Optimized solution for switchgear manufacturers and electrical planners

Siemens Smart Infrastructure and Eplan have signed a strategic partnership to strengthen collaboration in the area of software solutions for the industry and infrastructure market segments. As part of this agreement, Siemens’ Electrical Products business unit will join the Eplan Partner Network as a strategic partner. The objective is to coordinate the products of both companies in a more targeted manner in order to offer optimized solutions for switchgear manufacturers and electrical planners.

Sebastian Seitz, CEO of Eplan, and Andreas Matthé, CEO of Electrical Products at Siemens Smart Infrastructure, signed the agreement on September 26, 2022.

“The overall goal of our collaboration is to create a plug-and-play structure for electrical planners. We want to open our tools bidirectionally for both sides and thus simplify and accelerate workflows,” said Andreas Matthé, CEO Siemens Electrical Products. 

Sebastian Seitz of Eplan has also emphasized the benefits for joint customers: “In switchgear construction, we can use Eplan Pro Panel to optimize processes and automate them to a greater extent. In addition, we will more specifically address the growing area of power distribution and work with Siemens to create end-to-end solutions for integrative, more efficient workflows.”

The industry segment comprises offerings and products for control panel building, while the infrastructure segment includes switchgear construction for power distribution. In the industry market segment, Siemens and Eplan will intensify the excellent cooperation that has existed for many years, for example, to provide Eplan data across all configured Siemens products. For the infrastructure market, Eplan and Siemens have decided to jointly optimize and automate customer processes, for instance in the Sivacon and Alpha environment (power distribution systems) by integrating Simaris (planning tools) and the Eplan platform.

Both parties will contribute their expertise to the benefit of their joint customers to enable more efficient workflows in switchgear construction and power distribution.

Eplan offers engineering software and services in the fields of electrical engineering, automation, and mechatronics. The company develops one of the world's leading software solutions for machine, switchgear, and control panel builders. In addition, it helps customers simplify challenging engineering processes.

Siemens’ Electrical Products offers products for a safe and efficient electrical infrastructure at the low-voltage level in buildings and industrial environments, including safety and control products, measuring and monitoring devices, switches, and sockets. Furthermore, the business unit’s portfolio includes communication-enabled software tools that can be used to connect power distribution products to building and industrial automation, as well as to open cloud-based IoT systems.

@EPLAN_global @SiemensInfra @mepaxIntPR #PAuto

Telemetry partner programme invitation.

Ovarro is inviting companies that currently work in the water, energy or any other critical infrastructure sectors to join its new Ovarro Authorised Partner (AOP) programme.

Distributors, system integrators, engineering, construction and procurement (EPC) companies and more can become part of Ovarro’s extensive global partner network. In doing so, they join a programme that already includes more than 50 value-add partners from large multinationals to independent sole traders.

“At Ovarro, our ambition is to have a world-class partnership programme,” explains Tom Cork, Vice President of Channel Sales at Ovarro. “We collaborate closely with our partners to deliver mutual growth for them and ourselves, and to help them access new opportunities, markets and customers that are currently out of reach.”

Companies are assessed in tiers for the AOP programme, and each tier gives access to a range of benefits. They include dedicated account management plus enhanced pricing and discounts on Ovarro’s market-leading services, asset management, products and technologies including its RTUs, data loggers and software.

Access new opportunities
Ovarro has developed its AOP programme with the primary aim of helping its partners grow and expand, as quickly and self-sufficiently as possible.

That includes reducing response times to market demands. Ovarro’s in-house engineers and product teams handle the innovation aspects of the partnership with its technologies and services and, with this support, the AOP is better equipped to achieve market penetration.

“The AOP programme is designed to connect technologies and our partners in a global network, and help our partners diversify and expand in-line with our own extremely steep growth curve,” explains Cork. “Our strategy is to achieve this by through innovation, expansion and penetrating new markets.

