Monitoring & Metering

Will Darby is managing director of

Carlo Gavazzi UK

Metering must not be overlooked

A comprehensive metering strategy will be a fundamental part of the government’s plans to boost Britain’s energy security and the move to a low-carbon future, says Will Darby

he UK’s transition to a

Tcleaner, low-carbon future took a step forward with the Prime Minister’s recent announcement of plans to boost Britain’s energy security by weaning Britain off expensive fossil fuels through boosting renewable energy supply.

This plan comes in light of rising global energy prices, provoked by surging demand after the pandemic as well as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Gas prices are set by international markets over which the UK has no control, so the government wants to boost the UK’s homegrown energy generation for greater energy security in the long-term.

Speaking about the announcement, Energy and Climate Change Minister, Greg Hands, said: “Boosting our renewable energy supply is the only way for us to take control of energy prices. We are already a world leader in offshore wind, but we want to go further and faster so that clean, cheap energy becomes the norm.”

This bold commitment to supercharging clean energy and accelerate the deployment of renewables could see as much as 95 per cent of Great Britain’s electricity low carbon by 2030. While the plans do include new nuclear, significantly they also include: ● anambitionforupto50GWof offshore wind by 2030 - more than enough to power every home in the

UK; ● aconsultationdeveloping partnerships with communities to host onshore wind infrastructure in return for guaranteed lower energy bills; and ● planstoincreasetheUK’scurrent 14GW of solar capacity to 70GW by 2035 by changing the rules for solar projects on domestic and commercial rooftops.

An electrical grid with a significantly greater proportion of electricity from renewable sources has the potential to turn electricity pricing strategies on their head. At the moment fossil fuel-powered generating capacity can be turned on and off to meet demand. But renewables cannot be switched on and off and so demand will increasingly have to follow supply. That means harvesting cheaper energy when renewables are providing through battery storage, for example, and minimising energy use when that is not the case.

Battery storage controls are also becoming more sophisticated. For example, companies produce a grid-parallel energy storage system designed to work with battery storage systems. Many include a Carlo Gavazzi energy meter to monitor and measure power import/export, so the system knows when to charge or discharge the battery to increase self-sufficiency.

Battery storage systems

Alongside the growth in domestic and commercial battery storage systems there is also the growth in electric vehicles. These are really just battery storage systems on wheels. In much the same way that domestic and commercial battery storage systems can be used to store excess power generated by grid renewables, smart electric vehicle charging points can vary the charge rate of the vehicle’s battery in response to the available power.

The government wants to accelerate the rollout of charge points for electric vehicles in homes, streets and on motorways. Its recent announcement of a Ten Point Plan for a green industrial revolution included a £1.3bn investment in electric vehicle infrastructure.

Electric vehicle charging stations consume significant amounts of electrical power when drivers refuel their vehicles. The amount of power consumed needs to be metered to ensure fair and accurate cost allocation for the energy used. For

Accurate metering will be key to the roll out of many smart future energy systems

Renewables have the potential to turn electricity pricing strategies on their head

three phase applications, such as public fast charge points, Carlo Gavazzi’s EM340 or EM24-E1 energy analyser are the perfect solution. Both meters are MID certified making them suitable for cost allocation and sub-metering and for fiscal/legal subbilling. For residential charge point applications, Carlo Gavazzi’s single phase energy meter EM111 & EM112 is suitable for active energy metering and can measure imported and exported energy.

Electric heat pumps

The plans to boost Britain’s energy security also include a £30m initiative to encourage electric heat pumps to be made in Britain to “reduce demand for gas.” For new single phase heat pump metering applications, Carlo Gavazzi’s EM100 series of energy meters offer a cost effective, compactandMID certifiedsolutionto measure the electricity consumption of the heat pump. While the EM300 series is an MID certified meter for 3-phase commercial and domestic applications.

It is clear that ditching gas and oil heating in favour of cleaner, greener electric heat pumps will have huge environmental benefits. These benefits can be further enhanced by extending the lifetime and reliability of the heat pump compressor motor by eliminating the start capacitor. Carlo Gavazzi’s High Dynamic Motor Starter (HDMS) eliminates the need for a starting capacitor altogether. It features an innovative algorithm to ensure sufficient torque is generated to soft start the single phase capacitor start/capacitor run (CSCR) motors used in some heat pump compressors.

