EDITOR’S CHOICE
DATA RULES
OVARRO
With thousands of assets in a modern industrial setting
and a single failure having the potential to result in
financial loss or worse, data is now king
“Collection of data from the vast array of
assets, many in remote locations, can no
longer be done manually,” explains Philippe
Aretz, Channel Sales Director at Ovarro,
the new name for Servelec Technologies.
“Technology in the form of Remote
Telemetry Units (RTUs) are a practical way
of doing this and it’s the reason why they
are a critical part of industrial processes. In
simple terms, RTU’s convert vast amounts
of digital data into effective management
information, whilst having an ability to act
autonomously to monitor and control critical
assets.”
RTU’s are effectively mini-computers that
collect data locally, act upon it immediately,
reporting data to the central control room
and maintaining a local historical store
as an additional backup. Ovarro’s TBox
RTU’s are often referred to as a ‘SCADA
in a box’ by the market. The RTU is the
device sitting between the Control Room
and the Field instruments, which provides
a low latency response to changing site
conditions as well as performing data
filtering. They ensure that only key, critical
information is passed securely via the
narrow communications links, minimising
data throughput but maximising useful
information received.
“Digitization of industrial processes
using RTUs is happening at pace. They
are traditionally used on remote assets,
although we are seeing them deployed
widely on industrial sites,” said Philippe.
“That’s because more engineers are
realizing that they currently don’t have
visibility of asset conditions – usually until
it fails - meaning they are forced to adopt a
reactive rather than proactive approach.”
“However, collecting and leveraging
data via an RTU system can deliver
improved operational efficiency and better
maintenance outcomes,” added Philippe.
“Specific areas of concern can be identified,
and appropriate measures taken to ensure
that run-to failure is avoided. RTU’s work by
allowing engineers to understand critical
complex pieces of equipment – especially
those off-grid in remote locations”
The key features needed in an RTU
are security and resilience to the site
environment, an ability to operate with
minimal drain on local power resources
and the processing power to perform local
control algorithms autonomously. It is also
beneficial to have extensive diagnostics
capability and a low MTTR (Mean Time
To Repair) to reduce the time required for
Specific areas of concern
can be identified, and
appropriate measures
taken to ensure that run-to
failure is avoided.
technicians to spend on site, improving
both efficiency and personnel safety.
Data extracted from asset can also be
stored in the cloud, analysed using
customized embedded algorithms and data
analytics to identify anomalies – detecting
problems before they occur – allowing
operators to reduce waste and refine
maintenance strategies. “This kind of
approach means that RTUs are capable
of providing high quality management
information,” added Philippe.
RTUs continue to evolve and become more
powerful. It’s worth bearing in mind that one
thing that works in their favour is their rapid
return on investment – quantifying the cost
of avoiding an outage is straightforward, for
example. To emphasise the point, Philippe
said: “Telemetry projects have a rapid return
on investment, making them self-funding
in the short term. Distribution automation
is another benefit, too, because it allows
assets to be controlled autonomously
whilst avoiding having to place personnel in
hazardous industrial environments.”
For further information, please visit www.ovarro.com
12 PECM Issue 46