DART - Multiple Industrial Sites case study
Remote Monitoring Across Multiple Industrial Sites
An industrial organisation, operating several pumping installations, introduced remote monitoring to improve maintenance planning for its installed VSDs.
A remote monitoring system was connected to each drive using the existing communications interface. Operating data including drive status, speed, current, operating hours and fault information was securely transmitted to a cloud-based monitoring platform.
Maintenance engineers could access live and historical information from any location, allowing them to review equipment performance without attending site.
During operation, engineers identified repeated warning events on one installation that had not generated a drive trip. Trend analysis showed a gradual increase in motor current over several weeks while production demand remained unchanged.
Further investigation during a scheduled maintenance visit identified mechanical wear within the driven equipment. Because the issue was detected early, repairs were completed during planned downtime rather than following an unexpected failure.
The same monitoring platform also highlighted several drives operating continuously outside planned production hours. Following investigation, control schedules were adjusted, reducing unnecessary energy consumption while maintaining production requirements.
Supporting Predictive Maintenance
Remote monitoring does not replace traditional maintenance practices but enhances them by providing additional operational intelligence.
Maintenance personnel can:
• Prioritise site visits based on equipment condition rather than calendar schedules.
• Investigate alarms remotely before dispatching engineers.
• Compare identical assets across multiple sites.
• Maintain a complete historical record of operating performance.
• Identify recurring issues that may indicate wider process problems.
This approach supports the transition from reactive maintenance towards condition-based and predictive maintenance strategies.
Improving Energy Performance
Continuous monitoring can reveal opportunities to improve energy efficiency while
ensuring equipment operates at its optimum performance. By monitoring motor speed, power, flow and pressure, systems can determine whether a pump is operating at or
close to its Best Efficiency Point (BEP). Alerts can be generated if the pump operates away from its BEP.
Monitoring platforms can also monitor environmental conditions such as ambient temperature, humidity, flooding, enclosure door status and vibration to protect critical assets.
Figure 1:
Example of a remote monitor showing VSD and Environment trends
Practical Implementation
Modern monitoring solutions can often be retrofitted to existing installations without modifying the drive's control strategy. Data is collected directly from the drive using standard industrial communication protocols and securely transmitted to a central platform where engineers can review live performance, historical trends and fault information.
One example is the DART remote monitoring system, which has been deployed to monitor drives from multiple manufacturers across geographically dispersed industrial sites. By converting operational data into actionable maintenance information, organisations have improved fault response times, reduced unnecessary site visits and gained greater visibility of critical assets.
As industries continue to adopt predictive maintenance strategies, remote condition monitoring is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for improving reliability, reducing downtime and supporting more energy-efficient operation of variable speed drive
installations.