DR DAS Energy Monitoring

Improved tracking and control of energy consumption has become essential for both public and private sector organizations. Government entities and corporations must closely monitor and control their energy consumption. And in the energy marketplace of today, major energy consumers must understand their historical demand to be able to present that information in contract negotiations with energy suppliers. To meet these needs DR DAS supplies EnergyView, an open architecture solution that provides access to real-time energy readings and detailed usage history. EnergyView supports analysis of energy use. Data may be aggregated by organization, department, or building. Any combination of meters may be included in a report.

With web based access to current and historical demand curves it is easy to identify peak periods and investigate their cause. Organizations can expect to realize immediate significant savings just by identifying cases of excessive peaks at individual meters and reducing them through better activity scheduling. Read an actual project narrative or read a related article on ISA's web site.

The Energy View Solution                     View Presentation

DR DAS's EnergyView solution meets the need to aggregate energy information from standard industrial electric and gas meters, as well as monitor and dispatch standby generator capacity. Providing current electric use and generation data, EnergyView assists an organization by maintaining its demand safely within contract limits and alerting operations personnel to the potential need to use standby power to shave peak demand. The EnergyView solution includes the meter interfaces and data collection processes, the SQL database, the EnergyView client application, and a web site for information and reports.

Push technology is used in the EnergyView system to rapidly transmit data from hundreds of meters to a central server where data is automatically aggregated and analyzed. The EnergyView system architecture is built on existing and proven component-off-the-shelf (COTS) hardware and software technology. Extensive use is made of Microsoft .Net Server technology.

By design EnergyView software coexists with any existing infrastructure of electric and gas meters as well as existing SCADA systems. For meters not connected to an existing system, EnergyView utilizes gateway appliances to act as remote communications servers for meters with KYZ and serial outputs. Connected to stand alone meters at remote locations these devices act as gateways to the Net, providing the capability to Post meter data back to the system's web site and SQL Server 2000 database. LAN, WAN, VPN and Internet are supported. A gateway's website displays meter information and diagnostics. Gateway Web Interface.

In situations where multiple meters are already connected to SCADA or PLC networks EnergyView can use OPC/XML Server Nodes that poll numerous types of devices. These readings are available to OPC clients. XML data submission is included.
Solution Components


When the meter gateways post XML document data to Internet Information Server(IIS) the document is passed to SQL Server 2000 where it is automatically parsed and the values inserted in Historical Data Tables. Database triggers and stored procedures are used to update the Current Value tables and to supply information for real-time aggregate calculations of energy parameters. Key information is total KW demand and Net KW demand (Use - Standby Generation)

Running on the Admin Console the EnergyView client software supports:
  • OPC and other direct meter interfaces
  • Monitoring of meter data collection status
  • Alarm state detection and annunciation including email of alarms
  • Insertion of statistically determined substitute KW readings
  • Calculation and storage for hourly electric and daily electric and gas values.
  • Emergency generator control
The three-tier EnergyView web application provides access to current and historical energy data.Usage can be viewed and aggregated for all meters, meter groups and individual meters. Meter configurations and the most recent data collection status can be viewed. A live XML feed to energy suppliers is provided via a secure web page. Changes in demand, generation and net use may be monitored every 4 seconds. View our EnergyView web demonstration.
DR DAS
Andrew Montz, Owner
amontz@dr-das.com
194 Clouse Lane · Granville, OH 43023
phone: 740 587-2995 · fax: 740 587-0513