energy efficiency as clean energy solution

HCTL Open Int. J. of Technology Innovations and Research (IJTIR)Special Edition on Advanced Technique of Estimation Applications inElectrical Engineering, June 2013e-ISSN: 2321-1814ISBN (Print): 978-1-62776-478-0

Energy Efficiency asClean Energy SolutionOrion Zavalani∗, Aida Spahiu†and Lindita Dhamo‡[email protected]

Abstract

Concerns of global warming, rising oil prices, energy security,and a rapid destruction of natural resources, have caused cleanenergy solutions to gain worldwide attention. There are dif-

ferent drivers to achieve this goal. One of them is the applicationof energy efficient technology to increase the bottom line. The inte-gration of information technology in the management of engineeringsystems of residential and commercial buildings is an example of aviable energy efficiency product. This paper presents a case whereBuilding Automation Systems technology is applied successfully toachieve energy efficiency goals. The average energy footprint of thebuilding with 24 floor and 32000 m2 surfaces for the years 2010-2012was 100 kWh/m2/year which presents a very good result and is inaccordance with the energy efficiency goals of a lot of Europeancountries.

∗Polytechnic University of Tirana†Polytechnic University of Tirana‡Polytechnic University of Tirana

Orion Zavalani et al.Energy Efficiency as Clean Energy Solution

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Keywords

Energy, Efficiency, Automation, Building, Technology.

Introduction

Concerns of global warming, rising oil prices, energy security, and a rapiddestruction of natural resources, have caused clean energy solutions to gainworldwide attention. At times, the drivers of this change are grounded in theneed to examine the environmental impact of technology. At other times, thedrivers are economic such as the application of energy efficient technology toincrease the bottom line [1, 2, 3].

An element to maximizing clean energy resources is to apply existing tech-nologies in different ways. The lead time to develop an energy efficiency (versusenergy producing) product is relatively short, and less capital intensive. In-vestment opportunities in this market remain viable. The use of informationtechnology for the management and control of energy in residential and commer-cial buildings through integration of all engineering systems known as BuildingAutomation Systems (BAS) technology is an example of a viable energy ef-ficiency product. BAS enables energy savings by using coordinated controlcapabilities for management of electrical loads, optimization of equipment uti-lization and demand, track of real-time power conditions, analyze of powerquality and power factor. This way it combines clever energy savings scenarioswith improved performance of the engineering systems of the building. BASapplication may construct automatically historical trends to reveal energy wasteor unused capacity and verify efficiency improvements and allocate costs. Thesystem also can collect, analyze and disseminate the reliable and detailed supplyand demand energy statistics.

Historically BAS have been used since the early 20th century for the automaticcontrol of Heat, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems. Today, theindoor climate control remain still the main focus of this technology [3, 4, 6],but the progress in technology and the reduction of BAS device costs has openthe road for other building service systems to benefit from BAS as well. Forexample, the demand control of lighting systems through BAS can significantlycontribute to energy saving [4, 5, 7]. The energy efficiency of residential andcommercial buildings depends majorly on how the various energy-using en-gineering systems work together rather than depending on the efficiencies ofthe individual engineering device. Literature reference [4] findings underline


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that at system level, savings opportunities are generally many times what canbe achieved at device level and that these savings can often be achieved ata net investment-cost savings. Depending on the particular structure of theengineering systems of the building, multiple approaches to distribute energyefficiency functionalities are viable [3].

The field of BAS during last decades has been dominated by proprietarysolutions. But during the last decade, even market leaders are gradually aban-doning proprietary designs pushed by market demand for open systems. Thesignificant feature of open systems is the ability to keep the system design openfor future integration requirements. Since building installations are long-lived,system evolution is an important issue [11]-[18].

To promote and ensure open systems solutions official standards bodies have beencreated in the United States and in a number of European countries [8, 9, 10].Open systems standard protocols which cover BAS applications in their entiretyare BACnet, LonWorks and EIB/KNX. They all have achieved considerablesignificance in the worldwide market (in case of BACnet and LonWorks) or inthe European market (in the case of EIB/KNX) and are often chosen by bothcustomers and system integrators for complete system solutions.

Case study

Investments in the construction sector and especially in building constructionare the most important investments in Albania. BAS technologies are relativelynew and imported from the neighbouring countries. The market of informationand intelligent technologies like BAS is unstable but there are a lot of successfulexamples [19]-[22].

Energy efficiency is part of energy intelligence. In this paper we are pre-senting a case of using BAS technology for the intelligent control of energy usedin a 24-floor, 32,000 m2 surface, businesses and commercial center in Tirana.The system integrates all engineering systems within the building via a busconnection to a single communicating system. This enables the optimal andenergy efficient interaction of these systems, which is almost impossible withconventional technology.

The design of the system is realized by the first author in 2005 and the con-struction works of the building were finished in 2008. In figure 1 is presented


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an artistic view of this building.