“We believe the Ovarro portfolio — which is increasing through new product development (NPD) and recent acquisitions — can complement the line cards of many established companies in the water, energy and critical infrastructure sectors. For example, our RTU portfolio is flexible and can be easily incorporated into existing solutions.”

Going forward, Ovarro plans to add certified training to its AOP programme. This will enable AOPs to become fully self-sufficient to sell and support Ovarro’s technologies in new markets, and be better poised for growth. A global conference is also planned for later this year to provide in-person networking.

“Put simply, partnering with Ovarro provides companies with the potential to access opportunities, markets and customers that may currently be unreachable,” says Cork. “We can grow together.”

@ovarro_ltd @StoneJunctionPR #Infrastructure #PAuto

Re-starting of business in Ukraine.

Business activities are being re-started in Ukraine by Danfoss. Since the war in Ukraine broke out, activities have been put to a halt, and the restarted business activities will be focused on restoring critical infrastructure in damaged cities and towns. A warehouse of the company itself was reported to have been hit by ordinance in early March but no injuries were reported.

Adam Jedrzejczak, President, Danfoss East Europe Region, says: “It is key for us to continue supporting our customers in Ukraine. It is not only the right thing to do, but our products are also key components for the critical infrastructure which needs to be rebuilt. Thanks to Danfoss’s products, residents in some of the most badly damaged areas of Ukraine will again have access to heating and hot domestic water.”

Most Ukrainian employees decided to stay in Ukraine, but families were evacuated by the Danfoss crisis team in February. As the safety level in most parts of Ukraine is improving, employees are starting to move back. Currently, 40 Ukrainians – including 8 Danfoss employees– are in Poland. Other colleagues and family members have been safely moved elsewhere. Currently there are 16 Ukrainians in Germany, 6 in Denmark, 4 in Spain, 3 in Slovakia and, 2 in Austria. All evacuated employees and their families are relatively well, and Danfoss continues to be in close contact with all families, both the evacuated families and those remaining in Ukraine.

Ukraine remains an important market for Danfoss in the Eastern European region. According to The Kyiv School of Economics the cost of direct damage to Ukraine's infrastructure has already reached the level of ca €60 billion (US$63b). Therefore, solutions such as those provided by Danfoss are critical as they have a positive impact in the rebuilding of district energy infrastructure, commercial and residential buildings as well as water and wastewater treatment utilities.

Andriy Berestyan

"The safety and security of our team remains our key priority, and despite uncertainties, it has been key for Danfoss to resume business activities in the country as quickly as possible. For now, customers can pick-up their products at a so-called cross-docking warehouse that we have established in the city of Lviv."

General Manager in Danfoss Ukraine, Andriy Berestyan, working out of Lviv, says: “Our team in Ukraine is eager to come back to their work. They want to play their part in rebuilding their home country. They are extremely motivated, and Danfoss’ products are important to help rebuild our country’s infrastructure.”

@Danfoss @NapierPR #HVAC #Water #Ukraine

Level measurement to help lessen bridge scour.

Engineers at Transport Scotland have investigated the potential for water level monitoring systems to help mitigate risks where transport infrastructure interacts with moving water. The trial was conducted at a bridge over Vales Burn near Hawick in Scotland, and the monitoring equipment was provided by OTT HydroMet. OTT’s Wendy Strain says: “The system was set to deliver alarms at pre-set water levels, which enhanced the timing and efficiency of site inspections.”

Climate change is increasing the frequency and severity of extreme weather events such as storms and floods. This presents a growing threat to structures that could be susceptible to scour during periods of high water flow. The trial was therefore established to determine whether access to remote water level measurements could enhance the protection of critical transport infrastructure.

Background
The stability and integrity of structures such as bridges, culverts and walls can be compromised by ‘bridge scour’ which is caused by fast-flowing water that removes material from around the footings of bridge abutments or piers.

