Remote Monitoring

NewLife Remote Monitoring

MP upgrades real-time monitoring operations centre

Monitoring the vital signs of electrical & mechanical equipment

Master Power Technologies (MPT) has upgraded its real-time monitoring operations centre for all secure power critical equipment. The NewLife Centre is situated at MPT’s Randburg offices where operators monitor clients’ critical systems in real time, 24 x 7 x 365.

Specialists in electrical power supply, including failover generators, UPS systems and solar power, MPT initially designed the NewLife Centre to monitor clients’ power operations through its locally developed Universal Controller. The technology actively monitors electrical equipment in order to ensure they are operating at optimal capacity, and to pre-empt any problems.

When the Universal Controller detects an issue, which can be anything from a mains failure to a battery failure in a UPS installation, it raises an alarm and the operators at the NewLife Centre follow standard operating procedures, agreed with the client beforehand, to deal with the issue, since the Universal Controller monitors the situation in real time, a constant log is kept of the performance of all electronic equipment under observation, providing the customer with a clear understanding of the performance of their systems.

A team of technicians is also onsite, ready to be dispatched to a client’s premises as soon as a problem is detected. However, the Universal Controller not only allows for accurate real-time remote monitoring, but also allows for mobile monitoring via a tablet computer or via its Android app. This means clients can receive an alert whenever one of their systems fails, or is in danger of failing, as well as inspecting site or device status, wherever they are, and make sure the appropriate action is taken. The mobile app is available to NewLife customers at no charge.

The Universal Controller is a combination of hardware and software, a PLC and SCADA device in one, designed to continually keep tabs on electronic infrastructures. The software updates for the Universal Controller is also done remotely at no cost to the client by a MPT technician. This intern essentially means that the Universal Controllers’ software is always up to date when new devices are added to the site or a software upgrade is needed.

The UC is installed on a site and monitors the generators and UPSs 24×7, raising an alarm as soon as it detects something is out of the norm. These alarms are transmitted by TCP/IP to a control room or operations centre on site, or it can be sent to a remote centre where a company can manage all its sites centrally. MPT also offers a monitoring service where customers’ power management systems are monitored from the company’s Strijdom Park offices.