Energy is one of the major factor that contributes for the economic development of a country. The Energy demand in the world increases 1.5% annually, global economy is growing at the rate of 3.4% per year and population that expands from 7.4 billion today to more than 9 billion in 2040, stated by World Energy Outlook. This rapid growth leads to more energy demand in future and sustainable measures to be taken inorder to reduce the rate of energy consumption. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), the building sector typically accounts for almost one third of energy consumption globally and it is an important source for carbon emissions. As a result, Global energy related carbon emissions has increased 1.4% and produced a high emission level of 32.5 gigatonnes in last year. The Implementation of Energy Efficiency policy will substantially reduce 30% to 80% of energy consumptions and this impact in reduced energy usage and low emission of carbon footprint in the buildings.
The Building sector is expected to increase almost five-fold from 21 billion square feet to 104 billion square feet in 2030. These expansions require huge energy requirements and also produce energy demand. Recognizing the important of energy and the negative impacts of the wasteful and inefficient use of energy, many developing countries in the world have considered energy efficiency as a cost effective strategy in achieving sustainable development. These Energy Efficiency measures are achieved through insights delivered based on energy consumptions and it can improve efficient energy usage.
Saving Money and Energy at Affordable Investment
A research states that, between now and 2030, energy efficiency policies and implementations can reduce the limit of global warming up to 2 degree Celsius. This leads to the reduction in cost of economy-wide decarbonization by up to $250 billion per year in most countries in the world with no net cost to society through 2030. The World Bank’s research shows that the world can achieve universal access to electricity through the investments between $40 billion to $100 billion annually. These high investments can be minimized through implementing energy efficiency in buildings which enables energy savings.
Even though the scope for energy efficiency improvements in buildings is immense but the lack of awareness among building owner and manager sets drawback for implementing energy efficiency measures. The energy audits shows that the 5% to 30% of potential savings can made in end use sector such as buildings through adopting energy efficiency measures. The energy cost savings resulting from energy efficiency measures can directly benefit the management of the building in reducing the operational costs.
The behaviour pattern of Electricity consumption inside the building is determined by measuring each and every activity of mankind by tracking usage of electricity consumption details at appliance or device level and that’s what our minion does. The planning of energy efficiency in IT/BPO Buildings by installing our intelligent minions which captures each and every appliance or device used inside the building and gives detailed insights on patterns and the ways to reduce the electricity bill. The various benefits on implementation of Minion for improving buildings energy efficiency are mentioned below:
Real Time Analytics with User Experience
The Buildings Electricity Consumption with various Analytics & Insights is feeded to a web based Analytical Dashboard where the user experiences at Real-Time. With Historic Analysis & Co-relations, Users get to know where, why and for what they have spent most of their electricity inside their building.
Analytics At Device Level
Minion is highly intelligent which captures more than 1 Million data pattern of each and every appliances used inside the building and if any change in behaviour pattern is detected within the specific device, Minion immediately sends a notification about the incident to the user so that the user be informed what his/her appliance is doing. These insights transform the users to achieve energy efficiency and reduce the downtime.
Predictions for Future Consumptions and Maintenance
Minion is highly intelligent which captures more than 1 Million data pattern of each and every appliances used inside the building and if any change in behaviour pattern is detected within the specific device, Minion immediately sends a notification about the incident to the user so that the user be informed what his/her appliance is doing. These insights transform the users to achieve energy efficiency and reduce the downtime.
Analytics At Device Level
With the past & present data, Minion predicts the future Electricity Consumption at device level which unlocks Asset Efficiency & Warranty Analysis, Root Cause & Correction Exception Analysis and more to ensure that the user stays energy efficiency in upcoming years too.
Reduction in Carbon Footprint
The LPAA COP-21 is an accreditation given by United Nation Organisation (UNO) to low carbon emission buildings in the world, minion’s carbon Emission analysis delivers insights about carbon footprint level in user’s buildings which enables the user to help identify and reduce their carbon emissions in their buildings.
Cost Benefits
Minion improves both building’s energy efficiency and economic efficiency by measuring data which turns into actionable insights. These insights can help the building operators to identify their energy costs and minimize the electricity consumptions which reduce the operational costs of the buildings.
Energy Conservation in IT/BPO Buildings – Challenges
The Energy Expenses in the office buildings can impact its profitability of the business. When it comes to IT/BPO buildings the concern is much higher due to its 24x7 operations with minimum variation. Generally, IT/BPO office buildings consume high volume of energy which results in more carbon emissions. The usage of high cost assets like General processing units (GPU), storage devices requires more electricity for its operations which costs huge amount of money. The HVAC system is the major contributor for the energy consumption in the building where the storage systems need to be cooled continuously to minimize the heat exited from it. The heating, cooling and ventilation spreads throughout the building in the appropriate ratio which operates on day and night, increases the energy consumption.
