COMPREHENSIVE ENERGY MANAGEMENT SOLUTION FOR FACILITIES BASED ON LoRaWAN TECHNOLOGY

CUSTOMER CHALLENGE.

A Shopping Center The Size of a City.

BTC City Ljubljana is one of the largest business, shopping, entertainment, recreation and cultural centers in Europe, located just three kilometers from Ljubljana city center and 200m from the Ljubljana ring road. It is considered a must-visit destination by city residents and tourists.

Due to the large number of facilities, wide area, high consumption of electricity, water and heating, BTC energy needs are comparable to those of urban centers.

Energy management is an economic necessity, says Tomaž Damjan, Energy Manager at BTC City.

In a bid to reduce energy consumption and costs as well as subsequent CO2 emissions, BTC sought to implement an energy management (EM) system for its multi-purpose facilities, such as those used by Smart Cities, and in line with the ISO 50001 standard, aimed at supporting organizations to conserve resources and tackle climate change.

BTC turned to Solvera Lynx to help design their own system to monitor and reduce energy consumption.

Specialists from Solvera Lynx described the key to greater efficiency and energy management coordination was to provide BTC City with systematic control over energy consumption.

Due to the large number of BTC facilities, it was important to control the consumption of individual energy products and monitor consumption by individual end-users, explained Janez Klančnik, Project and Energy Manager at Solvera Lynx. BTC needed tools that allowed the easy collection of data, performance analysis and production of automated reports.

SOLUTION.

Applying Smart City Energy Management Tools.

Solvera Lynx offered an innovative solution for smart energy management (EM) based on wireless LoRaWAN technology. This technology was a better alternative than the classical wired networks due to its long range, unique penetration capabilities, flexibility, easy operation & maintenance, and safe & reliable data transfer.

The solutions included the following steps:

  • Energy consumption monitoring (electricity, heat, natural gas, water)
  • Energy efficiency analysis: key energy KPIs indication and control over electrical energy production
  • Targeted energy performance analyses: targeting energy consumption quantities and costs, especially focusing on the energy consumption of heating and cooling technologies
  • Reduction of energy losses and water leakages
  • Implementation of an alarm system in case of consumption or cost deviations
  • Energy accounting: energy accounting system implementation, building energy consumption benchmarking and analyses of energy costs

 

Due to the large number of BTC facilities, it was important to control the consumption of individual energy products and monitor consumption by individual end-users. With the introduction of the energy management system and energy accounting, BTC gained systematic control over energy consumption through the tools that allow the easy collection of data, performance analysis and production of automated reports. This contributed to greater efficiency and better energy management coordination.

BENEFITS.

Steep Reduction in Costs and Consumption.

Once Solvera Lynx implemented the network, deployed the sensors and connected them to the GemaLogic platform, results were instantly observed.

For example, once the energy data was digitized, energy managers could immediately start monitoring and analysis in real time, and start benchmarking and forecasting. Solvera Lynx EM solutions also include an alarm system that can detect deviations in consumption, such as those caused by a water leakage, alerting the managers for a quick response. EM systems can be improved over time and the easy monitoring leads to taking effective measures to continuously increase BTC City efficient consumption of energy.

 

In fact, after one year of implementing Solvera Lynx EM system, BTC City has reduced its energy consumption by 5%. Water leakages have been reduced by up to 90% and energy loss overall caused by water leakage has been reduced by up to 6%. Even more staggering, BTC City has observed that before, water loss was measured at 40%, whereas after the EM solutions were installed, that figure plummeted to 4.5%.

Moreover, early detection of equipment defects, such as in air-conditioning units, has led to replacement of parts that have cut electricity consumption by half!

The system has paid-off, said Tomaž Damjan, Energy Manager at BTC City. We will continue using the GemaLogic energy management platform.

Meanwhile, the case study has also been a major win for the collaboration between Solvera Lynx and Actility, according to the formers Toni Žužek.

We really appreciate the timely and professional support from Actilitys experts, said Žužek. They helped meet our needs and strategic milestones, as well as plan and organize more effective sales and marketing activities in order to promote our advanced EM software and hardware solutions.