Solutions · Utilities and industry
An energy plant can’t go without communications. We build the radio networks and systems that keep it connected and under control.
We design, install, and maintain professional radio networks, ATEX-certified PoC devices, and LoRaWAN sensor networks for energy operators, utilities, and high-risk industrial environments. For clients like Iren, we bring over twenty years of experience in mission-critical communications.
The three challenges of running a plant or a utility network.
What an energy or industrial operator has to guarantee every day, in the field and in the control room.
Hazardous environments
In industrial plants, teams work in zones classified for potentially explosive atmospheres. This calls for ATEX-certified radio terminals and PoC devices, not general-purpose equipment.
Teams spread across the territory
An energy operator’s maintenance teams cover large geographic areas. This calls for PMR radio networks on the plants and PoC communications over the cellular network to reach even those working beyond local radio coverage.
Infrastructure to keep under control
Power grids, water networks, and process plants must be monitored without interruption. The status of network devices and field sensors has to reach the network operators in real time, with alarms no one can ignore.
How the communication system of a plant is built.
The crews talk over the radio network and on PoC devices, the sensors send their readings: both flows arrive in the same control room, which interfaces with the plant SCADA.
- Control room
- Staff follow the plant from a single room: the crews’ calls and the sensor readings arrive in the same place.
- Teleproject platforms
- Respondr brings the radio networks and PoC communications together in a single console; Track-TP collects the sensor readings and raises the alarms.
- Sites, crews, and networks
- The plant sites, the crews in the field, and the networks that connect them. The solid line follows the voice communications.
- Telemetry
- The dashed line follows the LoRaWAN sensor readings through to Track-TP, which makes them available to the plant SCADA.
What a system for a utility or a plant includes.
The systems we build, from the plant-wide radio network to supervision in the control room.
Plant-wide radio network
- DMR Tier II and Tier III base stations and repeaters, or TETRA trunking, installed in the technical room
- Site antennas, duplexers, combiners, filters, and feeder cables
- VHF/UHF links to the departments and plants still running on analog technology
- Channel and talkgroup plan for operations, maintenance, security, and fire response
- Authorization paperwork and frequency licensing for the bands used
Radio coverage indoors and outdoors
- Radio coverage study across the plant area, with signal levels calculated building by building
- DAS systems with distributed antennas in the industrial halls, basement rooms, and process buildings
- Radiating cable in cable ducts and service tunnels, where antennas do not provide coverage
- Dedicated antennas for the yards, tank farms, and storage areas
- Field coverage tests and level measurements once the installation is complete
Crew terminals and devices
- Portable and vehicle radios programmed on the plant’s talkgroups
- ATEX-certified radio terminals and PoC devices for zones with potentially explosive atmospheres
- PoC devices on the cellular network for the crews working outside the plant’s radio coverage
- Multi-operator SIMs for the PoC terminals, supplied by us or already in use at the customer
- Accessories for the crews: speaker microphones, Bluetooth earpieces, and external PTT buttons
Telemetry and sensors in the field
- 868 MHz LoRaWAN gateways on the plant sites and at remote positions
- Environmental sensors: temperature, humidity, CO₂, and radon
- Structural sensors: vibration, tilt, load, and strain
- Operational sensors: fuel level, light level, and transit counting
- Weather stations for the outdoor sites
- Verification of radio coverage at the measurement points and selection of long-life sensors
Links between the sites
- Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint microwave links to the sites that fiber does not reach
- Optical fiber backbones and copper links between the technical rooms, the shelters, and the control room
- Network equipment, PoE power supply, and patch cabinets
- Measurement of the links and testing of the network ports before commissioning
Supervision with Track-TP
- The Track-TP platform in the cloud or installed on Linux servers at the customer’s premises
- Collection of the status of network devices, servers, and virtual machines via SNMP v1, v2c, and v3, SNMP traps, and Syslog
- Interfacing with the plant SCADA and with building management systems (BMS) via REST APIs, SNMP, and relay contacts
- Dashboards, charts, and geographic maps configurable per department and per site
- Real-time notifications by email, WhatsApp, and Telegram
- Measurement history exportable to CSV and Excel
Control room and dispatch
- The Respondr console in its web version with SSO access, or as a client for Windows, Linux, and macOS
- DMR, TETRA, and VHF/UHF radio networks interconnected with PoC communications in a single interface
- Simultaneous recording of every channel, searchable by radio ID, time, channel, talkgroup, and message content
- GPS tracking of the crews and vehicles on the control room map
- Unified directory of radio and telephone contacts, with direct calling, messaging, and an indication of who is connected
- Audio management between adjacent positions, with echo and feedback cancellation
Continuity, security, and compliance
- Power supplies, uninterruptible power supplies, and buffer batteries sized for the required autonomy
- Earthing of equipment, racks, and antenna supports, with surge arresters on the RF and power lines
- TLS 1.3 and AES-256 encryption on every Respondr communication
- Role-based user management (RBAC), access with corporate SSO, and traceability of operations per operator
- Respondr and Track-TP designed in compliance with the ISA/IEC 62443-3-3 standard (Security Level 2) and with the NIS2 directive
What happens when a sensor flags an anomaly at the plant.
A concrete case: from field detection to the team’s response, with the systems working together.
A sensor detects the problem in the field
A LoRaWAN sensor network monitors the plant’s environmental and structural parameters: temperature, vibration, level, and the opening of doors and cabinets. When a value crosses its threshold, the sensor sends the reading to the LoRaWAN gateway at 868 MHz and from there to the supervision platform.
