The adverse use of modern technology has affected the planet’s ecosystem in numerous ways. Apart from the ecosystem, every industry wants to keep their energy consumption under the standard limit to save resources and the environment. This is where the development of energy management systems comes into place. These systems are designed to keep an eye on the amount of energy being utilized in a specific sector. Over the years, it has been majorly used in managing the energy consumptions of various buildings. Whether big or small in the nature of operations, every enterprise is using these EMS systems.
The market is extremely competitive in the current times, and industries are competing with each other over reducing their energy consumption. The reason behind the concept is saving energy ultimately means saving money. Another good reason behind the rise in the development of energy management systems is the increasing rate of pollution as we are experiencing the effects of climate change caused due to it; hence, industries are not interested in wasting any energy that costs them anything economically or ecologically. Various companies have already developed their EMS systems to save a significant level of energy and a boatload of capital. Let’s understand the concept of EMS systems.
What is Energy Management System?
An energy management system can be explained as a systematic process for continuously enhancing the energy performance rise up the level of energy savings. The main principle behind any EMS system is to involve every single contributor of the organization to check their energy consumption levels and try to manage them as per their feasibility. EMS systems achieve this collective contribution with the help of a framework for industrial facilities to manage their continuous energy use and identify opportunities for the uptake of energy-saving technologies. These systems are dedicated to maintaining this flow of awareness and energy consumption throughout the working time instead of taking it as a one-time exercise.
There are two ways of implementing an energy management system, either you can implement it with the help of the existing ISO 50001 energy management standard, or you can follow a custom development approach that suits your business needs. However, regardless of the approach that you follow, the essentials of the system dictate that it should be able to cover all levels and receives a constant commitment from senior management. The key element for the effective functioning of any EMS framework is to ensure the continued motivation of staff.
How Energy Management System Works
Energy management systems are software-based technologies designed to collect installation data in real-time and closely monitor usage in each part of the company. The software consists of extraneous factors that can affect a company’s energy consumption, like weather, time, or building occupancy. It analyzes the data and determines peak times of energy consumption to report a detailed breakdown. Such feedback is extremely useful for identifying areas within a company that may consume excessive amounts of energy and cost the company money with excessive energy costs.
The system collects information from converters to measure the energy consumption of all electrical loads of various devices or areas such as load compressors, lighting, bill, heating load, air conditioning load, etc. These systems can be trained to send custom-designed emails to alert the power driver to abnormal power consumption or expected engine failure. A system made according to your needs will contact the weather station to collect various weather parameters such as wind speed, temperature, humidity, etc., to define the value of normal energy use.
By collecting this data, the energy management system can predict the next day’s energy consumption. This efficient approach keeps the user undisturbed from unwanted emails; it only sends a notification when it detects abnormal power consumption. Collectively, these systems allow small or large businesses to achieve a significant reduction in electricity consumption and maintenance costs.
Why Invest in EMS System Development?
The global need for power is increasing with the rapid advancement in technology. In order to suffice the demand, the power, it is necessary to conserve power and limit unwanted use. It has multiple benefits as it helps saves energy for other industries in the arena, and it saves a ton of money for your business. Since the last decade, there has been a tremendous increase in the development of energy management systems around the world, as reflected in various annual reports.
With the data of this report, the EMS systems market is projected to cross the mark of 5.2 billion US dollars by the year 2022. Compared to the earlier figure, it was valued at 3.50 billion US dollars in the year 2016 and has been projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.50 percent. The industrial sector has also shown a huge demand for IoT-based EMS systems to manage the power consumption and save the cost of operation.
Now more people are aware of the adverse effects of unchecked power usage. Hence, the adoption of more renewable sources of energy production, such as solar panels, is being installed to lower the cost of operation. But these power sources require energy management systems to intelligently use the power generated. The industry is shifting its dependency on renewable power sources, which has created a promising future for the development of energy management systems.
Advantages of Energy Management System
The world is moving towards an energy-saving approach as industries are now aware of the benefits of energy conservation. An efficient energy management system allows you to keep tabs on the power consumption of every single part of the industry and reduce the usage to its bare essentials. Apart from this, here are some common advantages of energy management systems.
Predict Malfunctions
Many EMS systems use predictive algorithms to identify possible issues in operations even before they happen and implement preventive actions which help in saving the real damage. Your business can use these insights of energy consumption trends to foresee any load spikes and implement necessary measures.
Meets Every Regulation
Not only do companies use IoT in their everyday energy management, but they also use various analytical tools to analyze their compatibility with current environmental regulations. Various SaaS platforms offer specialized analysis tools that show whether customers are receiving industry certifications, incentives, and programs.
Enhance the ROI
EMS systems come with built-in cost-saving features, which consist of lower power allocation during peak hours, revenue-generating programs, and energy leak detection. With these features, it is almost impossible not to see the return on investment of EMS installation.
Environment Friendly
The energy sector has undergone enormous changes to keep abreast of emerging regulations with the overall aim of reducing emissions. Companies are increasingly integrating energy management software and other solutions to reduce their carbon footprint, optimizing the use of resources, measuring and analyzing their environmental impact, and being able to take remedial action.