Carlo Gavazzi’s soft starters optimise scroll compressor start-up while delivering unmatched inrush current protection. The RSBS, RSBD and RSBT scroll compressor soft starters are suitable for single and three-phase controlled motor starts respectively to help heat pump manufacturers further extend the lifetime and reliability of their equipment to further enhance the UK’s transition to a cleaner lowcarbon future. 

Energy monitoring and sub-metering experts

Monitoring & Metering

David Sing is managing director, assets, at

Energy Assets

here are around 1.5m industrial

Tand commercial buildings in England and Wales, and these are estimated to account for around one third of all UK carbon emissions from total building stock. Self-evidently, any improvement in energy efficiency in industry will be significant both for individual organisations - particularly with escalating energy costs - and for longer-term ambitions to decarbonise the economy.

There’s been some criticism that the government’s energy strategy does little to incentivise building energy performance, but the good news is that there are lots of digital tools available to help managers bear down on consumption. Moreover, the value of this data will only increase with the Market-wide Half-Hourly settlement (MWHH) reform due by 2025, which will enhance opportunities for demand side response incentives and preferential time of use tariffs.

The question for energy and sustainability managers is where best to invest time and resources to bear down on energy consumption and reduce carbon emissions?

At one level, this means optimising the value of energy metering, consumption monitoring and data insights; at another it means applying advanced technologies, such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and automated monitoring to drive out waste.

Getting all these systems working in harmony is critical to optimising energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

For managers, this means: ● capturingconsumptiondatain granular detail via automated meter reading (AMR) systems; ● monitoringandanalysingdata through advanced AM&T portals, such as WebAnalyser, and setting automated alerts for unusual patterns of behaviour; and ● applyingadvancedtoolssuch as machine learning and artificial intelligence to identify efficiency opportunities

This will not only help bear down on cost at a time of spiralling energy bills, it will also support carbon reduction strategies linked to corporate Environmental, Social and Governance programmes and the achievement of Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) targets.

Machine learning, such as that employed by AMR DNA from Energy Assets, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically learn about and improve energy consumption.

How data can unlock energy savings

Energy managers in industrial and commercial settings now have more tools at their disposal than ever before to transform energy efficiency, says David Sing

It does this by assimilating halfhourly meter data and interpreting it in the context of operations and external factors (weather, occupancy levels). This creates ‘fingerprints’ of consumption – and, using AI, the system then progressively learns what best performance looks like. And because the system is smart, it learns to ignore outcomes that are irrelevant, mistaken or due to bad data.

Often, it’s a question of spotting improvement opportunities hiding in plain sight, such as equipment running needlessly or heating controls incorrectly set - and machine learning is the perfect tool to do that by crunching big data.

Consumption data generated via AMR systems can also be fed automatically into monitoring and reporting platforms such as WebAnalyser. This provides an easy way of comparing actual consumption versus benchmark parameters and to measure the impact of any efficiency improvements. This tool also offers a customisable approach to energy reporting, whether that’s monitoring consumption by period, comparing performance to ‘standard’ operating profiles, validating and analysing usage, or automatically alerting users to unusual consumption patterns.

Harnessing the power of data

When it comes to energy efficiency, one of the world’s leading manufacturers of professional cooking, bakery and refrigeration equipment has developed a recipe for success.

AFE Group, which employs 1500 people over 15 sites, has identified a sweet spot for optimising energy performance by harnessing gas and electricity data with people power. The result is year-on-year energy performance improvements on the road to Net Zero, supported by metering and data services from Energy Assets.

AFE operates multiple manufacturing, service and contracting centres across Britain – each with distinctive energy profiles. So, the Group provides each site with the autonomy and the tools they need to manage their individual energy footprint.

“As a business, we have a clear aim to lead by example when it comes to optimising energy consumption and operating sustainably,” says AFE Group chief executive officer, Tim Smith.

