Transforming Power Gensets with Real-Time Monitoring and Management

Hurricanes. Wildfires. Floods. Ice storms. Extreme weather is a major reason why hospitals, oil and gas providers, data center operators and other enterprises worldwide are increasingly deploying gensets to ensure business continuity. In fact, in 2020 alone, the global genset market was worth roughly $17 billion, according to the research firm Verify Markets.

Just as gensets help enterprises protect against unpredictability, the companies managing those gensets need tools for ensuring that their equipment is always ready to go when customers need it. That’s why Taoglas developed Genset Insights, a vendor-agnostic solution, which provides instant real-time actionable insights and remote access to each genset’s key metrics, including run-time, fuel levels, oil pressure, engine status, coolant temperature and overall machine health, as well as the location of each piece of equipment.

Taoglas Genset Insights provides genset integrators, genset rental companies and genset operators with everything they need to monitor, manage and track the usage of their generator sets. This information provides a wide variety of business benefits, such as:

• Instant access to fuel levels eliminates the expense of periodically sending employees to perform manual checks.
• Proactive alerts for when each generator’s fuel level drops below a certain level. This ensures that operations using those generators won’t have downtime because of an empty tank. Unexpectedly low levels also can alert operators that fuel theft may have occurred.
• Maintenance staff can monitor real-time data to identify emerging problems before they result in extensive, expensive downtime — not only for the generators themselves, but also the operations that rely on them.
• Instant, remote access to key operating metrics eliminates the expense of sending maintenance staff out to perform routine manual health checks. This automation also frees staff to focus on other tasks.
• Operators now can build a database for each generator’s fuel usage, engine health and other key metrics. This historical data enables them to make informed purchasing/leasing decisions because they can see which brands and models had the best or worst downtime, maintenance costs, fuel efficiency and more. This historical database also provides insights into asset utilization and in turn helps maximize each generator’s productivity.
• GPS with rechargeable battery backup enables genset owners to monitor the exact location of each piece of equipment at all times. Any changes will alert them of a potential theft while the location tracking helps with rapid recovery.
• Precise location information also enables better fleet management and improves customer satisfaction. For example, genset rental companies can quickly identify the available equipment closest to a customer’s facility.

The solution also helps genset operators tackle the industry’s skills shortage. “Companies are having difficulty finding and retaining skilled talent,” Verify Markets says. “Lack of qualified personnel is limiting the growth potential of some speciality rental companies.” By automating workflows and having access to predictive analytics and insights on machine health, frees those companies’ scarce skilled employees to focus on specialized and high value tasks. For example, instead of trekking to customer sites to manually check fuel levels and other operating conditions, those employees now can focus on other tasks, such as quickly responding to customer needs. That helps those companies stay competitive while maximizing employee productivity and efficiency.

The solution also helps genset operators protect their brand reputations. Take the example of one of Europe’s largest providers of diesel generators for sale and rental. After delivering a generator, the company received a call from the customer saying that it had a fault. Its fleet is equipped with Taoglas Genset Insights, which provides instant, remote access to information such as running time. That enabled the company to prove that the fault happened after the customer used the genset.

Actionable Insights, Available Anytime, Anywhere

Taoglas Genset Insights is purpose-built for genset monitoring, with a vendor-agnostic design that enables fast, easy implementation. It’s autoconfigured and supports a majority of leading genset controllers, such as DSE, Powerwizard, DCP10, Comap and more. This allows genset operators to manage a mixed fleet of generators with  quick connection to Modbus, CAN Bus, J1939, CANOpen and other industrial interfaces.

The solution comes with an on-board analytics engine allowing companies to deploy machine learning and predictive analytics to effectively monitor, manage and track the usage of their generator sets. The solution can also be customized and expanded to integrate with auxiliary equipment that need monitoring and management on one enterprise-level platform.

This turnkey solution includes the Taoglas EDGE™ IG10, an industrial gateway that supports 2G, 3G and 4G cellular networks, enabling a wide variety of regional and global deployment options. It includes an active SIM card for instant deployment, and an embedded satellite receiver to support location-based applications such as anti-theft geofencing and rapid recovery. Bluetooth connectivity supports a smartphone installation application for installation in just 5 minutes, as well as an optional Bluetooth fuel sensor.

Each Taoglas EDGE™ IG10 gateway connects to Taoglas Insights™, an enterprise-grade software platform that collects and transforms genset data into actionable insights about equipment productivity, efficiency, compliance and more. The Taoglas Insights platform is cloud-based with anytime, anywhere access to monitoring and control capabilities from their computer, smartphone or tablet — including proactive alerts.

Taoglas team of experts have developed a plug-and-play IoT solution to get up and running immediately;

• Vendor agnostic solution supporting most genset controllers
• Enterprise level management of genset fleet
• Onboard analytics engine to customize predictive insights
• Rapid install and easy to retrofit in the field (5 minutes) – Bluetooth application
• Rechargeable battery for independent theft monitoring
• Purpose built end-to-end solution for genset monitoring
• Pre-certified with active regional SIMs
• Built in GNSS
• Optional Bluetooth fuel sensor
• Supported by a full IoT security stack, power and device management and Data-as-a-Service out of the box

The Taoglas Genset Insights solution is a turnkey solution which can be white labelled for genset rental companies and enterprises. Please visit the Taoglas Genset Insights solutions page for more information or schedule a demonstration of the platform by contacting our regional sales team.