Powelectrics IIoT Solution Is Used For Flood Protection In Rural France

Tournesol Property Care in Charente, Western France offer property management services, specialising in expat properties, often second homes or holiday rentals, so that occupants are left stress-free to enjoy their time in this beautiful region.

They manage and maintain a former water mill, now a cherished home. The mill still has a water channel running through the grounds and right underneath it, with level controlled by three lock gates.

After heavy rain the water level can rise rapidly, potentially flooding river banks upsteam and the mill itself, if the gates are not opened in time. Equally, there are many anglers on the river and they need enough water to ensure fish migrate upstream to spawn.

It is a weighty responsibility to both the property owners and their neighbours and consequently Tournesol made frequent visits to physically check the water level. This proved time-consuming and also expensive for the customer.

In 2017 Tournesol came to Powelectrics to find an automated solution. They used a solar-powered Metron telemetry device and SPS hydrostatic level sensor.

Water level readings are taken hourly by Metron4 telemetry hardware and reported via our MetronView IoT platform. As well as regular level data for historical understanding and predicting future conditions, there are 3 high level and 3 low level alarms.

This meant that Tournesol only needed to physically visit the site when the gates needed opening or closing, saving them time and saving their client a lot of expense!

In 2020 Tournsesol intend to expand this m2m solution. Under the new set up, the Metron also has relay outputs, to control the gate activity automatically if water levels are too high or low.

Simon Davison, Owner told us “The Powelectrics kit is just what we needed. Its robust, reliable and affordable. It came pre-configured to our requirements, can be reconfigured remotely and is intuitive to use. This telemetry is solar-powered and completely independent.

When we have needed technical support, particularly for this recent upgrade in functionality, the response was great.

The impact of having the Metron4 telemetry is to save us a great deal of time, which in turn saves our customer considerable expense. On a larger scale, the solution dramatically reduces the flood risk to this home and neighbouring property and also any consequences of inadequate water supply to the river ecosystem. This is a community and the Powelectrics system is working well for everyone!”

Powelectrics Metron4 supports 2G & 4G for global deployment! It offers 4 analogue inputs, expansion cards for pulse counting & RS232 and options to develop RS485 & CANBUS interfaces. With solar, battery & external power options, IP67 enclosure & operational temperatures - 25 to +65°C, its able to deliver sensor data & alerts into many global applications!

MetronView  offers customisable dashboards and reports, but also offers a common API, so that data may be drawn into other platforms for application-specific processing. These can be developed by Powelectrics or by our customers.

Powelectrics act as a connection between the world of sensors and the Internet of Things. We offer 30 years’ experience in sensors, remote monitoring and connectivity. Our ’connected sensor’ solutions are employed in many industries including chemicals, pharmaceuticals, Adblue, fuels, oils, LPG, lubricants, food and beverage, waste & recycling, landfill & leachate, agriculture, utilities, pumping and environment, rail and security.

Please get in touch with any queries or to discuss your applications. You can call us on +44 (0)1827 310 666 or send us an email to sales@powelectrics.co.uk

www.powelectrics.co.uk