For this specific project, an energy consumption data application was developed, which is divided into the following sections:

1) Consumption charts by analyst.

2) Consumption Heat Map.

3) Live energy meters and alarms.

3) Total energy consumption per month.

4) Total energy consumption per day or per shift.

• Problem

After being informed by the respective companies that cooperate with Depia Automations, the problems were recorded, in collaboration with their managers and the software department of Depia Automations, and specific issues were identified.

The main problem concerned the regular monitoring and management of the energy consumed by the machines and in general the overall production system. Until that moment there was no such prospect. The company’s need was to be able to continuously monitor the energy consumption of the machines, as well as to be able to compare the amounts of energy consumed with those of previous days or months, in order to identify any large differences, the monitoring of which would led to useful data and conclusions about the operation of the machines. Given the above situation, the reliability, accuracy and above all the safety of the overall process ranged at low levels. The efficiency and economy of the processes could undoubtedly be improved, which was a primary goal of each company.

• Planning

The experienced programmers and developers of Depia Automations, after recording and sharing, in collaboration with the respective managers and company staff, the above identified problems, started planning the development of the energy consumption application. A development plan was drawn up, according to which the company’s employees would be able to monitor, manage, compare and be informed with alarms for any possible unwanted measurement. To achieve the above, our application would contain multiple tools, each providing different but equally important information and capabilities. When a modern programming language, is chosen, the code development plan for each tool was carefully planned. The general objective was to develop an application that would have a complete supervision of energy consumption.

• Implementation

Since the software development planning was completed, taking into account all the factors, we proceeded to develop the code in C#. The specific language was chosen because it is a modern, widely used, recognized and easily extensible programming language. When the application was implemented, as said above, it was necessary to export the energy data automatically. For this reason, it was deemed necessary to configure a database adapted to the needs of the program, as well as the machines of each company, and to connect it with the software under development in order to receive data directly from the machines. Simultaneously with the aforementioned implementations, regular visits were made to the company to familiarize the operators with the use of the application, but also to receive feedback for its continuous improvement.

• Result

Now having a modern and specialized energy consumption monitoring tool with dynamic capabilities, it became possible to maximize the productivity and efficiency of all processes, since we can now know any information related to energy consumption. The data and measurements come and are displayed automatically in our application, with the possibility of displaying them in various types of diagrams, counters and alarms directly from the machines. Thedanger was reduced of overlooking some unwanted measurement, which guarantees maximum reliability and security for every process. In conclusion, the overall process became more efficient, generally maximizing the economy of the system and the company since every error and damage can now be observed automatically.