Electricians and service technicians must put in a lot of effort to maintain outdoor electrical equipment. Inclement weather, remote corners, and even working on roofs or high platforms are all part of their job. Anything that shortens these missions is welcome. Suatec GmbH has equipped the switch boxes of PV roof systems on the roofs of REWE supermarkets with Rittal's digital wiring plan pocket. This makes maintenance work and repairs on the roof easier.
Overview
- Project
- SUATEC/EHA
- Location
- different, Germany
- Challenge
Over the lifetime of an enclosure, many data sheets, maintenance tables, circuit diagrams and project documents are generated – the handling and legibility of the documents in paper form is complex, especially in outdoor areas.
The REWE Group's photovoltaic systems enclosures are located on the stores' roofs. This makes maintenance and repair even more difficult.
- Solution
Suatec GmbH has created an ePOCKET digital wiring plan pocket for each enclosure:
Every document is stored in the cloud. They can be viewed in advance via a browser or downloaded onto a tablet during the service call using a QR code in the enclosure. Operators, planners, and maintenance staff no longer have to deal with paperwork.
With the ePocket we can move one step further into digitalisation.
Digitalisation has now also reached the switch boxes in difficult-to-reach places such as building roofs, tunnels or railway facilities. Digital circuit diagrams make the work of service technicians on outdoor systems easier. When switchgear manufacturer Suatec received the order to supply large numbers of AX compact enclosures to the retail REWE Group, this time it did not include the circuit diagrams, wiring diagrams and data sheets for the system in paper form. Since the outdoor-compatible AX enclosures for connecting the PV systems were to be mounted directly on the roofs of the retailer's supermarkets, he saved the documents in the ePOCKET digital wiring plan pocket. On the one hand, this met the customer's desire for digitalisation while making the service technicians' work easier.
Thanks to the digital documents, the service technicians no longer have to juggle dusty and often, due to the weather, illegible plans and papers on the roofs of the REWE stores in all weathers. Using a QR code on the door of the enclosure, maintenance technicians can download all the plans onto their tablets and view them in an organised way. Even more conveniently, they can download all the information to the office and take their time to visualise the system, order the correct spare part, keep the maintenance table and plan their work.
The system data is stored securely in the Eplan cloud and can be accessed and maintained by registered users through an Internet browser. The Rittal ePOCKET digital wiring plan pocket makes the work of operators, planners, switchgear manufacturers and maintenance staff easier.
The first 50 AX compact enclosures, including the ePOCKET, have now been installed on the roofs of REWE stores, and the benefits of digitalisation have been well received by operators. “As energy experts, we benefit from the digital documentation in the Rittal ePOCKET, which is easy to update and is stored in the cloud, protected from the weather,” says Bennet Robeck, Technical Operations Manager for Photovoltaics at EHA, the REWE Group's energy service provider. Robeck has ordered another 180 enclosures for 2024.
EHA is not the only party convinced that the paperless enclosures are the best solution for sustainability.