Design and Testing of a Power Analyzer Monitor and Programming Device in Industries with a LoRA LPWAN Network

Abstract

Electrical installations represent an important part of the industry. In this sense, knowing the state of the electrical installation in real time through the readings of the installed power analyzers is of vital importance. For this purpose, the RS485 bus can be used, which most electrical installations already have. An alternative to the bus wiring and its distance limitation is the use of low-power wide area networks (LPWAN). The long range (LoRa) protocol is ideal for industries due to its low-power consumption and coverage of up to 10 km. In this research, a device is developed to control all the reading and programming functions of a power analyzer and to integrate the device into the LoRa LPWAN network. The power analyzer monitor and programming device (PAMPD) is inexpensive and small enough to be installed in electrical panels, together with the power analyzer, without additional wiring. The information collected is available in the cloud in real time, allowing a multitude of analysis be run and optimization in real time. The results support high efficiency in information transmission with average information loss rate of 3% and a low average transmission time of 30 ms.