Automatic genset refuelling for remote power plants
How Smart Power Chile tied flow meters and a tank sensor into its SCADA to refuel generator day tanks automatically — and cut fuel costs by 15%.
Power for places without a grid
Smart Power Chile, headquartered in Santiago, designs and deploys power generation systems for remote sites — mines, livestock farms, fishing villages and national parks — in Chile, Argentina and other Latin American countries. After commissioning, it optimises power generation and diesel use at each site.
Manual pumps and manual tables
Each site runs 3–4 CAT C9 generators (8.8 L, 230–330 kVA) fed from one 30,000-litre storage tank via a common line and pumps that fill each genset’s own tank. The rated quota is 43–59 L/h depending on mode.
Consumption was tracked in manually filled tables, so precise figures and tank balances were impossible. An operator switched the transfer pumps on by judgement — and a wrong call meant an empty day tank, a stopped genset and a blackout. The goals: automate day-tank refuelling and monitor consumption and run time per genset.
Modbus sensors straight into SCADA
A DUT-E 2Bio fuel level sensor with RS-485 Modbus RTU measures the storage tank regardless of fuel type (diesel or biodiesel) with 0.2% inaccuracy and 0.1 mm resolution. Each genset has a DFM 500D differential flow meter, also on Modbus RTU, reporting 46 parameters and counters — instant and total consumption, run time by mode.
Both integrate directly with the site SCADA, which calculates fuel remaining in each day tank from consumption and pump run time and switches the pumps on automatically at the minimum level.
Fuel transfer from storage to the day tanks is automated, so the risk of a genset stopping on an empty tank is eliminated. Consumption and run time are tracked automatically; with that data the company optimised engine operation and cut fuel costs by 15%. Because the sensors speak Modbus RTU, no extra data-collection hardware or analytics software was needed.
Task → Solution → Result
Manual refuelling decisions
Operators guessed when to run transfer pumps; consumption lived in hand-filled tables.
DFM 500D + DUT-E 2Bio → SCADA
Modbus RTU sensors integrated directly with SCADA, which runs the pumps automatically.
−15% fuel costs
No more empty day tanks; engine operation optimised from real data.
DFM fuel flow meters automatically send accurate data on fuel consumption to the database and after that fuel consumption and remaining fuel volume are visualized in SCADA system.
Victor Hugo Romero · Power engineer, Smart Power Chile
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