Energy
Web based building energy management
There's no better way of demonstrating faith in your own products than
using them yourself, which is exactly what Schneider Electric has done in
the UK with its 'Transparent Building' technology. Les Hunt reports
Visit Schneider Electric's new 10,000m2 factory and warehouse extension
at Telford and you might be forgiven for feeling a bit uneasy about all
the 'web cams' and movement detectors distributed around this impressive
new facility. Well, Big Brother has very little to do with it, because
this is probably one of the company's most complete and fully operational
demonstrations of 'Transparent Building' technology - Schneider's web
based energy management system for buildings - in the UK.
In fact, the installation at Telford now covers the existing as well as
the new buildings. The diversity of operations on the site is such that
no single energy management strategy would have been satisfactory. With
this web based technology, however, the company has been able to
implement separate, highly efficient energy management regimes for the
offices, existing warehouse and assembly areas, new warehouse and
low-voltage assembly areas.
The great advantage of going the Internet route rather than relying on
some special applications-specific communications bus like Lonworks, is
the ready availability of cheap web enabling technology based on the
widely used, open protocol, Ethernet. All you need is a standard web
browser running on PCs throughout your organisation, web-enabled devices
and an Ethernet network (and, in Schneider's case at Telford, an
additional wireless Ethernet link). Not only are such enterprise-wide
systems easy and inexpensive to implement (an Ethernet network is likely
to be installed anyway), but they are also very simple to upgrade and
expand.
The outstation controllers at Telford have embedded web server
capabilities, which avoids the cost and inconvenience associated with
using separate PC-based web servers running dedicated software, while
making it easy to provide access to data from any computer - local or
remote - which is on the same local area network as the controller.
The Transparent Building installation at Telford integrates all building
services, including lighting, fire alarms, security and energy
management. In addition, remote monitoring and control facilities for
electrical switchgear are provided, allowing data such as trip status,
protection settings, energy consumption and maintenance information to be
accessed in real time via an Internet connection. A good example of
lighting control is to be found in the warehouse areas. All aisles are
monitored by movement detectors, and should no movement be detected in
any aisle for a pre-selected length of time, its lighting level is
reduced. Full light levels are restored immediately if a forklift or
warehouse operative enters the aisle.