brownfield designs with existing machinery.