Reduce Cost of Operation
With an EMS system, you can significantly reduce the cost of operation in your industries which includes various parameters such as heating, cooling, lighting, and water. The reason for cost-saving is the tracking ability of these systems that deliver detailed reports about the usage and stores it within its centralized, digital repository. You can access the records anytime to implement the needed changes.
Enhance Overall Performance of the Plant
An efficient EMS system will not only keep your power usage in check but also keep tabs on the overall performance of the industry. It reduces power waste, operating costs allowing you to make room in the budget for other aspects of business that bring fruitful results.
Energy Management System Checklist for Development
The development of an energy management system is not as complicated as you might think. It involves a pattern that differs as per the need of the users. However, before starting the implementation of energy solutions, there is a checklist that you must go through. It involves the collection of data that feeds the initial data to the system for proper functioning. Here is the energy management checklist, along with the steps to consider for development.
- The first step is to identify the need for such a system in your business. The process is simple just create a data set based on the power usage of every section of your industry. This will help you in analyzing the need for energy conservation. The systems will run efficiently with a history of power usage.
- Now that you have identified the need, the next step involves labeling the areas that need instant optimization. These can be the areas that consume a large percentage of the total power consumed.
- In the next step, analyze any type of energy saving in terms of units and convert them into the data sets that indicated an increase in the return on investment.
- At this point, you have seen the benefits of EMS system implementation in terms of increased ROI, proceed to optimize your energy solutions to get the maximum results.
- The last step of the implementation checklist is to repeat the optimization procedure until you achieve desired results.
The checklist is designed to analyze the exact needs and make the implementation process easier. Let’s understand the things to keep in mind while starting the development process of an efficient energy solution.
The development process starts with a basic step of market research which involves data collection of various factors such as the number of competitors in the market, their strategies, etc. This research will reveal data sets of the current energy market trends. Next, move towards finding the expectations of the customers from a new energy management system. Remember, a product or solution that meets the requirements of the users is more likely to succeed
After gathering all the data points from your deep market research, carve a blueprint that depicts the overall journey of the product development. Planning for every step in advance delivers a smooth execution and rule out any unexpected hurdle. The blueprint should consist of all the components of the development such as budget, features to be included, tech stack to be included, development partner, etc.
The next step consists of deciding the basic components of the development process, such as features and technology stack. These two components will decide the overall functioning of your EMS system. Let’s talk about the features that are mandatory in such energy solutions.
HVAC Control
Every company has heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. It is one of the major contributors to overall energy consumption. An efficient EMS system should have a feature to keep in control.
Past Data Comparison
To achieve optimum results, there should be a reference data set that is used to compare the current results. This feature lets you compare the current results with previous data to analyze the performance of the system.
Custom Reports
Every section of the industry utilizes a different amount of power as their needs are different. Hence, an efficient energy solution software should have a custom report feature that delivers reports that are specific for a section to analyze the consumption better.
Instant Monitoring
Often, it is seen that interval monitoring seems to have a delay in the data that can affect the overall performance; hence, a feature that monitors the systems in real-time is mandatory.
Power Quality Monitoring
When there is a power cut or the supply does not match the required specifications, the industry suffers a huge loss. An efficient system should have this feature that delivers an accurate report on the quality of the power received.
There are a number of features available in the market that can be integrated into an EMS system, but you should only consider those that meet the expectations of your targetted audience. Now, these features or the overall system require a technology stack to function better. You can think of the tech stack as the spine of the overall system. Various companies integrate a number of technologies into their energy solution software that suffices the industry’s needs. Here is the tech stack that most of the companies in the energy sector use.
APIs are an important part of any tech stack; you can use various APIs that are available in the market specially designed for the energy sector. Some of the most popular APIs that are used by the developers of energy management systems are Solcast API, Smappee API, Genability API, Fronius Solar, World Bank Indicator, AppLamp, Sentinel Weather API, Domoticz API, Utility API, etc.
The system should be efficient and user-friendly, and to make the interface extremely interactive, you have to ask your designer to just project your vision. Apart from that, various programming languages are needed, such as С, C++, PHP, JAVA, SQL Lite, HTML 5, etc. Frameworks and design are other key components of the tech stack; various companies in the genre uses Linux, jQuery Mobile, RTOS, CodeSyS v3.5, Altium Designer, SolidWorks, etc.
Ready to Develop Your Energy Management System?
Energy optimization is the demand of the hour, not in terms of cost-saving but also in terms of saving the environment. There are various committees that monitor and regulates power consumption throughout the world. Hence, to meet the rules and regulations or reduce the operating cost, you will need an energy management system.
Matellio is referred to as a leader in delivering efficient energy management systems with extraordinary ratings and feedbacks from clients and their users. We offer a range of custom energy management solutions that fits like a glove with your business needs. Our team of highly qualified experts and engineers have developed several energy solutions and are aware of every in and out of the genre. Discuss your idea with our experts over a 30-min free consultation call! Fill the form now.
