Case Study: Canadian Electric Power Plant achieves real-time remote monitoring and predictive maintenance with Advantech Wzzard Wireless Mesh and SmartSwarm

Retrofitting Aging Power Plants with Wireless Technology

The Canadian Electric Power Plant, a privately owned eastern Canada facility supplying the province with the bulk of its electricity, faced 35–50 year old infrastructure, limited hardwired DCS connections and spotty AC power. The plant needed a cost‑effective way to instrument legacy assets, automate manual readings, capture data to justify renewable investments, and enable proactive monitoring. They selected Advantech and its Wzzard™ Wireless Mesh Intelligent Edge Nodes and SmartSwarm gateway as part of an IIoT retrofit (integrated into OSIsoft PI via OMF).

Advantech deployed Wzzard edge nodes and a SmartSwarm asset integration gateway to overlay sensors for vibration, temperature, current and thermocouples across the site, routing data reliably to OSIsoft PI (with an AspenTech Edge Connect SRP). The wireless mesh delivered multi‑year battery life, fast non‑intrusive installation, SMS alarms on threshold breaches and scalable connectivity; the result was automated, real‑time PI tagging (replacing manual reads), demonstrated improved level control in PI trends, and the ability to predict and prevent equipment failures—reducing downtime and operating costs.