Telemetry and dispatch in plain language | LK Energy

Author: Viacheslav Yurdyk, quality engineer at LK Energy Group.
Over 1,000 units of equipment accepted at the factory (QC department) and 200 electrical installation sites under technical supervision, including lighting control cabinets and power systems for community water intakes.

Cabinet front with a microprocessor relay and a metering device — the data collection point for dispatch control

Short answer (for those in a hurry)

Three words that are constantly used as synonyms actually mean different things:

Telemetry is when a site sends its data to wherever you are looking at it. Looking is all you get — you cannot intervene.
Dispatch control is telemetry plus control: you not only see the site, you can send it a command without driving out there.
SCADA is an industrial software platform that does the same thing at scale: dozens of sites, mimic diagrams, alarm logs, historical data, controllers at every point.

And straight away, honestly, because this is exactly where communities overspend: most local communities do not need a full SCADA system. What they need is a simple "data + control" loop — a device in the cabinet and a web panel on a phone. SCADA starts to make sense when there are dozens of sites, the process runs continuously and somebody is actually on duty at the console.

Below — the plain-language version, with two live examples.

Three terms in plain language

Term	What it actually is	Everyday analogy	Who needs it
Telemetry	Measurement at a distance. Data travels one way: from the site to you	An outdoor thermometer that sends readings to your phone. You can read it; you cannot adjust the weather	When you simply need to know the numbers without driving out
Dispatch control	Data plus commands. A two-way link with the site	Controlling your home heating from a phone: you see the temperature and switch the boiler on	Communities, utilities, farms — 95% of real tasks
SCADA	An industrial platform: data acquisition + control + mimic diagrams + alarms + history	A railway dispatcher's console: the whole network in front of one person	Water utilities, factories, networks with dozens of sites

Two more terms you will meet in tenders and quotations:

Industrial process control system (ICS/DCS class) — the "heavy" category: controllers at every site, a design project, a server, trained staff.
Street lighting control system — in Ukrainian public procurement this is exactly what dispatch control for street lighting is called.

The key point: the difference is not how "smart" the system is, but how many sites it holds and who is responsible for it day to day.

Why a local community usually does not need full SCADA

SCADA is not "a better version" of dispatch control. It is a different class of solution with its own cost of ownership. It is justified when:

there are dozens of sites linked into a single technological process;
the process is continuous, and deviations have to be caught in real time;
there is duty personnel genuinely sitting at a console;
integration with other enterprise accounting systems is required.

That is a perfectly normal situation for a water utility running a network of sewage and water pumping stations — then SCADA really is needed, and we design and install such systems: dispatch control for pumping stations and boreholes.

But if you have 20 street lighting cabinets or five boreholes, a full SCADA system means a design project, a server, training and maintenance for a task that a device in the cabinet plus a web panel already covers. What you need is not a railway console but an answer to three questions: what is happening right now, how much is it consuming, and how do I switch it on or off without getting in the car.

The four parts of a "data + control" loop

Any such system consists of four links. No more than that.

1. A sensor or meter. The thing that physically measures: current and voltage on a line, kilowatt-hours, water level in a tank, flow, pump running hours.

2. A controller — the dispatch unit. The brain on site: it collects data from the sensors, runs the logic (schedules, alarm thresholds) and is able to make decisions on its own, even when there is no connection.

3. A communication channel. How the data reaches you. In our solutions this is the GSM/LTE mobile network — more on that below, because this is where the most common misconception lives.

4. A panel. What you see: a web page in a browser, or a phone. The event log and consumption history live here too.

That is all. When somebody sells you "a dispatch system", ask them to point at these four links — and it becomes clear exactly what you are paying for.

Example one: street lighting — the SvitloZir unit

What it is. SvitloZir (model EC-001) is a dispatch control unit we develop and manufacture ourselves. It mounts on a DIN rail inside the existing street lighting control cabinet: in most cases the cabinet already on site is sufficient, with no replacement of equipment or luminaires.

What data it collects:

technical metering of electricity per lighting line, per phase, in real time (kWh);
voltage and current of each phase online — the state of the network is visible rather than guessed at.

What it controls:

switching lighting lines on and off from the web panel or a phone;
an astronomical timer — the server calculates sunset and sunrise from the site's coordinates, so the schedule never lags behind the actual daylight. Or a fixed schedule, if that suits better.

What it warns about. A separate alarm loop: phase loss, overload, loss of load on a line (a sign of a failed section), critical temperature, loss of communication. Every event goes into the log and appears immediately on the operator's panel.

How the information flows: control cabinet → SvitloZir → GSM/LTE → cloud server → web panel or phone. Telemetry arrives every 5–15 minutes (the interval is configurable), and an operator command usually reaches the device within seconds — typically under half a minute.

What happens if the connection drops. After more than 15 minutes without communication the unit switches to autonomous mode and keeps running the last schedule it received — the lighting keeps working. Once the link is restored, data synchronises automatically. And if power is lost, all relays open: the lines are de-energised and there will be no uncontrolled switching.

