Applying Wireless Sensor Networks in Industrial Plant Energy Evaluation and Planning Systems

Energy evaluation and planning are important in industry for overall energy savings. Traditionally these functions are realized in wired systems formed by communication cables and various types of sensors. However, the installation and maintenance of these cables and sensors is usually much more expensive than the cost of the sensors themselves. Recent advances in wireless communications, micro-electro-mechanical systems, and highly integrated electronics allowed the introduction of wireless sensor networks (WSN). A WSN has unique functional characteristics that enables low cost energy evaluation and planning in industrial plants. This paper proposes a closed-loop energy evaluation and planning system with the WSN architecture. The importance of the proposed scheme lies in its non-intrusive, intelligent, and low cost nature. As the focus of this paper, the properties and architecture of the WSN in this application are discussed in detail. The applicability of the proposed system is analyzed and potential challenges are addressed. Finally, a demo system is constructed and experimental results are presented.