Comparative analysis of Energy Monitoring Systems in the context of the Industry 3.0 and Industry 4.0 paradigms

The Energy monitoring systems (EMS) are responsible for monitoring of the processes for energy data exchange in various manufacturing facilities and industrial complexes. Normally these systems are at the core of the plants and are vital for their operations. The Energy monitoring systems have been in use globally for several decades. In Bulgaria the trend was slightly delayed and these systems were introduced and integrated in the last ten to fifteen years. With the recent advances in the computer systems and the information technologies, new communication concepts and devices have been developed and are now in use in various application domains. The involvement of these technologies in the manufacturing and production processes has led to the birth of new industrial concepts and the development of the Industry 4.0 paradigm, which became one of the most discussed and widely implemented industrial business models in the recent years. In this paper we present and discuss an EMS system for a chemical plant in Bulgaria and the need for expansion and improvement of the system by transmission of the data to a remote dispatch center. As the presented engineering task can be accomplished using different approaches and technologies, in the paper we present the possible engineering solutions using components specific to the Industry 3.0 and the Industry 4.0 paradigm. The engineering solutions behind both approaches are described in details and their main differences and requirements are pointed out and discussed.