4Building Energy Management

Important part of the costs in buildings is formed by energy consumption for lighting, heating, ventilation and air conditioning. In order to optimize the consumption, the introduction of energy management is necessary.

Energy consumption can reach up to 25% of the total operating costs of the building. The goal of energy management is to reduce energy losses and energy consumption. Technology roadmaps are often used by the owners of buildings to balance their investment and financial feedback just by use of Building Energy Management.

In this process, technology installed in a building is monitored and controlled. Therefore we have a control process, in which we try to achieve optimal operating costs for energy consumptions with minimal environmental impact. The energy management system is operated either with the help of special software, or customized SCADA and BMS systems – in general we talk about Building Automation systems. The software is operated by the management or by the maintenance operators with appropriate training, so that they are able to interpret the evaluated data correctly.

Main requirements on the organization

Energy management needs to be integrated in the organization structure in a way that provides maximum flexibility and efficiency, so that decisions made on energy management of the building can be implemented fast. In most cases the system is operated as a part of building or facility management. Facility manager then has to deal with economic and environmental objectives based on risk assessment and quality targets to reach optimal energy consumption. For small- and medium-sized buildings, energy management is usually only a partial job of facility manager, or it is even outsourced as a service.

Visualization and optimization

Visualization and optimization is nowadays a standard part of intelligent buildings operation. Functionality corresponds to the description in a chapter of SCADA systems. As a part of SCADA systems dedicated to energy management, we also get the visualization on energy efficiency, which is used to provide instant feedback on the status of energy consumption, and it also provides hints on identified optimization potential.

Practical measures in EM

To reach energy savings in buildings, the following measures are usually introduced: electricity consumption reduction by using energy-saving technologies, optimization of production and distribution of the heat, optimization of the HVAC operation, introduction of central monitoring and management, introduction of renewable energy sources, reduction of energy leaks in the building envelope, etc.