|
Boise, ID
Telemetric Corporation, an industry leader in providing utilities with affordable wireless solutions for communicating with down-line equipment, is excited to announce that Buckeye Power Cooperative (Columbus, Ohio) has deployed Telemetric's remote monitoring and control solution at each of their load management radio stations. Telemetric's MicroRTUs will provide back-up communication in case of a failure that would prevent remote control from Buckeye's primary Load Management Control Station.
Buckeye's load management program has the ability to interrupt 118,000 water heaters and 5,000 space-heating units during peak loads. Successful interruptions reduce peak related demand charges that potentially save Buckeye and its Member Cooperatives millions of dollars per year.
Fail-Safe is a special operating system installed at each Buckeye Load Management Station. It is designed to provide back-up local load control at each radio station during critical peak load periods and to guard against catastrophic communications loss or host computer failures. The primary means of monitoring and controlling Fail-Safe is remotely through a satellite communication network. In some cases the satellite network may be down during heavy rain or snowstorms, or due to system failures or maintenance down time. In the case of such a failure, Buckeye needed a back-up system, which operates independently to ensure maximum reliability and 100% up time.
Buckeye Power, Inc. selected and deployed Telemetric MicroRTUs to continuously monitor the status of the Fail-Safe system for the primary host computer. If Buckeye detects a major system failure that prevents remote operation from its control center during critical peaking conditions, the Telemetric devices can be commanded to step in to take the appropriate action to help manage costly peak power consumption.
Telemetric MicroRTUs include an internal cellular radio providing true two-way communication with coverage available to 98% of the populated area of North America. By utilizing the "control channel" of the cellular network, Telemetric allows customers to send small packets of data over the existing cellular infrastructure at a much lower cost than other methods of communication. No license or local cellular account is required.
Monitoring and control functions are performed over a secure web interface using Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and standard 128-bit encryption for maximum security. Alarms and notifications can be viewed on the web server or a cellular text-messaging device. In addition to the web server, information can be viewed over SCADA using Telemetric's SCADA-Xchange. Each MicroRTU includes a back-up battery that will allow the unit to operate in excess of 12 hours if power is lost. Finally, a history log records all commands and status communications between the MicroRTU and Web Server.
Buckeye Power is the wholesale power supplier for the 25 electric distribution cooperatives operating in Ohio. The 25 cooperatives combined serve more than 320,000 homes and businesses in 77 of Ohio's 88 counties. This combined service territory covers about 40 percent of Ohio's land area, including a majority of the state's rural sections. It is in this area that Ohio's major source of agricultural business is produced for the state's population, as well as a large export market.
| 
Web Exclusives 
| View all PennWell sites | View all PennWell events
Add RSS Feed
