SmartPuls
Electricity prices directly in your SCADA
SmartPuls gives your PLC access to electricity prices, temperature, and precise time – without network connections, API integrations, or complex setup.
What is the box?
SmartPuls is a small unit mounted directly on the DIN rail inside the electrical panel. It has a built-in SIM card and automatically delivers data to your control system – without the need for network access, IT involvement or complex setup.
All communication takes place via a single 24VDC digital output, which is connected to a PLC input. This makes the solution simple to install and easy to use in existing automation systems.
With SmartPuls, you can easily start and stop equipment, optimize operation and document energy consumption – fully automatically.
Data delivered to your system:
- Electricity prices hour by hour – today and tomorrow
- Weather data for the local location via GPS – hour by hour, today and tomorrow
- CO₂ intensity in g CO₂/kWh every 5 minutes – for display in SCADA and documentation in ESG reporting
- Current time – used as a precise time server
- Error signal in case of missing data
- Simple, secure and NIS2-compatible data delivery
Get a quick overview of how much you can save with SmartPuls. Adjust the sliders and see how electricity costs can be reduced by avoiding the most expensive hours of the day.
Quick start:
Example figures — adjust to match your own plant
Daily savings
240 DKK
Monthly savings
7,200 DKK
Annual savings
86,400 DKK
Estimated CO₂ savings/year
0 kg
This is roughly equivalent to a passenger car driving almost 2 times around the Earth.
Payback
Calculation: power × operating hours × shiftable share × flexibility × price difference
CO₂ estimate based on an assumed difference of 50 g CO₂/kWh between expensive and cheap hours — the actual difference varies hour by hour.
How SmartPuls targets the cheapest hours of the day
Example profile — updated according to your settings above
00
06
12
18
24
Selected operating hours
Hours without planned operation
With your settings, the plant is set to operate during the 16 cheapest hours of the day.
SmartPuls delivers external data to PLC and SCADA — without direct network access to the automation system.
- Start and stop electric boilers and heat pumps based on electricity prices — minimize operating costs during peak-price hours.
- Dynamic load control: Scale heat pumps, pumps or electric boilers in steps according to price level, for example 100% / 50% / 0%.
- Electricity consumption logging: Get an accurate picture of when and how much electricity is used — and what it costs.
- Precise calculation of electricity costs: Combine operating times and electricity prices to analyze the efficiency of individual machines or processes.
- Automatic switching between heat-producing units based on electricity prices — for example between heat pump and gas or wood pellet boilers.
- Time-based operation: Synchronize the PLC with precise time — essential for time-based switching and documentation.
- Temperature-based control: Adjust start, stop and load steps for heat pumps based on both price and outdoor temperature.
- Gas engine control: Start and stop gas engines based on current electricity prices and maximize the value of electricity production.
- Compressors and pumps: Optimize operating times for energy-intensive units — run them during low-price periods and avoid peak loads.
- Gas storage: Delay the use of stored biogas until periods with higher electricity prices, where production gives the best return.
- Time-based PLC operation: Synchronize the PLC system with the built-in time server — and avoid deviations in control logic.
- Automated energy control: Activate functions automatically during hours with low electricity prices — without manual intervention.
- Tank mixing: Reduce or postpone tank mixing during peak-price hours if the process allows it — and save energy.
- Weather-compensated operation: Use local temperature data to adjust strategies for gas engine load or heat recovery.
- Pump control: Adjust pumping in sewer systems and pumping stations based on electricity prices — and postpone non-critical pumping to low-price periods.
- Mixing and aeration: Run aeration tanks and mixers intensively when electricity is cheap — and reduce operation during peak-price hours.
- Sludge dewatering and transport: Schedule dewatering, polymer dosing and sludge pumping for periods with low electricity prices.
- Carbon filters and UV systems: Adjust operating time for UV disinfection and carbon filters where operationally acceptable.
- Heat pumps: Optimize the operation of wastewater-based heat pumps according to price level — and reduce energy costs.
- Temperature-based aeration: Adjust operation of mixers and aerators based on water temperature and outdoor temperature.
Do you want to see if SmartPuls is a good fit for your plant?
We are happy to have a concrete discussion about the possibilities, the savings, and how SmartPuls can be used in your PLC control.
Contact us