Top Cold Control - Short Lines for Energy Management and Project Collaboration

Specialist in industrial refrigeration Top Cold Control carries out comprehensive projects, and these days, energy management is a big part of that. It all starts with a lot of measuring. In collaboration with Top Cold Control and the customer, itsme designed a solution for integrating energy measurement in the control system for a cold store in Amsterdam.

Nieuwkuijk-based Top Cold Control, specialising in industrial refrigeration technology, carries out large projects for customers in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and, through them, in other parts of the world. The projects include cooling and freezing installations for slaughterhouses, processing companies, cold stores and transport companies. Top Cold Control can handle all common refrigerants but specialises in the use of the natural refrigerants ammonia (NH3) and carbon dioxide (CO2).

For fast freezing, Top Cold Control supplies advanced, energy-efficient freezing tunnels. ‘The company stands out for its short lines of communication,’ says operations manager Arjan Maas. ‘We are available 24/7 and with us, customers immediately get the right person on the phone.’

Peculiar Requests

To carry out the projects, Top Cold Control collaborates with specialists, such as itsme for automation and control technology. That includes everything from PLCs, frequency converters and inverters to sensors and communication networks. ‘Just as important is the service itsme provides,’ says Maas. ‘We sometimes have the most peculiar requests for them, often about assemblies we intend to build. Many of our customers have Siemens PLCs, for example. Sometimes these are a bit older, but we are very happy with that hardware and enjoy working with it. However, we don’t write software for Siemens ourselves, so we link our controller to theirs, to use Siemens components via remote I/O. To do that, itsme gives us tips and support, for instance on communication. They check it out, look for answers and help, to ultimately get a working unit. You won’t hear them say: “We didn’t supply that hardware, so we don’t deal with that.” No, they immediately get to work, follow through and call afterwards to ask if it’s all workable. To us, that kind of support is outstanding.’ Thijs Hanssen, being the technical sales engineer, answers many of those questions. ‘Contacts normally go through our branches and representatives, but sometimes customers will ask a few more questions about technical matters and then it often goes through me or a Technical Support colleague. Top Cold Control is a case in point.’

‘The customer wanted to measure more and more’

A large project for a cold store in Amsterdam illustrates the excellent collaboration. Through consultant ROMA Koudetechniek, Top Cold Control tendered for the refrigeration technology, including the controls. For the controls, Mupa from Eersel and Chiron-tec from Rosmalen were called in. The first to design the switch panels, the second to write the software for the controls and the SCADA system. Maas: ‘We contacted itsme for the PLCs. During the project, however, the customer came up with more and more questions about energy management. They wanted to measure power at every point in the installation. Together with itsme, we developed a vision for this.’ ‘It was necessary,’ Hanssen adds, ‘because the question was very general. What exactly did the customer want to measure, how should we do it and how accurate should it be? In the end, we jointly opted for a concept that provided the most information.’ ‘Accuracy was a hard requirement of the client in this respect,’ says Maas.

Data-driven Control

The next challenge was how to input all those measurements. Hanssen listed some options. ‘That’s what we often do: put alternatives side by side and brainstorm with the customer about a good balance between price and quality.’ In consultation with Top Cold Control and the customer, the Siemens PAC3220 energy meter was selected. ‘It was a perfect fit, according to the client, because it allows communication via PROFINET. With that, the entire energy management of that installation ultimately is in the control.’

‘Short lines of communication are important to us, we like working that way’

By now, itsme has accumulated a lot of experience in energy management. ‘We notice that it is becoming a hot topic. Energy meters like the PAC3220 are supplied by us for PV installations and charging installations for high-power vehicles and electric cars, for example. Sometimes customers ask us for the price for a certain number of meters and then they want to install them themselves. But we also get a growing number of questions like, “I want to measure this, what should I do?” In that case, we start brainstorming solutions with the customer. Ultimately, it’s about users being able to control their process in a data-driven way and make their decisions based on information about energy consumption, for example.’

It’s all about Communication

For both Top Cold Control and itsme, ‘Amsterdam’ was a huge project. Maas is very satisfied with how they handled it together. ‘The collaboration with itsme is similar to how we interact with our customers. If I have a question, I can call or email directly. Short lines of communication are important to us, we like working that way.’ So it’s all about communication, both in the control and in the project.

Check out our other success stories:

Stay up to date with the latest news:

Why not take a look at these trainings we offer: