S KOMUNIKACJA offers various solutions for industries, with their application helping clients to manage utilities, such as: electricity, water, gas, and heat. Measurements are taken at media consumption points, and the flow of that media inside the factory is then analysed. In addition to that, during the analysis, media measurements are correlated with other factors such as temperature, sunlight, and machine operation time.

One of the most interesting implementations is that of the monitoring system for the Guido Coal Mine Museum in Zabrze city. The museum consists of several mining facilities such as: Guido Mine, Carnall Shaft, Wilhelmina Shaft, and Queen Louise Adit, which has a unique underground water route and a river harbour. There are numerous reasons why a mine-museum like this one must function as a normally operating mine, those mostly being because of the: ventilation systems, drainage systems, lighting systems, and heating systems.

Therefore, the mine also tends to consumes large amounts of electricity, gas, heat, and water.

The Challenge 

The mine’s facilities are scattered across the city of Zabrze, spanning several square kilometres. The Mine Museum’s goal is to monitor and optimize the consumption of utilities, which constitute a large percentage of the facility’s maintenance budget. Information must be provided on a regular basis at intervals from 5 to 240 minutes. The collected measurement data is to be used for Media monitoring, Media analysis, Alerting about abnormal situations, and Media billing.

Measurements were to be made in the following facilities: Guido Mine, Carnall Shift, Wilhelmine Shift, Mine office building, Open Air Zone, and Harbor of Luise Adit

The Solution

Due to the dispersion of facilities, LoRaWAN communication was selected, with it also being decided to install three LoRaWAN gateways, one at the each mine location.

The following LoRaWAN sensors were used to download data from utility meters:

• Converter of energy meter optical connector IEC62056-21 – LoRaWAN for electric energy meters DSO (Distribution System Operator)

• RS485 MODBUS – LoRaWAN converters and impulse counter converters for existing electricity meters for internal measurements

• Electricity meters with the LoRaWAN module for new electricity measurements

• WMBUS-LoRaWAN converters for the existing water, gas and heat meters

• Meters with a built-in LoRaWAN module for new water, gas and heat meters

Additionally, LoRaWAN sensors were used to measure:

• Temperature

• Insolation

• Vibration

• Access-control

The TagoIO application was used to visualize, process and analyse the measurement data.

The Results

The use of the TagoIO application allowed for remote monitoring of media consumption. And thanks to a set of dedicated dashboards, the user can view current data at any time. In the event of any abnormal collection, the user is also informed directly, via email or SMS.

In addition to the current consumption, the user can also analyse the history of media consumption, as all the important/interesting information is gathered on one application. Finally, information on monthly consumption is provided automatically so that the user does not have to do arduous, time-consuming local readings.