Data provides the hard evidence for staff engagement to drive energy savings

“This means not only monitoring and measuring the energy we use in granular detail, but also creating a workforce trained and empowered to take responsibility for consumption.”

Through a ten-year partnership with Energy Assets, the company receives half-hourly electricity and gas data through automated meter reading systems.

This data feeds into the WebAnalyser monitoring and reporting platform, enabling AFE to compare actual performance versus benchmark parameters and to measure the impact of any process improvements. The tool also enables the company to track the impact on energy costs and carbon emissions of its solar renewables investment.

Says Tim Smith: “At one level, the dashboard quickly enables us to take the ‘pulse’ of energy consumption by day, week, month or over the course of a year and compare it to ‘standard’ operating conditions. At another level, we can dive much deeper into data to validate and analyse usage and spot unusual consumption patterns.

“The ultimate aim is to operate as efficiently as possible, to minimise our environmental impact and to make good our pledge to work towards Net Zero.”

While data provides the hard operational evidence – and helps drive AFE’s ESOS actions - it is staff engagement that creates the momentum for success. Each business unit nominates an Energy Champion to drive energy and sustainability improvements aligned to targets. This includes a daily energy walk to eradicate waste, identify inefficient equipment usage and flag poor energy habits.

In addition, every colleague receives an AFE Guide to Energy Management. This demonstrates how even small efficiency gains can enhance the bottom line, support customer sustainability goals and mitigate environmental impact. Regular energy audits also identify areas for improvements, tagged with potential financial and carbon benefits for the company.

Tim Smith adds: “Our data focus, together with staff training, progress bulletins and regular audits, gives our people the information and tools they need to support our energy consumption goals. Our aim is to create a culture in which everyone can be an active contributor to our group-wide Greenlogic energy efficiency, waste reduction and sustainability initiative.” 

Monitoring & Metering

Phil Copperwheat is information systems director at goldeni

Gain a greater insight into a building

goldeni’s real-time insights aid building managers in the creation of healthier commercial and residential spaces and support the journey to net-zero. Phil Copperwheat explains

goldeni from Morgan Sindall Group, is a cutting-edge IoT and software platform that provides property maintenance companies, building owners and occupiers with insights into the health of commercial and residential buildings.

These insights are delivered in realtime and focus on internal conditions such as air quality, temperature, humidity, and leak detection, allowing property maintenance teams to ensure safer and healthier environments for building users.

The goldeni platform also has a critical role in the journey to net-zero. The climate crisis is now more urgent than ever, and goldeni provides practical recommendations in real-time that can help to reduce the carbon emissions generated by buildings and make them more energy-efficient.

The platform captures, collates and unlocks data’s potential to enable property managers to make informed, evidence-based decisions about their energy usage. Insights are delivered through a set of integrated goldeni products, including an Insight Portal, Diagnostics Portal and for the residential sector, a Home Health mobile app. The platform combines Internet of Thing (IoT) technologies with unrivalled data analytics.

Sensors give critical data

A series of sensors are deployed throughout the property to deliver critical data about aspects such as the internal temperature, occupancy, CO2 levels, ventilation and the energy usage of specific assets within the building. This information is delivered to the portals where advanced AI-powered analytics interpret the data sets and generate actionable insights for the service and maintenance teams. These insights are not one-size-fits-all solutions and are personalised to meet the targets and requirements of the building manager or occupier based on the action they need to take to ensure the safe and efficient operation of their home or workplace.

For example, the deployed sensors can monitor the internal air quality (IAQ). They recommend opening more windows to improve ventilation if the CO2 concentration rises above safe levels or if the humidity increases. This allows the property managers to take action that will ensure the space remains safe for residents and building occupiers and reduces the chance of virus transmission and mould growth. The system can also identify water leaks in real-time, allowing immediate repairs to be carried out. It can assess when an asset requires maintenance or repair based on fluctuations in its energy usage.

The goldeni platform has been developed with the client at its core and the resulting data model offers unparalleled results. Goldeni’s approach to creative and ethical data analytics focuses on behavioural intent data.