1. Challenges In Sensors Deployment
In the recent decades, IT/BPO buildings have been equipped with increasing number of sensors; these sensors detect or control the actions for driving the efficient use of energy. Even though the sensors produce some efficiency but more number of sensors has to be equipped throughout the building which makes deployment costs very high and installation process complex.
2. Connectivity Challenges
Accessing the accurate data from the building is a main challenge. This is due to the difference in the condition of systems and varying ages of the assets so the smart metering device has to be fixed externally with secure connection may needed to be established for transferring data. Though the volume of data can be significant and it can conflict in the extraction and processing of data while data transfer.
3. Financial Challenges
After the salaries, buildings are one of the biggest operational expenses for IT/BPO organizations. Energy consumption holds an important part in the operational costs. Although the cost of implementing the energy efficiency solutions are modest when compared to the operational costs of buildings, Building management will face the challenges of demonstrating both cost and sustainability benefits in their business case.
MINION – An Energy Efficiency Solution
Minion is the World’s Smallest Energy Auditing Device which is smaller than average man’s palm size. The Actual size of the device is 39 x 49 Millimetres which can fit anywhere. Our underlying features are:
- PLUG & PLAY – On 3 steps, a layman can install the minion with our instruction manual & video. The Plug & Play solution doesn’t need any electrician or energy professionals for the installations.
- COMPATIBLE – Minion is compatible in all Electricity Standards across the globe hence it becomes a Global Product. Minion is also compatible with all kind of Communication networks such as Wi-Fi, 3G/4G, where users can select the communication network at their convenience.
- FLEXIBILITY – No Plugins or Software needed, just login with a browser & start tracking. Online Firmware Up gradation, Inbuilt last 30 days of memory are added flexibility which makes Minion stands out in the Market.
Analytics Services
With the data measured by the minion, our intelligent analytics dashboard provides productive and preventive analysis and insights on the building energy consumption pattern to take informed decisions to reduce their energy consumption.
Implementing Energy Efficiency in IT/BPO Buildings
This case study is about the implementation of minions which provides real-time device level electricity consumption insights to IT/BPO office buildings delivered through its SaaS Platform. MinionLabs provides insights on energy consumption pattern of IT/BPO office buildings to take informed decisions to reduce their energy consumption. After the one year of implementation, IT/BPO office buildings could able to save more than 5% to 30% of their Energy Costs by changing their fundamental behaviour in electricity consumption from the Insights & recommendations of MinionLabs. This change in the pattern of electricity consumption in IT/BPO buildings is expected to increase the savingsfrom the operational costs in upcoming years.
Power Distribution Architecture in IT/BPO Buildings
The electric power distribution systems are modelled for various types of IT/BPO building architectures. All these types are aimed to provide high reliability of operation and supply, good electromagnetic compatibility in the buildings.
These power distribution architecture types include low rise building with one supply section, low rise building with two supply sections, high rise building with one supply section central, high rise building with one supply section transformers at remote location and high rise building with distributed power supply.
Comparing Minion with BMS and Smart Meters
The Building management system provides monitoring, real time consumptions and demand of energy where as the smart meters also provide these features and in addition, the future energy consumptions are also predicted but along with these features, minion provide individual device wise energy consumption in real time which enable the building operators to get know about each and every device energy consumption pattern, able to identify irregular consumption of energy by the devices and these insights helps them to minimize their energy consumptions.
Insights about Irregular Consumptions
When the devices like computers, storage devices, CPU’s and GPU’s are aged, it draws some high power than past due to its long time utilization. This produces some variations in the energy consumption pattern of the specific device as well as in the whole building which results in inefficient energy usage and electricity bill attacks. These abnormal energy consumptions are minimized by the individual device wise insights delivered by the minion analytics dashboard which enables the building operators to cut down the energy costs.
Effective Energy Utilization
The major energy consuming systems like HVAC, lighting systems are essential for the IT/BPO buildings to produce the heating, cooling and ventilation for the occupants and to cool the storage systems and also provides lighting for the employees across all day and night. These equipments energy consumption pattern is captured by the minion and delivers the insights to the building operators when there is any energy guzzling or device tampering issues on these equipments. These insights transform the IT/BPO buildings to use the energy efficiently, reduce the operational costs and reduce the downtime.
Recovering Investment Costs Through Energy Savings
The deployment of Minion, enables the energy efficiency in IT/BPO buildings through insights delivered on individual device level energy consumption in real time and also whole building energy consumption which drives the organization to find the opportunities for saving the energy in the building up to 5% - 30% annually and it impacts in the reduction of operational costs and carbon emissions which makes their investment returns as profit through the energy savings.