Remote event management and optimization of refrigeration equipment operation

The global pandemic associated with the spread of the COVID-19 virus continues to negatively affect the global economy, tourism, and mass sports events. Major international forums, exhibitions, sports, and other events have been canceled, shopping centers and restaurants have been closed. More and more countries are quarantining and taking emergency measures to combat the spread of the virus, up to the introduction of a state of emergency. These measures are necessary to preserve the most important thing – people's health and life.
In this difficult time, the proper operation of grocery stores is a vital factor for any locality. The basis of any grocery store is the uninterrupted operation of refrigeration equipment, on which the supply of quality products to the population depends.

Using the example of a store that is remotely serviced by the "Land-Service" monitoring service, let's figure out how it works. A modern store is a complex of high-tech equipment for showcases, counters, refrigerated racks, and a refrigeration unit itself. The control system of this equipment is built from separate controllers integrated into a common monitoring network and a central control unit. In fact, the monitoring system allows you to control any electrical devices, including refrigeration equipment, from anywhere in the world.

The Danfoss ADAP KOOL® monitoring system allows you to manage the store's refrigeration equipment in an optimal mode. This is achieved by setting up automatic functions at the start-up or maintenance stage that adapt the operating mode of the refrigeration system to changing external conditions in order to reduce energy costs. The functionality of the monitoring system allows not only to monitor the state of the refrigeration unit and remotely make adjustments to the settings in order to increase the efficiency of the system but also to manage events remotely, diagnose and eliminate emergencies that have arisen at the facility, which allows you to significantly relieve the personnel responsible for trade from the need to monitor equipment. The "Land-Service" monitoring service collects data from store monitoring units using special software developed by Danfoss, which is an application with support for multiple objects, providing emergency message processing and automatic data collection, as well as creating reports on the functioning of store systems.

More than 25 years ago, the "Land-Service" service was created for scheduled maintenance of grocery stores and the elimination of accidents. The growth of shop building and the need for mandatory maintenance in all regions of Russia gave an impetus to the development of its own service department. Today, the service of "Land-Service". It has 7 branches and 19 divisions, employs more than 400 service engineers and mechanics, and 15 dispatchers serve more than seven thousand objects in different regions of Russia.
The monitoring service "Land Service" was founded in March 2015 as part of the service department.

The development of the center began with one dispatcher, who was in charge of only 7 objects: 4 supermarkets and 3 distribution centers. The responsibilities included only responding to alarms and remote adjustment of equipment parameters to optimize energy consumption.

Today, the  "Land Service" monitoring service has 15 dispatchers accompanying more than 4,000 objects, including:
3,600 discounters (an average of 15-20 pieces of equipment on each, a total of about 61,000 units);
250 supermarkets (average 40-50 units, total about 12,000 units);
80 hypermarkets (on average 120-130 units, about 10,000 units in total).
In total, there are more than 85,000 units of high-tech equipment in the country.

Monitoring service engineers process incoming messages as quickly as possible thanks to the software developed by Danfoss, and make a decision to eliminate the accident remotely, or with the involvement of a service engineer directly at the facility. At the initial stage of maintenance (approximately 3-6 months, depending on the format), dispatchers manage to resolve up to 95% of emergency incidents without connecting the service department. In addition to emergency maintenance, specialists optimize parameters to reduce the energy consumption of the store, which allows achieving a reduction in the energy consumption of the store up to 36%.

As a result, 52% of all incidents are solved remotely at a fully configured store, a service engineer goes to the facility only to eliminate accidents caused by mechanical malfunctions and carry out scheduled maintenance. Such remote control is an undeniable advantage, especially in an epidemiological situation, since it allows you to service life-support facilities without the physical presence of a person.

At the moment, in a number of federal networks, the service of full monitoring service is becoming increasingly popular, when the object is remotely monitored 24/7. The customer is relieved of the need to submit an application for malfunctions in the operation of the equipment.

Recently, the Land Group of Companies has been actively developing smart store projects, using an integrated automation system for engineering networks based on programmable logic controllers of the Danfoss series of the Ministry of Agriculture. Such solutions allow to effectively manage such systems as heating, ventilation, air conditioning, as well as external and internal lighting of stores, in automatic mode. In the case of using this system, it is possible to achieve an additional reduction in operating costs, as well as provide additional opportunities for remote control of the store's engineering systems through specialized service centers. This will reduce the store's accident rate to a minimum, as well as increase the overall economic benefit during operation.

The next step in the development of store management will be the introduction of an intelligent system that will allow predicting the occurrence of equipment accidents in advance. Danfoss has already started to master machine learning functions for predictive analysis of refrigeration equipment operation. This should increase the efficiency of the monitoring service, reduce the time for diagnosis and repair, and therefore reduce the risk of breakdown.

Due to the equipment of facilities with monitoring and centralized management systems, the need for unscheduled visits of service engineers is significantly reduced, and problems that arise are solved more quickly. The supervision of the Monitoring Service specialists over the objects of the service reduces the number of incidents of product damage and also reduces the level of energy consumption.

The refrigeration equipment monitoring service is gaining more and more popularity among Land's Clients, and now we can say with confidence that this direction is the future of refrigeration equipment service.