In our factory's power supply and distribution systems, electrical energy transmission and power transmission rely on overhead conductors or cables. The low-voltage distribution power transmission handles considerable currents. In the case of high current transmission in close proximity to the factory buildings, the enclosed busbar distribution system offers the convenience of compact layout, thanks to its effective heat dissipation through the aluminum surface, which is why its application is becoming increasingly widespread.
Safety隐患 Identified in Busbar Maintenance at the Whole Vehicle Factory
A total of 86 engineering busbars are installed in the entire vehicle factory, of which 9 busbars in the painting and stamping workshops lack maintenance passages (due to interference with other workshop items, making installation impossible). This poses a significant safety hazard for power personnel during maintenance, as they must work at heights. Due to space constraints, the inspection and maintenance time is prolonged (increasing to 4960 hours/year). To address this, temperature sensors can be installed at the busbar connector parts, with the temperature information collected by the collector transmitted to a wireless gateway. The signal is then transmitted via a communication base station to the monitoring backend, where a busbar temperature monitoring system is established. This system is crucial for monitoring and diagnosing busbar faults.
2 Busbar System
The closed busbar system is a power distribution device for transmitting current, featuring A, B, C three-phase conductive busbars, neutral busbars, and insulating materials adhered to their surfaces. It is externally enclosed with aluminum material for good heat dissipation. Accessories include terminal boxes, starting boxes, fixed plug-in interfaces, connectors, and voltage regulators, etc. The surface-sheathed insulating material ensures sufficient insulation safety spacing between each phase of the energized body, while avoiding the impact of external humidity and dust. It is particularly suitable for the economic choice of power distribution in large-scale factories. Its common specifications are suitable for 50 Hz alternating current, rated voltage of 400-1000V, and rated current of 500-4000A three-phase five-wire power supply and distribution systems. It can be made into a plug-in type closed busbar with fixed plug-in interfaces at regular intervals, or into a power supply type closed busbar without fixed plug-in interfaces in the middle [1].
Guangzhou XXX Co., Ltd. - Zhengzhou Branch utilizes an L-shaped vertical (horizontal) bend busbar for its busbars, which consists of busbars, fixed-type plug-in interfaces, plug-in boxes, starting-end boxes, terminal boxes, and variable capacity sections. Typically, the busbars are in a long-term live and fully enclosed state. Currently, the busbars are under high load, with significant temperature rise. The plug-in boxes and connectors, as the connection points for the power source, often overheat due to installation issues, leading to burnt-out plug interfaces and even local short circuits. Routine temperature measurements with thermal imaging cameras do not have high timeliness, hence a busbar temperature monitoring system has been designed to monitor the temperature of the busbar connection points, thereby enhancing the reliability of busbar power supply. This design employs various temperature collection methods, data transmission networks, and alarm systems, to some extent realizing real-time temperature monitoring and early warnings [2].
3 Bus Temperature Measurement System Architecture
Busbars, starting ends, terminal ends, fixed junction boxes, and bus connectors generate heat during electrical energy transmission. The continuous conductor sections have many limitations during use, particularly the pins in the junction box that connect to the busbar, which are prone to high temperatures. Monitoring the temperature of the pins in the junction box can grasp the trend of the busbar temperature change. To this end, temperature sensors are installed at the connection points between the pins and the busbars. The collected temperatures are transmitted to the wireless gateway via wireless Rola signals by a wireless collector, which then transmits the data to the monitoring backend through fiber optics. This establishes a temperature measurement system for the junction bus, providing real-time temperature monitoring, alarms for anomalies, and alerts staff to respond promptly, serving daily inspections to reduce the frequency of faults.
Established a wireless communication system through Rola (Figure 1), suitable for signal shielding caused by complex steel structures in workshops.
Figure 1: Busbar Temperature Measurement System Communication Topology Diagram
Backend programs are typically composed of numerous components. If there's a performance degradation during runtime interface calls, identifying which specific components are causing the issue is key. By having real-time access to performance data for all interfaces (Figure 2), the problem can be easily resolved.