There are three main types of scour. Local scour is caused by the faster water flow that occurs around piers and abutments. Constriction scour is created by water accelerating through a narrow opening, and degradation scour can lower a river bed over a longer period, both upstream and downstream of a structure.

The effects of bridge scour can be disastrous. For example, during a flood in 1987, the Glanrhyd Bridge in Carmarthenshire (Wales) partially collapsed, causing a train to plunge into the River Towy, killing the driver and three of the passengers. In 2009, failure of the Malahide Viaduct in Dublin, (IRL) was caused by foundation scour. Two commuter trains packed with hundreds of passengers were just seconds away from disaster when a 20-metre section of the viaduct collapsed after they passed over it. Nobody was killed, but travel chaos ensued.

Today, highways and rail authorities conduct regular inspections in order to asses scour risk.

Bridge scour in Scotland
Transport Scotland is split into four operational regions, and Jim Brown is South East Unit Bridge Manager. Prior to this position, Jim spent 42 years as a civil engineer with Network Rail, 13 years of which he headed the geotechnical discipline in Scotland – so it is fair to say that Jim knows a thing or two about bridge scour. “The most important objective is the early detection of increased risk,” Jim explains. “Once we have established which structures are more vulnerable during flooding, we are able to implement different levels of mitigation.

“Much research has been undertaken in an attempt to be able to monitor scour, but this is obviously problematic because potential scour takes place at times when it is not possible to see the river bed and certainly not possible to deploy divers,” Jim adds. “For this reason, the continuous monitoring of water level is not the perfect solution, but may be the best and most practicable.”

Water level is already used as a risk factor by the inspection teams where the 1 in 200 flood level is shown on structures by a fixed marker. However, Transport Scotland have to monitor 700 structures which are over or adjacent to water, and site inspections are costly; both financially and in resources. The inspection system could therefore be more efficient if it could be informed by remotely available water level data, especially if the data enables faster, more efficient implementation of mitigation measures.

If a structure is determined to be high risk, a hydrological assessment is undertaken. This may prompt a requirement for strengthening of the structure itself, as well as measures to protect or fill potential scour zones, and/or to alter water flow and disrupt vortices. In extreme cases, when a potentially vulnerable structure is exposed to high water, it may be necessary to close highways or rail lines until the level of risk can be lowered.

Vales Burn trial

In light of the potential for live water level data to inform the bridge inspection process, OTT HydroMet was invited to propose a monitoring system that could be evaluated at a culvert on the Vales Burn. “Our solution was comprised of an OTT ecoLog 1000 water level logger in a stilling well, with cellular data connection to Hydromet Cloud; a web-enabled platform for processing, displaying and storing hydrometeorological data,” explains Wendy Strain. “Data were set to be transmitted routinely every 6 hours, but two alarm levels were set to prompt SMS alerts, when necessary.”

The monitoring system was installed in September 2021, and Jim Brown says: “The trial is a great success; we utilise the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) flood alert warnings to monitor flooding and it has been our experience that the highest water levels generally occur about one or two days after a storm, so one of the main objectives of the trial was to determine the best time to despatch inspection staff.

“The monitors did issue alerts during the trial, but these were when levels met the lower alarm level, and in these cases, further interventions were not required. With the benefit of water level data, we will therefore be able to optimise the deployment of the inspection teams and mitigate risk,” Jim adds.

Summary
Bridge scour is a long-standing problem for transport infrastructure, so the deployment of remote water level monitors/alarms that can be accessed via PCs or a mobile App offers rail and highway authorities an opportunity to optimise their scour assessment activities, prioritise countermeasures, improve transport resilience and protect safety.

Reflecting on the trial Jim says: “This project has shown that a network of water level monitors could inform bridge engineers of potentially affected structures. I understand that the Hydromet Cloud platform is able to connect with an almost infinite number of water level monitors, so we may be able to roll this out on a larger scale in the future.”

@OTTHydromet @_Enviro_News #Environment #Safety