The alarm reaches the control room
Track-TP gathers data from sensors, network devices, and radio systems in a single interface and flags the anomaly in real time. The notification goes out via email, WhatsApp, or Telegram to whoever is on shift, even when they are away from the dashboard.
The control room calls the team
From the Respondr console, the operator calls the nearest maintenance team. Respondr brings the plant’s DMR and TETRA radio networks and PoC communications over the cellular network into a single interface, reaching every team in the field.
The team responds in a hazardous zone
The technician reaches the plant and communicates with the control room using an ATEX-certified PoC device, suited to zones classified for potentially explosive atmospheres. The team’s position stays visible on the Respondr map thanks to GPS tracking.
Radio coverage stays under control
Once the response is over, monitoring continues: TP-RFX continuously checks for the presence of radio carriers from 15 MHz to 2.7 GHz across the plant, and the communications from the response stay recorded by Respondr’s built-in system, available to reconstruct the event.
The systems we deploy.
Each solution has its own in-depth page; here you’ll find only what it does for a plant or a utility network.
- Operational radio
DMR and TETRA radio networks
We design and build the operational radio networks for plants: DMR Tier II and Tier III, TETRA trunking, and VHF/UHF links, from design through maintenance.
- Hazardous zones
PoC devices and ATEX radios
ATEX-certified radio terminals and PoC devices for teams working in zones classified for potentially explosive atmospheres.
- Distributed teams
PoC communications over the cellular network
Push-to-Talk over the national cellular network to keep teams distributed across large areas connected, beyond local radio coverage.
- Sensors and monitoring
LoRaWAN solutions
LoRaWAN networks and sensors for the environmental, structural, and operational monitoring of plants, with data gathered on the Track-TP platform.
- Integrated supervision
Track-TP
Web platform that shows the status of network devices, radio systems, and sensors on a single dashboard, with real-time alarms.
- Spectrum monitoring
TP-RFX
Outdoor spectrum analyzer that continuously monitors radio carriers from 15 MHz to 2.7 GHz: it detects signal degradation before it becomes a service outage.
- Site-to-site links
Microwave radio links
Point-to-point and point-to-multipoint microwave links to connect remote sites and supervision rooms where fiber doesn’t reach.
- System integration
SCADA and BMS integration
We integrate radio and monitoring systems with the plant SCADA and with building management systems (BMS) via SNMP, relay contacts, and documented APIs.
- Radio terminals
Radio fleet supply
Supply, programming, and maintenance of the teams’ radio terminals: we are authorized resellers for Motorola Solutions, Hytera, and Kenwood, and the exclusive Funktronic distributor for Italy.
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Frequently asked questions.
The questions we are asked most often about this type of system.
For a plant, is a DMR network or a TETRA network the better choice?
The choice depends on the size of the area to be covered, on how many crews have to talk together, and on the services required beyond voice. DMR Tier II works on fixed channels and suits plants with few crews and a simple channel plan; DMR Tier III and TETRA trunking assign each call a free channel from those available, so they carry more users on the same network and let you keep the operations, maintenance, security, and fire response groups separate. We design and build both technologies, including alongside the VHF/UHF links of departments still on analog equipment: the decision is taken plant by plant, based on what the crews have to do every day.
Can the radio system be built without stopping production?
In large part yes. The base stations and network equipment go into the technical room, and the antennas onto the outdoor supports: this work takes place away from the process areas and does not interfere with running the plant. What does have to be planned together with the customer’s maintenance department is any work on the power distribution boards, on cable routes inside the buildings, and in classified zones, because those jobs are carried out during the shutdowns already set in the production plan.
What happens if the link between a remote site and the control room goes down?
A site that stops answering is itself an alarm. Track-TP polls the equipment continuously and flags any site that stops responding with a notification by email, WhatsApp, or Telegram to whoever is on shift, so the fault is detected straight away rather than at the next maintenance visit. On sites where an outage is not acceptable, we provide two paths to the control room, an optical fiber link and a microwave radio link, plus uninterruptible power supplies that keep the equipment in service during a mains failure.
What determines the cost of a radio system for a plant?
The cost depends above all on three items: the size of the area to be covered, the number of crews and terminals to be served, and the radio technology chosen. The heaviest item is often the distribution of the signal in enclosed areas, because DAS systems and radiating cable require installation work inside the buildings and in the service ducts. That is why the quotation comes after the site survey and the radio coverage study: before that step, any figure would be indicative only.
Our systems integrate with the plants you already have.
No closed systems: we use open protocols, let different technologies coexist on the same plants, and work with the certifications that public tenders require.
Multi-protocol on the same network
TETRA, DMR, VHF/UHF, and PoC over the cellular network coexist under a single interface: your existing radio investments remain valid even when the technology changes.
Integration with SCADA and BMS
Radio and monitoring systems interface with the plant SCADA and with building management systems (BMS) via SNMP, relay contacts, and APIs.
Certifications and qualifications
Teleproject is an ISO 9001:2015 certified and SOA OS 19 qualified company. The Respondr and Track-TP platforms are designed in compliance with the NIS2 directive and the ISA/IEC 62443-3-3 standard.
Request a proposal for your industrial plant.
Feasibility analysis, radio coverage study, and project planning, tailored to your requirements.