There are many businesses where electric motors make up critical infrastructure, and if a motor failure occurs it can cause costly plant stoppages, damage to equipment and be a risk to people and the environment.
In order to prevent such a failure happening, it is important that you have access to information about what your motor is doing and preventative measures that can be taken when a potential fault is detected.
Schneider Electric’s new TeSys island is a smart, digital multifunctional load management system. It can switch, protect, manage motors and other electrical loads up to 80 amps in an electrical control panel. Fully digital, TeSys island gives users easy and remote access to predictive and preventive application data, leading to early diagnostics and maintenance.
THE BEST OPTION FOR MINING
When a coal mining operation in Australia required a new ore sampler to be built, electrical protection, and control and
monitoring within the switchboard was front of mind. Looking for a digital load and management system which would
provide them excellent analytics and remote communications, the company’s switchboard builder, PowerTek Australia requested TeSys island. With more than 30 years of switchboard building experience within the mining sector, Peter Freeman, owner and director of PowerTek Australia, identified an unexpected opportunity for the new product – and so began the first instance of its use in the country.
TeSys island was chosen for the project because of its:
- Easy “plug and play” installation
- Avatar concept – predefined/readymade motor protection and control applications
- Software package (SoMove) which provided the concept, design, build, commissioning, and updates
- Impressive range of diagnostics and predictive analytics robustness and reliability
- Seamless integration with 3rd party products/ vendor diagnostic.
Although it is designed to provide protection, analytics and management for up to 20 motors on one 
individual island, Peter’s enterprising idea was to use Tesys island in Form 4 configuration. By doing so, each motor needed to be protected and controlled from its own module within the switchboard. This equated to duplicating each Tesys island’s Ethernet IP module, digital, analogue and power monitoring modules for each of the 10 motors on the ore sampler. The configuration, even in duplication by a factor of 10, proved to be more than economical while at the same time meeting strict switchboard safety standards. Running in this formation the TeSys island option was a cost-effective choice thanks to its time-saving features.
“Peter at PowerTek Australia was very happy with the benefits which TeSys island brings to the project,” Kristen White from Schneider Electric says. “He loves being able to plug things in, not just because it makes the equipment faster to install, but it also reduces the required commissioning time and possible points of failure, thus reducing the operational costs for the end customer.”
Once the project is completed, TeSys island will be able to detect abnormal load behaviours and generate predictive alarms before costly stoppages occur, as well as offer tailored predictive maintenance actions thanks to the digital visibility that TeSys island brings. These advantages will make the project more cost effective and efficient, reducing the likelihood of unplanned stoppages.
