Energy management technology is now essential in the construction of green buildings. Times Journal of Construction and Design elaborates
The techniques used in construction play a key role in deciding their impact on the environment. Going green by using natural resources and applying the latest technology to facilitate day-to-day activities is not only beneficial to clients but it makes for good business strategy as well. Just as 20th-century businesses were about connecting distinct activities like purchasing and logistics into a single supply chain management discipline, 21st-century enterprises have an opportunity to improve their performance through energy management. Managing the energy to make optimum use of it has always been a challenging task. Thus, the design landscape in India is witnessing a paradigm shift with the advent of energy management technology.
Green Buildings
The functionality of a green building lies in the following aspects:
Increasing the effectiveness of buildings and their sites in terms of usage of water, energy and materials
Reducing the impact of building on human health by providing better indoor environment quality (IEQ)
Benefits of Energy Management
Electricity powers many devices that are extremely sensitive to even the smallest power fluctuations. Interruptions of less than a second or minor voltage sags can have an impact on an array of activities in hospitals, schools, workplaces, thus bringing business to a halt. The cost to businesses is huge. Today, builders demand durable cost reduction methods which use energy judiciously.
These include a wide variety of electrical distribution and power protection equipment and often a plethora of device-specific monitoring systems. Managing these resources in a fragmented way rather than as a unified company asset results in inefficiency and a higher chance of power quality problems.
Inside the Green Building
Here are some methods and devices which can be employed to extract the best out of the available resources in the market to decrease energy wastage in terms of electricity.
Automatic transfer switches: These are compact assemblies that transfer essential loads and electrical distribution systems from utility power to green, alternative energy sources such as wind turbines, solar photovoltaic panels and fuel cells.
Busways: Building an electrical distribution system with busbars instead of cables saves energy. Busbars use less copper and steel than cables, are smaller in size, lighter in weight and carry the same current as cables, with lower losses. They can also be reconfigured easily and built to the exact length required.
Harmonic mitigating transformers: These transformers reduce harmonic currents that disrupt the flow of electricity in a circuit. Fewer harmonics leads to more efficient energy consumption by the transformer overall.
Paralleling switchgear: It manages the critical transition from utility power to on-site power sources. Because of paralleling switchgear, Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems can be used to take advantage of otherwise wasted heat energy or on-site power sources that run on alternative biomass fuels.
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Power Chain Management Solution
Power Chain Management provides a holistic approach to managing the complete electrical power system of any construction entity, whether it is a university campus, healthcare centre, data centre, geographically dispersed set of office buildings or retail stores or residence—any situation where electricity is a must and is required without interruption. Power Chain Management solutions deliver on these benefits and offer an array of valuable advantages, including a single point of accountability, improved life-cycle management, and much more. This new management paradigm encompasses a host of innovative power solutions that directly address an organisation’s critical power needs for greater reliability, operating cost efficiencies, effective use of capital, safety, and risk mitigation. Power trends today are moving towards a future dominated by Power Chain Management solutions and the construction industry should take this into account.
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Lighting controls: These systems turn off the lights whenever a space is empty, and reduce artificial lighting when natural light is strong. As a result, energy consumption is reduced by 20 per cent.
Circuit breakers: Circuit breakers save more energy than fused disconnects because they incur less wattage loss for similar ratings. While fuses must be replaced after they trip, circuit breakers can simply be reset, thus avoiding the special disposal procedures for electric waste.
Power factor correction capacitors and filters: Capacitors and filters lower energy costs by supplying reactive power to systems such as HVAC and elevators. This reduces energy loss, minimises greenhouse gas emissions, decreases energy consumption and extends equipment life through improved power quality.
Motor controls: A variable frequency drive (VFD) adjusts a motor’s speed to closely match output requirements, resulting in typical energy savings of 10–50 per cent. Soft-start motor controls lower the demands on a motor during start-up, conserving energy and extending the life of the mechanical system.
Medium-voltage (MV) switchgear: The designs use environment-friendly choices for insulation, avoiding sulphur hexafluoride, an extremely harmful greenhouse gas which is 20,000 times more unsafe than carbon dioxide.
Uninterruptible power supply (UPS): UPSs at typical low loading levels result in 50 per cent less power loss. However, one should make sure that products using this system meet RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substance) standards.
The commitment to sustainability needs to be for the long term. Every enterprise should adopt power quality, distribution and control solutions that increase energy efficiency and improve power quality, safety and reliability. |
