Since the end of 2019, multiple AC500 PLCs have been controlling the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system (HVAC) at the premises of the European School Munich. The PLC data is managed and visualized by the ABB Ability™ Operations Data Management zenon. The school thus has a modern and future-proof operating data management system at their disposal, which can be adapted to each individual task.
Lessons in each and every EU member state’s national language – that is what the European School Munich (ESM) offers to almost 2200 students. The ESM includes a kindergarten, an elementary school, and a secondary school. In 2019, the building management system for all the ESM properties was modernized. The company in charge of the system upgrade, E1 Energiemanagement GmbH, opted to replace the old system with a combination of AC500 Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) and the ABB Ability™ Operations Data Management zenon.
When updating their building management, the European School Munich replaced the outdated distributed control system with ABB Ability™ Operations Data Management zenon (image: Stefan Schumacher). 
ABB’s AC500 PLCs (third row from the bottom) operate as terminals at the school (image: ABB). 
AC500 PLC platform
Tasks in Monitoring and Visualizing
Fourteen AC500 PLCs in total now operate as terminals at the school. They provide data input for frequency converters, start and stop the ventilation and air conditioning systems, determine their speed, as well as change and save their configuration. Furthermore, the PLCs are used to read the converters’ data. From that data it is possible to derive a fan’s energy consumption or whether it might get jammed. More than 3500 datapoints are monitored and controlled by the ABB Ability™ Operations Data Management zenon. In this open and scalable system, the performance of the building service facilities can be reliably displayed, assessed, adjusted and reported. It can furthermore be used as an IoT gateway for frequency converters, softstarters and PLCs. It doesn’t just monitor whether the building services are available, but also alerts the maintenance staff via email should there be an error. This makes sure any problems are solved quickly by OnSite Condition Monitoring.
With ABB’s solution, the temperature in different classrooms and offices can be adjusted individually for each room via a central computer. This saves time as it is no longer necessary to access the terminals of the different properties individually.
