Low cost industry utilities monitoring systems for energy savings – CHIC

The main purpose of this project is to create and experiment new solutions to measure, at the lowest cost possible, industrial processes energy consumption (in terms of electricity, gas, compressed air, water, vapour). New sensors will be developed during the project, some of them being real sensors, others being software based sensors, and all of them being cheap to buy, install and maintain in operating conditions. The project aims at dividing by 10 measurement costs (by 50 in the case of gas flow measurements).
Only the following sensors will be considered : I, U and P sensors for electrical energy management, and liquid and gas flow rate sensors for thermal energy and compressed air management (other sensors like temperature sensors, … that are already cheap will not considered).

This project addresses important challenges both scientifically and technologically. The main challenges come from the hard part of the sensors : in order to decrease costs, the new sensors need to be based on clamp on technologies.
Nevertheless, clamp on measurement of I and U has not been achieved so far. The project will study clamp on measurements of I and U, through the following methods :
· for I, the magnetic field around the electrical cable will be measured (there exist several technologies to do that, and a bibliographical study will determine which to use).
· for U, crystals which optical properties are modified by the electrical field they are submitted to will be used.
Regarding flow rate measurement, the project will aim at a very important decrease in costs : water flow rate measurement costs should be divided by 10 and gas flow rates by 50. Only brand new ideas and technologies can provide such a decrease in costs. Within the project, flow rates will be measured through ultrasound technologies that take into account ultrasound travelling times. The challenge to be faced here is related to ultrasound signal properties : signals will be of low energy, with some noise and maybe some perturbations.

Generally speaking, the project aims at offering, for all 4 types of measurement that are to be considered :
· low cost (and extra low cost if possible) for both probe and electronics
· plug and play systems
· low energy consumption systems
· efficient systems, even in the case of low energy signals, with noise and perturbations

In order to achieve all 4 of the above, competences in the following fields will be needed : energy efficiency in Industry, industry processes and monitoring systems, measurements, experimental tests, signal processing, electronics, electromagnetic fields modelling, electrical perturbations, wireless energy transmission, electro-optic crystals, ultrasounds, physical phenomenon modelling, automatics, identification, inverse problems, MEMS, NEMS, nanotechnologies, …Most of these competences are familiar to the project partners.
Every partner in the project will contribute by offering to the others an insight on the best available technologies and methodologies in his field of interest that can be used for the project.

This project deals with industrial research because it focuses on creating new low cost technologies, based on classical physical properties. The act of measuring will be analysed so as to come with new ideas and new ways of measuring, that will be low cost, low energy, easy to build, to install and to operate. All that being done in accordance with European regulations on measuring products production.

The originality of the project relies on several factors : it aims at decreasing costs dramatically (by a factor of 50 for gas flow rate measurement), it aims at creating 8 new sensors (4 of them being real sensors, 4 of them being software based sensors) and all sensors will be tested thoroughly (EDF R&D industrial systems testing facilities will be used for that purpose).