Energy Monitoring in 48 Hours: Deploying It Without Stopping the Plant

The Challenge: "You Can't Cut the Power" #

An illustrative example of an energy metering rollout with no power cuts; the figures are for reference only and do not come from a customer.

Scenario: a plastic injection molding plant.

Pain point: the electricity bill rising 15% a month with no increase in production.

Constraint: 24/7 operation. No downtime windows to run RS-485 cabling to the electrical panels.

If the plant also has to report under Chile's Energy Efficiency Law 21.305 (which requires large energy consumers to report their consumption), metering panel by panel is the first step.

The Solution: Wireless IoT and Split-Core Sensors #

To hit the 48-hour deadline (Saturday/Sunday, when the load drops slightly but never stops), a 100% wireless architecture is chosen.

Hardware Used

• Meters: 12 three-phase meters with LoRaWAN communication.
• Current transformers (CTs): split-core type. They open like a clamp, so they can be installed around the cable without disconnecting it.
• Gateway: 1 industrial LoRaWAN gateway, connected over 4G (so phase 1 does not depend on the customer's IT network).
• Software: the iGromi dashboard.

Weekend Timeline #

Results (First Month) #

Immediate visibility enabled some low-hanging fruit:

1. Chillers switched off: it turned out the chillers were being left on over weekends "by mistake." Shutting them off was a direct saving every month.
2. Phase balancing: a panel with severe phase imbalance was found overheating the neutral (a fire risk).

Project payback: the first month's findings had already paid for a good share of the metering.