Example two: a borehole with a water tower — the VodoZir unit

The same loop, a different job. VodoZir sits at the borehole — inside an all-in-one insulated cabinet together with the inverter, the batteries and the starting equipment.

What data it collects: electricity meter and water flow meter readings, tank level and/or pump running hours, pump status and faults.

What it warns about: pump running but no flow — loss of delivery or a broken pipe. Level dropping while the pump runs — a major leak. Dry running. Cabinet opened. The dispatcher finds out first, rather than after a resident calls.

What it controls: it schedules the pump into the solar generation window, topping the tank up before the evening peak. If the level falls to the emergency threshold, the pump starts regardless of the sun. If communication is lost, the unit keeps controlling the pump autonomously on the last schedule.

What the dispatcher sees during a blackout: the transfer down the cascade — sun → batteries → tower reserve → diesel generator, if one is present. In other words, the utility knows about an outage at the borehole before the first resident phones in.

More on the engineering behind this in The Rozhnovsky water tower: how much energy it stores and Anatomy of a complete cabinet.

What it actually delivers

No promises in percentages — only what changes in day-to-day operations:

1. Meter readings without site visits. The numbers arrive by themselves. Driving round cabinets or towers to copy down readings disappears as a monthly routine (scheduled equipment inspections, of course, remain).

2. Faults visible before the complaints. A dark street or a stopped pump appears on the panel before anyone reports it. That changes the logic of the job: the service responds instead of apologising.

3. An exact schedule instead of "roughly". The astronomical timer keeps the schedule aligned with actual daylight; the pump schedule moves onto sunlight hours. Manual calendar-based timers cannot keep up.

4. History for energy monitoring. The event log and per-line or per-site consumption give a community's energy manager a factual base. Ukrainian law on energy efficiency (No. 1818-IX) provides for communities to introduce energy management systems and local energy plans — and that calls for actual figures rather than estimates.

What we do not do: we do not promise a fixed percentage saving. The effect depends on the state of the networks, the current schedules and the tariff; we produce an indicative calculation after a survey, using your own data.

Four common misconceptions

"You need internet at the site." No. The unit works over the GSM/LTE mobile network: the nano-SIM is installed and tested at the factory and the channel is encrypted. Wi-Fi, wired internet or a router in the cabinet are not needed — mobile operator coverage is enough. This works on the edge of a community and at a borehole in an open field alike.

"It is as expensive as factory SCADA." These are different classes of solution. Factory SCADA means a design project, industrial controllers at every site, a server, mimic diagrams and trained duty staff. A "data + control" loop for a community means a device in the cabinet plus a cloud panel. Confusing the terms regularly costs communities money: they order the heavy system where the light one does the job.

"We would have to replace cabinets and luminaires." No. SvitloZir mounts on a DIN rail inside the existing lighting control cabinet, and in most cases nothing needs replacing. It can also be added to LED luminaires that are already installed: the unit controls the lines at cabinet level, regardless of the type of luminaire.

"If the connection drops, everything stops." No. The controller carries on autonomously on the last schedule and synchronises when the link returns. The connection is there so that you can see the site, not so that the site can work.

FAQ

How does telemetry differ from dispatch control?

Telemetry only transmits data from the site: you see the figures but cannot act on them. Dispatch control is data plus remote control: you see it and can send a command. In practice a customer almost always needs the second.

What is SCADA in plain language?

A software platform that collects data from many sites, displays it on a diagram, keeps an alarm log and history, and lets you control the process from a single console. It is an industrial class of solution: controllers on site, a design project, a server, duty personnel.

Does our community need SCADA?

For street lighting or a handful of boreholes — usually not; a "data + control" loop is enough. For a water utility with a network of pumping stations — yes, and that is a separate solution: dispatch control for pumping stations.

Is internet or Wi-Fi required at the site?

No. Communication runs over the GSM/LTE mobile network, the SIM is installed at the factory and the channel is encrypted. Operator coverage is sufficient.

What happens if communication or power is lost?

On loss of communication the unit switches to autonomous mode and runs the last schedule, synchronising once the link returns. On loss of power the behaviour is fail-safe: relays open and there is no uncontrolled switching.

Does existing equipment have to be replaced?

For lighting — in most cases no: the unit goes onto a DIN rail in the existing cabinet. For a borehole the package is installed alongside the existing pump; a working pump does not need replacing.

Where do we start if we have never done this before?

With one site. One lighting line or one water tower — so that you see real data from your own network on the panel rather than in a presentation.

Where to start

We propose a demonstration or a pilot at a single site: you choose one lighting line or one borehole, we install the loop, and you see your own data on the panel. The decision to scale up is then based on facts rather than promises.

👉 Street lighting dispatch control — SvitloZir 👉 Solar plants for artesian boreholes with remote monitoring — VodoZir 👉 Dispatch control for pumping stations and boreholes

Write or call — an LK Energy engineer will answer to the point and arrange a site survey.

Telemetry, dispatch and SCADA in plain language