Ahead of our upcoming webinar – Identify energy savings and demystify your energy data with AI (10:00 on June 10) – George Catto, Client Services Director for AMR DNA, considers the challenges facing energy managers in adapting building performance in an environment of change…and how artificial intelligence could provide the answers.
The good news is that the enabling technologies that can transform energy efficiency in buildings already exist. There are signs, too, that the financing and investment tools needed to drive these changes are gaining traction at energy generation source and from network to mains to meter.
This matters because the government aim is to reduce emissions in the UK by 2030 by at least 68% compared to 1990 levels. Indeed, the goal is to achieve a 78% reduction by 2035, but achieving this will require a transformation of building energy efficiency, particularly in the I&C sector.
Says George Catto, Client Services Director for AMR DNA: “Of course, the current situation is particularly difficult for energy managers, because the post-pandemic world is fraught with uncertainty about building occupancy levels and workplace organisation.
“Yet, this could be just the time when energy managers are empowered to use all the tools at their disposal, and not just because of the drive to bear down on energy cost.
“Carbon reduction is increasingly central to Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance strategies as organisations align themselves with the roadmap to Net Zero. So management teams will be watching how their energy performance compares with similar organisations and will be alive to any opportunities for carbon reduction led by innovation.”
This will likely mean a greater appetite to adopt digital systems – including artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning – to develop future-focused strategies that meet the needs of today’s uncertain world but also provide the ability to respond quickly to changing circumstances.
Hence, there is growing interest in AMR DNA, a kWIQly service provided by Energy Assets that uses machine learning to help transform energy performance by:
- Spotting tell-tale ‘fingerprints’ of energy waste
- Identifying patterns of waste unique to each building
- Providing a checklist of priority actions to drive efficiency and reduce energy costs
- Modelling multiple building occupation/ operation scenarios to enable rapid energy system reconfiguration
It does this by assimilating two years’ worth of half-hourly gas and electricity meter data and interpreting it in the context of operations and external factors (weather, occupancy levels). The system identifies patterns of waste through ‘fingerprints’ unique to each building.
AMR DNA then progressively learns what can be achieved in terms of energy efficiency and carbon reduction. And because the system is smart, it can also spot outcomes that are irrelevant, mistaken or due to bad data.
Crunching data on this scale manually would require an army of analysts – but with AI, it can take just a matter of hours, even minutes to yield results. The system then provides energy managers with priority list of actions informed by transparent, independent and authoritative data.
Often, it’s a question of spotting waste hiding in plain sight – equipment running needlessly, heating controls incorrectly set – and AMR DNA is the perfect tool to do that. In fact, it’s already widely applied in higher education, retail, local authorities and commerce, enabling energy managers to identify energy savings opportunities across multi-site portfolios and to develop accurate scenario planning linked to occupancy levels and building footprints.
This means that as building requirements change, pre-defined energy models can be implemented quickly to optimise efficiency, reduce carbon output and cut cost.
Says George Catto: “An energy manager lacking answers at their fingertips is doomed to spend time poring over consumption data or simply acting on gut feel. With insufficient insight or irrelevant advice, opportunities will be wasted.”
In the ELN webinar, which is ideal for energy managers, George will highlight how AI is improving building energy efficiency, reducing carbon output, bearing down on cost and informing better energy deals.
To register to attend on June 10th at 10am visit: https://www.energylivenews.com/2021/05/28/webinar-identify-energy-savings-and-demystify-your-energy-data-with-ai/
About Energy Assets:
AMR DNA is a service provided by Energy Assets, one of Britain’s leading independent metering, data, asset management and utility network construction companies.
The Group offers utility suppliers, third party intermediaries, developers, contractors, and industrial and commercial end-users a broad spectrum of expert multi-utility metering and energy-related services. This includes enabling customers to collect and analyse energy consumption data.
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