Figure 2: Backend Monitoring Curve
Version 4 System Build
The system is based on an energy management system cloud architecture, integrating the established temperature monitoring system into the energy management system through WEB publishing, primarily including the following content:
Figure 3: System Architecture
(1) Tool: The Communication Interface Layer is primarily responsible for communication with various data sources, capable of converting some communication protocols and conventions into standard communication protocols for ease of database integration. It consists of the Communication Protocol Module, Conversion Gateway, and Data Collection Module.
(2) Data Storage Layer: Responsible for centralized data processing and writing historical data into relational databases.
(3) Application Layer: Provides software support for the presentation layer module, including statistical analysis, graphic services, report services, calculation services, alarm services, printing services, and time services.
(4) Display Layer: Responsible for the publication of WEB data and application demonstration for the Energy Management System, providing data interfaces with the existing system.
Utilizing the above temperature monitoring data analysis technology, we predict temperature trends and provide early warnings for abnormal information. Supported by industrial IoT technology, data is stored on cloud servers, ensuring data redundancy processing. After testing, the system has proven to be stable and reliable, meeting the requirements of the busbar temperature rise online monitoring system, providing an extremely effective means for achieving busbar temperature rise online monitoring.
Since the system's application, it has proactively identified 5 potential fault risks, eliminating over 300 minutes of production downtime after processing. It has also reduced daily inspection and maintenance hours by 2,000 hours per year and cut down on one person's workload. Additionally, it effectively predicts temperature trend changes, allowing for the timely scheduling of regular maintenance. Therefore, monitoring the busbar temperature rise is crucial and serves as a good application case for future factories or industries.
This project's implementation compares to previous busbar temperature monitoring systems, which used communication lines for temperature signal collection. These lines were wired using Modbus, TCP/IP, and other communication methods. The construction involved significant safety risks, such as high-altitude work, a long construction period, difficulty in troubleshooting when issues arise, high economic costs, and challenges in post-construction maintenance. Therefore, the use of wireless communication will gradually become suitable for complex on-site environments[7].
5 Ankerline Smart Busbar Monitoring Solution
5.1 Overview
Data center IT servers traditionally use precision distribution panels for power distribution, which occupy a large amount of space, have numerous power cables, and are not convenient for adding new equipment. To save space, the intelligent busbar solution, which does not take up any machine room space and can be flexibly inserted and removed as needed, has gained favor with many data centers and is increasingly being adopted.
Ankorri's intelligent busbar monitoring products are categorized into AC and DC busbar monitoring types, including terminal box monitoring modules, plug-in box monitoring modules, and touchscreens. Additionally, they can be paired with busbar channel connectors and infrared temperature measurement modules to monitor the operating temperature of busbars, ensuring the safety of busbar distribution. Through simple networking with standard Ethernet cables, it is possible to perform maintenance or replacement of any plug-in box without affecting the data upload communication of other online plug-in boxes.
5.2 Application Sites
Applicable to data centers in the telecommunications, financial, internet, and corporate sectors.
5.3 System Architecture
5.4 System Features
1) Real-time monitoring
After clicking the data collection button on the homepage, you will enter the system diagram interface: This interface displays the voltage of each box.
2) Basic Parameters Interface
Display voltage, current, power, and electrical energy data. Enter the instrument address corresponding to this box in the input box next to the device address to collect the data from the instruments within the box.
3) Harmonic Data
Navigate through 2-63 harmonic data by clicking the "arrow" to switch left or right.
4) High demand
Display large quantities of numerical values and corresponding time for voltage, current, and power.
5) Electricity Inquiry
You can check the electricity consumption for each month of the previous December, the total consumption of the previous year, the consumption so far this year, and query the electricity value based on different selected time periods.
System Hardware Configuration
6 Conclusion
As electrical automation technology rapidly advances, electrical equipment is increasingly inclined towards the convenience and cost-effectiveness of on-site applications. Electrical systems have their unique features; enclosed busbars can withstand high electrical current loads and have excellent heat dissipation. The shell structure formed by mechanical die casting boasts high supporting strength and a long service life, bringing convenience to equipment maintenance personnel.
The designed busbar interface and connector temperature online monitoring system transmits signals to the monitoring backend control system via a wireless gateway through communication base stations, which is of great significance for the monitoring and diagnosis of busbar faults.