Building users’ influence

To develop an in-depth understanding of the behaviours of building occupiers, goldeni takes data from a variety of different sources. This shows how building users influence the operation and performance of the property, but this data can also highlight the impact these behaviours have on both the internal and external environments.

goldeni’s digital twin provides a simulated visual representation of a building

Artificial intelligence-powered by big data analytics and machinelearning algorithms is the ‘brains’ behind this advanced analytics and insights platform. The AI processes consume many data sets and interpret these to deliver actionable insights that allow service and maintenance personnel to make informed decisions and actions. goldeni is leading the charge in advancing visual digital replication technology. This new development can help the commercial and residential sector continue to work towards energy efficiency and operational cost savings by creating a “digital twin” of a location.

In its simplest form, goldeni’s digital twin technology provides a simulated visual representation of a building or local area. Data is pulled from the IoT sensors within the building and externally deployed sensors and compatible third-party systems, which contribute factors such as the location and weather to provide a more authentic and accurate representation of the conditions.

By generating a simulated representation of a property or portfolio of properties, the digital twin goes much further than graphs, data and reports, and has the power to revolutionise the service, maintenance and management of buildings. By creating a realtime visualisation of the building’s operations, energy use, and faults, the digital twin allows property managers to quickly identify and rectify energy inefficiencies, ensuring the building upholds its net-zero commitments. goldeni enables property maintenance teams, building owners and occupiers to receive real-time insights into the internal conditions of the commercial and residential buildings. For maintenance teams, goldeni empowers their move towards predictive, prescriptive maintenance routines and for building owners and occupiers, confirmation that the internal environment is safe and healthy.

Following the Covid-19 pandemic and COP26 this year, internal air quality and the climate crisis are at the forefront of everyone’s minds. This innovative new platform is claimed to offer a brand new way of ensuring that both commercial and residential properties are safe, comfortable and energy-efficient. 

New Products

Facade system can reduce a building's heating costs by up to 50 per cent

SCHWANK has added to its portfolio of heating products to include solar air collectors alongside its recently launched hydrogen-operated tube heaters.

The new product group is launched under the name solarSchwank. The products for renewable heat generation are conceived as facade systems. The actual solar air collector consists of perforated, durable, aluminium, with a solar active surface (absorber). This selective coating ensures a highly efficient conversion of solar energy into thermal energy. When the sun’s rays meet the solar active surface, they are converted into thermal energy and released into the air layer below the absorber. The heated air cushion is then fed directly into the building assisted by a fan. This is carried out without any conversion processes or use of a heat exchanger. Thanks to this efficient method, heating costs can be reduced, for instance, by 50 per cent and CO emissions can likewise be lowered.

The solarSchwank System is available with or without fresh air supply. The air collectors are easy to install and can be implemented very quickly in both new and existing buildings. Thanks to the use of lightweight materials, they can be mounted on almost any building facade.

Easy-to-install emergency lighting range

ABB is launching an easy-to-install modular Movion emergency lighting range designed for commercial applications such as offices and retail, as well as schools, restaurants and hotels.

The line features a modular design that is suitable for a range of applications including recessed and surface mounting, as well as walls and ceilings. In addition, the exit signage can switch from ceiling to wall mount, by simply changing the position of the electronics box through 90º. The range provides better cable access and terminal connections for quick and easy installation, while offering a new track mounting option using a 3C interface for mounting to any type of track adapter available on the market, making it highly flexible and adaptable. The batteries are also simple to replace which reduces maintenance time.

For installations where there is a need to optimise the number of luminaires, ABB has developed a hybrid Movion version, which combines escape route signalisation and lighting into one product. The solution can be used to provide one lux as escape route lighting and five lux on safety equipment. For these specific applications, different lenses are available, and both are supplied with the product. On site, the lens can be rotated to adjust to the actual situation, or the escape route lighting lens can be replaced by the lens designed for illuminating safety equipment.

TALKING HEADS

Mark Bruno

Mark Bruno is chief ambassador of CUBE and partner at Ampersand Partners

The CUBE route to savings

Mark Bruno believes that a new competition, first introduced in France six years ago, is bringing tenants and landlords together to make major savings through behaviour change

ommercial premises –

Ceven the most sustainably designed or BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rated ones – can still be very wasteful when it comes to energy efficiency, depending on how they are used. Real change begins with focusing on the attitude and behaviour of the people who occupy and use them day in and day out. Net zero is achievable if it becomes a collective responsibility, with building managers, landlords and occupiers working together towards shared goals.

