Energy management system (building management)
An Energy Management System is, in the context of energy conservation, a computer system which is designed specifically for the automated control and monitoring of those electromechanical facilities in a building which yield significant energy consumption such as heating, ventilation and lighting installations. The scope may span from a single building to a group of buildings such as university campuses, office buildings, retail stores networks or factories. Most of these energy management systems also provide facilities for the reading of electricity, gas and water meters. The data obtained from these can then be used to perform self-diagnostic and optimization routines on a frequent basis and to produce trend analysis and annual consumption forecasts.<ref>Advanced Sensors and Controls for Building Applications: Market Assessment and Potential R&D Pathways (Brambley 2005)</ref><ref>Energy Consumption Characteristics of Commercial Building HVAC SystemsVolume III: Energy Savings Potential (Roth 2002)</ref>
Energy management systems are also often commonly used by individual commercial entities to monitor, measure, and control their electrical building loads. Energy management systems can be used to centrally control devices like HVAC units and lighting systems across multiple locations, such as retail, grocery and restaurant sites. Energy management systems can also provide metering, submetering, and monitoring functions that allow facility and building managers to gather data and insight that allows them to make more informed decisions about energy activities across their sites.
As electric vehicle (EV) charging becomes more popular smaller residential devices that manage when an EV can charge based on the total load vs total capacity of an electrical service are becoming popular.<ref name=":0">"EV Charging Electrical Energy Manager". Black Box Innovations. Retrieved 2021-10-27.</ref> The global energy management system market is projected to grow exponentially over the next 10–15 years.
Protocols
In residential settings, the S2 Standard was developed in 2010.<ref>"Home". GitHub. Retrieved 2023-07-25.</ref> The S2 Standard provides a standard communication protocol, enabling communication between smart devices and an EMS. It is an open source protocol for the energy management of energy intensive devices found in the build environment, such as photovoltaic (PV) systems, electric vehicle (EV) chargers, batteries, (hybrid) heat pumps and white goods. It is built in such a way that it can work with any flexible device from any manufacturer, and that it would work for any energy management use case. The standard was ratified as a European standard by the European Electrotechnical Committee for Standardization (CENELEC) in 2018, in the form of the EN 50491–12 series.<ref>"NEN-EN 50491-12-2:2022 en". www.nen.nl. Retrieved 2023-07-25.</ref><ref>"CENELEC - CLC/TC 205". standards.cencenelec.eu. Retrieved 2023-07-25.</ref>
An EMS can provide energy efficiency through process optimization by reporting on granular energy use by individual pieces of equipment. Newer, cloud-based energy management systems provide the ability to remotely control HVAC and other energy-consuming equipment; gather detailed, real-time data for each piece of equipment; and generate intelligent, specific, real-time guidance on finding and capturing the most compelling savings opportunities.<ref>S. G. Liasi and S. M. T. Bathaee, "Optimizing microgrid using demand response and electric vehicles connection to microgrid," 2017 Smart Grid Conference (SGC), Tehran, 2017, pp. 1-7.</ref>
See also
- Energy accounting
- Energy conservation measure
- Energy management
- Energy management software, software to monitor and optimize energy consumption in buildings or communities
