To help monitor the consumption of electrical energy in buildings, production plants or subareas, Eaton is offering the range of MCx measuring and communication modules for compact circuit-breakers and switch-disconnectors up to 630A.
The MCx modules provide all relevant measuring data for calculating power consumption: Phase and N conductor currents, rms voltages, active, reactive and apparent power, as well as power factor (cos phi). The modules are designed for a voltage range of 35-690V, a current range of 1.5-630A and a frequency range of 50-60Hz. The accuracy class is 1.5 and is therefore accurate enough for corporate cost calculations.
The range includes a display device (96 mm x 96 mm) with IP54 protection and a keypad for front mounting in the switch cabinet door. Individual datasets can be selected via the keypad and the measuring results displayed on the device. Data connection to the module is a serial connection via a two-wire cable.
Communication Interfaces
In addition to being displayed locally, measuring data can also be transferred via a serial fieldbus communication or power values via digital S0 pulses. The minimum period duration is 60 ms and each pulse is assigned to a defined energy quantity according to EN62053-31. If the S0 pulses are acquired, for example, via an easy control relay, up to 12 energy values from different MCx devices can be processed and displayed via the MFD-Titan multi-function display.
Besides the S0 interface, MCx-MB devices also have a Modbus RTU slave interface (RS 485, with selectable baud rate and slave address). This enables users to access all status and control data. Typical communication partners are PLCs, HMIs and control systems.
Optimised Power consumption
The measuring and communication module also provides relevant data of the control level. This includes the actual ON/OFF/TRIP states of the circuit-breaker as well as the control of a remote operator for automatic switch functions. The actual values (current, voltage, output data) are transferred and processed further there, for example for optimization of power consumption .
Load shedding is a simple method of consumption optimisation. A digital output can be activated when a defined threshold value is reached. Four input/output expansion modules are available for this. The I/O modules are factory fitted in the basic unit or can be fitted at a later time.
MCx modules are intelligent preprocessing units that provide additional information for the controller and management level: They calculate and output measured value maximum values per time period or form time window values. In terms of diagnostics, they output load warnings, which detect and signal leakage currents to ground.