When the CUBE competition was born in France six years ago, we saw first-hand how collaboration of this kind leads to reduced energy use in commercial buildings from day one without major investment. Average energy savings are around 12 per cent, but top performers have managed to cut energy waste by as much as 40-55 per cent. The competition drives positive environmental impact by encouraging everyday behaviour change and simple building reprogramming in a gamified way.

Such initiatives and tools are very much needed, now more than ever, because they are designed to galvanise action. In the spirit of healthy competition, diverse building stakeholders can come together to achieve and beat goals and instil a culture of environmental awareness in the workplace. Since CUBE’s UK launch in May this year, we’ve seen significant appetite from participating companies including Landsec, the Howard de Walden Estate, Savills, Stanhope, Dorrington, BNP Paribas, Workspace and more. They all want to connect with tenants and try a fresh approach to tackling energy waste and cutting emissions. At a recent kick-off event an informal poll showed that 47 per cent have signed up primarily to hit net zero targets. Motivating building users or employees to be more mindful of

Bruno: 'motivating employees to be more mindful of their energy use goes far beyond sending emails'

their energy usage goes far beyond sending emails telling them to power down computers and remember to switch off the lights. Such instructions are easy to ignore and fail to appeal to human nature. It’s about getting genuine buy-in from everyone by cultivating effective communities at grassroots level, while adding fun and competition into the mix. This can help people feel empowered by seeing how small steps can add up to make a big contribution to net zero.

In the first instance, participants have been raising awareness with occupiers, talking with them to set up an actionable plan with clear touch points on how to work together to reduce energy consumption. They have also been establishing and mobilising dedicated green teams comprising occupiers and site technicians to get to grips with how energy is used in their buildings. Together, they identify areas where immediate efficiencies can be made. Doing all this as part of a national competition makes it easier to inspire a collective sense of purpose. It wakes up people’s sense of competition in wanting to do better than their peers and outperform the next building. It also opens up avenues for knowledge sharing among like-minded participants – they are learning while competing with each other.

Historical energy data

One of the most important things that participants are doing is submitting their historical energy data. We’ve made it as easy as possible for them, without burdensome reporting or the need to gather reams of complicated figures. They just provide their utility bills, which are then used to establish a baseline of the building’s typical energy use and performance. As companies embark on the year-long competition, each month’s progress is assessed and benchmarked against that baseline to measure progress and visually show how improvements are accumulating into tangible, demonstrable energy savings. This is collated into monthly rankings featuring top performing participants. Already, the highest performers in the first month have seen savings of up to 5 per cent. Making this energy consumption data available to tenants is important. It helps them understand the immediate effects of their actions, and how their use of lighting, heating and electricity translates into their building’s ranking for the month.

There’s the added advantage, too, of measuring actual in-use energy efficiency. The wider landscape is evolving in that direction already, aiming to prioritise real – not theoretical – impact. For example, the BEIS consultation called for the creation of a new accreditation system for the operational usage of large commercial premises, instead of their theoretical future performance.

The paper outlined how, to make meaningful improvements, “owners and occupiers must have a detailed understanding of how the building operates and uses energy.” It stressed that this is particularly crucial when considering how to decarbonise buildings in the long-term to reach net zero by 2050. Softer interventions proposed include recommendations to publish top performing buildings and introduce an element of competition as a way to drive energy usage efficiency, which is one of the key tenets of CUBE.

The built environment as a whole contributes around 40 per cent of carbon emissions worldwide, with a huge 28 per cent of this coming from the energy required to power, cool and heat buildings. Undeniably, the role of energy efficiency in meeting climate ambitions is a vital one.

What we’ve learned is that participants from absolutely any company size, sector, location or building type (whether it is new, refurbished or heritage) can still find room for improvement on their energy use. And their chances of doing so are higher if they work together, sharing and comparing best practice and outcomes, and engaging building users in fresh, more exciting ways. Bringing tenants along on the journey to net zero is crucial to success.