BAS was designed to provide a total integration of all engineering service and

Figure 1: View of the building design as constructed

security systems of the building through an open, interoperable and portablesystem. Specifically the following engineering systems have been included inthe integrated open system:

1. Electrical systems (power supply substation, UPS, generators, metering,lighting)

2. Mechanical systems (HVAC)

3. Lifts and Escalators ( movement, doors, alarms)

4. Water systems (water supply pumping, metering, leakage, depot levels)

5. Security and video surveillance (CCTV, access control, voice alarm evacu-ation system)

6. Safety systems, (fire detection, water leakage detection, emergency light-ing)

All data are collected in a control room within the building (over a secureIntranet) and can be accessed also remotely by a standard Web Browser overInternet. BAS is designed to provide monitoring, control, alarm and operational


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services for all integrated engineering systems of the building based on predefined algorithms or operator decisions. The protocol of communication of theintegration system was selected EIB/KNX because in the Albanian market theexisting expertise is mainly for EIB/KNX productions. This means that theconstruction and maintenance costs shall be lower compare to other systems.Another factor was the fact that EIB/KNX can be extended more easily to newneeds of the building in the future and with less time and financial investment [3].

The selected hardware architecture of the BAS implemented in the build-ing consists of an Ethernet backbone that runs between floors and independentKNX floor networks. This Ethernet LAN permits the exchange of data betweenthe floor’s KNX networks to the control room through IP/KNX gateways. Inthe control room is installed a building supervision software that run on aserver structured computer. This software permits the display and control of alldevices connected to the KNX infrastructure, the security system and the firedetection system via local client PC and/or via WEB clients. The independentKNX floor network permits to divide the local traffic data from the buildingtraffic data. Only the most important data will be routing to the backbone,the result is a reliable data transmission and an optimized network use.

For each engineering system of the building an automatic sequence of op-erations for efficient use of energy is provided. The compilation of sequenceoperations algorithms, called also scenarios has been one of the most crucialparts of the design. Example: Streamlined constant light control system isused on shopping center floors. Constant light control is implemented withMerten 630590 light sensor and KNX-DALI gateways where is possible to usethe external natural light in addition to the artificial light. The goal of thecontrol is to maintain a lux value constant on the area during all the day andto save energy. Figure 2 shows the control block scheme for handling lightsconstant.

The integration software selected was eVision2 which is composed by severalsoftware components with different specific aims, interoperating in a full multi-tasking system in order to provide a flexible, modular and scalable solution asdepicted in figure 3.

In figure 4, 5 and 6 are shown BAS architecture and its details. Systemfunctionalities are broken up into different levels, presenting the incarnation ofthe automation pyramid.


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Figure 2: Control block scheme for handling lights constant

Figure 3: Software structure and possible interaction

In figure 7 and 8 are presented some examples of application running screens.Figure 7 shows lighting layout of a floor of the building. It allows the operatorto control remotely the lighting fixtures operation and to intervene by switchingthem remotely in case that there is no person in the rooms or if he judge thatusers are using more lighting than necessary.

In figure 8 there is an example of menu manipulation for creating efficiency


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Figure 4: BAS architecture Principal scheme

energy scenarios as they are decided during the designing process.

Services are standard Unix daemons written in C language with standardlibraries. Operating system needed for execution is Linux, FreeBSD. SOAPcommunication with web application is based on open source gSOAP library,using standard RPC SOAP protocol. eVision2 client software interface iswritten in Lab View G language. Operating system needed for execution isMicrosoftTM Windows XP proTM .

The web application is entirely developed in PHP language with object-orientedapproach, using standard PHP libraries and features. Data storage is basedon My SQL database engine with strictly usage of standard SQL language.Web server required is Apache or fully PHP/cgi compliant web server. SOAPcommunication with services (or third party applications) is based on opensource nuSOAP PHP library, using standard RPC SOAP protocol. Generalfeatures of this system are usability, scalability, customizability, security andportability.

Since 2008, the building is in use with more than 80% of its capacity. The aver-age energy footprint of the building, which satisfies all the needs for the period2010-2012, was 100kWh/m2/year which compare with 200Wh/m2/year of thefirst year and 135kWh/m2/year of the second year is a very good result and inaccordance with the energy efficiency goals of a lot of European countries [15].


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Figure 5: BAS architecture Distribution - Ethernet backbone and independent KNXfloor networks.

Figure 6: Details of independent KNX floor networks.

The installed system ensures not only the energy efficient operation of all en-gineering systems of the building but it can be used for detecting uncommonenergy consumption patterns due to defects or unauthorized innervations in the


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Figure 7: Monitor screen - Layout of a floor lighting remote on line monitoring

Figure 8: Monitor screen Example of menus for scenario configuration

network. For more with a few additional investments the system may remotelydiagnose and auto heal all electromechanical equipments of the building [3, 5, 7].The system has also the potential to improve also, the energy measure efficiencyby helping to quantify the savings from any other sources like diesel generatorsets, renewable energy sources that have to be developed in the future, etc.


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HCTL Open Int. J. of Technology Innovations and Research (IJTIR)Special Edition on Advanced Technique of Estimation Applications inElectrical Engineering, June 2013e-ISSN: 2321-1814ISBN (Print): 978-1-62776-478-0 References

Conclusion

Clean energy solutions are gaining worldwide attention and have come to domi-nate the energy policy world widely. Energy efficiency is considered as a driverto achieve this goal. This paper presents a successful application of integrationof information technology in the management of engineering systems in a 24-floor residential and commercial building which increase the energy efficiencythrough different strategies compiled for energy efficiency called also scenarios.

The result is very impressive because the average energy footprint of the build-ing during the period 2010-2012 was 100kWh/m2/year which is a very goodresult and in accordance with the energy efficiency goals of a lot of Europeancountries.

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energy efficiency as clean energy solution

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