EISA, experts in thermal energy solutions, required sharper insights into their biomass boilers. Their search for an IIoT solution led them to Factry Historian. Here’s how they optimised their processes and profitability.
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EISA, experts in thermal energy solutions, required sharper insights into their biomass boilers. Their search for an IIoT solution led them to Factry Historian. Here’s how they optimised their processes and profitability.
Specialised in thermal energy solutions for industrial companies, EISA sought a flexible, user-friendly and maintainable solution to collect, store and visualise data from their biomass boilers. One that would deliver valuable data insights, and allow for a continuous optimisation of their processes and services. With Factry Historian, we delivered the right solution for the job.
Nestled amidst the breathtaking landscapes of Chile, Energías Industriales S.A. (EISA) specialises in the design, construction, and operation of biomass boilers. Since 2022, they have used Factry Historian to monitor their five biomass installations across the country, and provide their industrial clients with precise data insights to save on energy, and enhance operations.
With steam as its sole product, EISA operates biomass installations in various regions of the country, serving clients in diverse industries. Many of these clients also maintain their own gas boilers as back-up. The company’s primary goal is to supply as much biomass-powered steam as possible, aligning with clients’ preferences, due to its lower environmental impact, and cost compared with burning fossil fuels.
Before, EISA was using a proprietary historian to monitor and analyse process data from their biomass boilers. However, the solution lacked usability and was therefore underused by machine operators. This time, they wanted a solution that was more flexible, looked better, and empowers people on the production floor and beyond with frictionless access to production data.
When burning biomass, several crucial variables, including combustion parameters and the type of biomass used, must be carefully considered to achieve the optimal production output. That’s why they needed a solution to analyse these processes in detail, in an intuitive, accessible and visually attractive way. This would allow them to implement a continuous learning and improvement cycle.
What we needed was better information to make better decisions. Faster, more clear, and easier for people to understand. Pulling data from local sites and bringing it to the cloud has brought a clear overview of our installations, and has been very useful in understanding how our plants are running.
Javier Calvo
Development Engineer at EISA
Due to various legal regulations, a digital connection had to be established between EISA’s biomass installations, and certain government agencies. Ensuring compliance required a scalable connector to communicate securely and effectively with government bodies. Additionally, this solution also needed to enable clients to align seamlessly with these legal requirements.
With Factry Historian, we provided EISA with a cutting-edge solution for data collection, storage, and dashboarding. A modern, scalable system that facilitates multi-site analysis, offering profound insights for improved operational efficiency, and also enables the development of a new business area, in which it offers energy monitoring and optimisation services to its clients.
Standing out as a robust and reliable choice for industrial environments, EISA uses Factry Historian to measure about 500 to 1000 data points (tags) per installation, going from pressure and temperature sensors, to valve and amperage sensors. Additionally, they also use Factry Historian to collect data from other equipment, such as gas boilers, to draw an even more complete picture.
Factry Historian provides a secure, and highly scalable platform to store EISA’s vast volumes of IIoT data. Unlimited process data from individual installations is collected in real-time, and efficiently stored on-premises. Essential data is sent to the cloud, ready for further analysis, comparison with other biomass installations, or for setting up an automatic feedback loop.
Because the internet connection can be unstable in some regions, the IT layer is separated from the OT layer. In case the internet goes down for a week, which actually happened at one occasion, process data is buffered by Factry Historian’s collectors. Once the internet connection is restored, buffered data is instantly forwarded to Factry Historian and loaded in Grafana. In the meantime, the installation keeps running as usual.
The built-in Grafana interface allows managers to view critical metrics, including production figures from the previous day, current production rates, and predictive analytics, empowering them to make more informed decisions. Based on a series of templates that are easy to reproduce and adjust, the visual graphs can be easily customised to EISA’s needs and preferences.
Boiler operators now have focused, real-time data available, even on their mobile phones, allowing them to monitor the boiler’s status at any given moment, pinpoint issues, and address them promptly. During shift changes, operators can easily explain incidents by referencing the graphs, offering a clear visual representation of past occurrences, and improving collaboration.
The software looks great, and you’d be surprised to see how important it is for graphs to look good in order to be used. Previously, machine operators had graphs available, but no one ever used them. Only since we decided to replicate the dashboards in Grafana, they started using them on a daily basis.
Javier Calvo
Development Engineer at EISA
Fast troubleshooting is crucial to generate the ideal production output. By analysing real-time and historical process data in Factry Historian, they can investigate anomalies or issues in detail, quickly find the root cause of issues, and fix them. Through Grafana, process data is easy to compare, while it’s easy for other people to get a grasp of the problem, solution, and results.
One client regularly experienced drops in pressure. By analysing the data, we could find out that these were not correlated to an increase in consumption, but were rather linked to the biomass supply. This critical insight enabled us to pinpoint the root cause, and implement the necessary adjustments quickly.
Javier Calvo
Development Engineer at EISA
EISA sought a solution to gain a deeper understanding of their installations and foster a continuous learning and improvement cycle. Factry Historian delivered. From their Santiago offices, a single glance provides a comprehensive overview of each installation. Within seconds, they can compare their performance, empowering them with quick, actionable insights.
By gathering and analysing data from multiple installations, and bringing it to the cloud for deeper analysis, the company was able to implement a continuous learning and improvement cycle. The results of optimisation efforts can be easily measured. This has led to significant operational improvements.
Working with Factry Historian has been a great overall experience, so I would rate the solution with a perfect 10 out of 10. The software fulfils our needs entirely, is very flexible, looks nice, and offers great usability to our staff.
Javier Calvo
Development Engineer at EISA
However EISA’s core business is to design, build, and operate biomass boilers, they also manage smaller rental installations with limited tag counts. In that context, they saw a business opportunity to include Factry Historian as-a-service, and deliver actionable energy efficiency insights to their clients.
The historian also brings value to their client’s Engineering department, as clients can now better understand how their plant is running, and measure their optimisation efforts. This has enabled them to build a more profound relationship with clients, and increase their satisfaction and lifetime value.
Clients are happy because they are saving money. At the same time, they can use the insights from Factry Historian to compare real-time with historical data to analyse issues or pinpoint inefficiencies, and make better decisions.
Javier Calvo
Development Engineer at EISA