Hi, I am new to OpenEMS.
I am planning to develop an automation software that will both do Energy Management and PLC like circuit breaker control. Can I trust OpenEMS for this purpose? I don’t need real-time controlling but I need it to be reliable.
Let’s say every component (PC that runs OpenEMS, MODBUS/IO Gateway etc.) in the project is industrial grade.
And I have another question, I want to control these circuit breakers from the UI by clicking on some buttons. Can I do that too?
Hi @samettal and welcome to the OpenEMS Community.
There are certain safety control features I would not use OpenEMS for (but probably not even PLCs), but in rest it is totally possible to setup OpenEMS Edge as a very reliable control software.
Be sure to activate safety measures, like watchdogs on different levels:
Hi @samettal ,
to your second question upon switching circuit breakers from the UI:
We use the IO Channel-Single-Threshold controller to control a circuit breaker. Its config element mode is about switching manually on or off or choose automatic to let the controller do its intended work by switching dependent on an input value.
If you open the UI element of the controller to see details, you also get the buttons for manually switching on and off (right on top of the window with the details).
You can have a look at this UI element with an explanation here: FEMS App Threshold Control :: FENECON Dokumente
Hi @janklostermann ,
I really appreciated your help.
I will check it out. I learned that OpenEMS UI needs to retrieve data from the Backend. My idea of using UI as a local HMI is no longer feasible. For local HMI, I am thinking to use something else. But for remote monitoring, the UI is still a good idea I guess.
Regards.
This is a misconception about Backend.
A fully working OpenEMS system does not need Backend at all. You might need backend for advanced purposes.
Edge + UI are fully sufficient, where Edge does the heavy lifting. UI is “just” for HMI. You could probably even run Edge alone, using the Apache Felix interface or files to configure it.
Does this help?
Some AI tools were saying else, so I go wrong. But thank you, I will go deeper and search for what is the best solution for myself. I am in need of local HMI and a remote connection. I might implement Thingsboard or OpenEMS Backend + UI on the cloud for remote access.
Thank you again!
BR
Again, I am not sure why you think you need the OpenEMS Backend. In a local energy management setting (See Introduction :: Open Energy Management System ) there is no need for Backend. You need it for Areal Energy Management, where you connect more than one Sub-OpenEMS (Edge) via the Backend to a bigger System.
Don’t be confused by similar naming. In normal IT systems a UI is usually the frontend (e.g. in the browser, HTML +JS) and then there is a backend (on the server) that serves the frontend. In this case the frontend does not work without the backend.
In OpenEMS the use of the same words is different. The UI component contains frontend and backend (with the meaning from above). As much as there is a UI available to the Edge component (Apache Felix). The Backend Component allows to orchestrate various Edge components as a bigger system.
I hope that clarifies a bit more.
We are in development phase of the projects. But there are more than 1 project, so I thought I can use OpenEMS Backend for creating a multi-tenant architecture. I see how UI works and how it is an independent mechanism.
So I am in need of some backend platform to have a multi-tenant platform.
Best regards.
OK. That was not apparent to me.
For clarity: the System Architecture scheme briefly shows, how OpenEMS Backend, Edge and UI can interact with each other:
So OpenEMS UI is agnostic and can be used
Additional to the System Architecture scheme:
Also on the grey (right, local) side of the image there can be a Time-Series database (like InfluxDB or RDD4j), without the need to involve OpenEMS Backend (as the image might suggest). The same as with UI, which you can have on both sides, too (as shown).