Last week we had the opportunity to do our first job with the United States Coast Guard in Clearwater Florida.
Summa Energy Solutions was first approached by the Coast Guard after three of their on-base meters had stopped reporting to their Energy Management Platform (EMP). Before I arrived however, we were made aware by the Coast Guard that three additional meters stopped responding to their system.
When I arrived on base, I found that they were using Veris power meters to communicate wirelessly through an RF network back to a central Data Acquisition Server (DAS). I started by doing an investigation into the wireless network and was able to quickly identify that the wireless network signal was extremely weak. I also found that the three meters that were not reporting were not responding to any diagnostics that I attempted.
Our electrician and I started programming and commissioning the meters and were able to get them to start responding again. We then upgraded the the existing wireless network by adding additional equipment to make the signal stronger and watched as each meter reported back the the DAS.
After a couple of days on site we were able to get all of the metering points responding back to the EMP as well as improve the strength and reliability of the wireless network. This will assure better data integrity going forward.
The Clearwater and Tampa areas are a beautiful part of Florida that I had never visited before. Although, while there, we got stuck in a major winter storm that had a tornado touch down less than fifteen miles away from us! It was an awesome exprience to learn more about our Coast Guard’s role and responsibilities as well as seeing some really cool airplanes and helicopters!
FYI, if you are ever in the Clearwater area, I highly recommend Cristino’s Coal Fire Pizza in Clearwater. (Check out Cristino’s) The gelato and garlic wings were some of the best I have ever had.
For more information check out Summa’s Programming & Commissioning