Siemens Smart Infrastructure has added two new energy monitoring devices to its Sentron power portfolio. Dubbed the 7KM PAC3220 and 7KMPAC3120, these sensors have been designed to accurately measure how much power is being used by devices installed within a building, and then feed that information back to a central system.
The Sentron power monitoring line-up is there to help building managers identify which devices are hogging energy, as well as monitor the health of the power circuit. When there is a malfunction within the system, the energy monitoring devices should send an alert as soon as possible, proactively preventing downtimes.
This is not the first time Siemens has launched models as part of the Sentron range, but the company does note that its latest models are its most accurate yet. The design of the models have also been slightly tweaked versus those in the old line-up.
The new 7KM PAC 3220 devices have been designed for sophisticated energy management operations in industrial environments. They can be used in any 50 Hz and 60 Hz grids and measure electrical parameters such as voltage, phase current and frequency as well as active, reactive and apparent power. In addition to instantaneous values, the devices also store precise mean values for periods between 10 seconds and 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, the 7KM PAC 3120 devices offer a more cost-effective way to get started with power monitoring in buildings and infrastructures, such as office buildings or data centres. They record energy consumption and basic values such as current, voltage and power.
Both the 7KM PAC 3220 and 7KM PAC 3220 use the Modbus communication protocol for data transfer, although the 3220 also features Profibus and Profinet for transferring the data to higher-level systems. Users will also benefit from new features, including a colour LED display on the device and an integrated web interface allowing measurements to be displayed in a browser.
When combined with the Sentron powermanager analytics software, the 7KM PAC series measuring devices form a complete power monitoring system, which captures and analyses energy values from infeed to individual loads. The devices are certified according to International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and Underwriters Laboratories (UL) standards and can be used worldwide.
