ENERGY INFORMATION SYSTEMS
The Web is the game-changer for
the building and energy management industry. It
is flexible, it is free (or at least has the perception
of being so), it is a tool that everyone is comfortable
using (since they buy books on it, order Pizza on
it and conduct bank transactions with it).
Lastly, the Web browser is infinitely flexible,
just like a blank piece of paper. Energy information
and systems are one area of building management
that is adopting the web aggressively. By its very
nature, this discipline needs to access information
rapidly, remotely, from multiple sources and most
importantly, in real time. Access to energy information
also needs to be available to multiple people within
organizations; from energy managers to corporate
executives, people that are often based in disparate
geographical locations. Clearly it is an ideal application
for the web browser and the Internet.
The technological wave of IT and web based energy
information and control systems continues to roll
on with increasing speed and intensity and will
continue to do so with the constant growth of Internet-provision
technologies, such as O2
broadband. In just one short year since
the publication of the first volume in this series
- Information Technology for Energy Managers: Understanding
Web Based Energy Information and Control Systems
- new web-based system supplier companies have come
on the scene and many new, exciting applications
and adoptions of web-based technology have taken
place. What started as basic web-based energy information
systems has expanded into web-based energy information
and control systems, and finally to enterprise energy
management systems.
Technological progress in Information Technology
and use of the Internet and World Wide Web will
continue to be made at a rapid rate. Applying these
advancements to computerized facility and energy
management systems requires the innovative skills
of many people in both the IT and the Energy Management
fields. If history in this area is a good indicator
of what will happen in the future, we are all in
for a fantastic ride on this new and powerful technological
wave.
Energy Information Systems (EIS) are starting
to pop up everywhere now. Since more and more 6
Web Based Energy Information and Control Systems:
Case Studies and Applications meters and data collection
devices connect to local area networks, the availability
of data makes an EIS much easier to develop and
use. Organizations might also opt to purchase a
Commercial Off-the- Shelf (COTS) version of an EIS.
Several companies are touting full-featured EISs
that supplement the goals of any energy management
team. Elutions Inc. has the Active Energy Management
Web a web application to track and analyze utility
data bundled with a service that collects and organizes
the data. Interval Data Systems’ Energy Witness
software is a whole suite of modules designed to
collect, organize and view utility data. Common
features of the latest EISs are simplicity, drag
and drop functionality to put data into a graph,
virtual meters to track areas not distinctly covered
by a single meter, propagation of reports by saving
or emailing, drilling down through the data elements
and interactive reporting. The components still
missing from many of the EISs today are data integration
features that collect data easier then the intensive
programming components that are required now. COTS
EISs now handle this by data integration services
which no doubt add considerably to the cost of the
software implementation. For the most part, data
is only available in proprietary formats, ASCII,
EDI, HTML or Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Looking forward, data integration with an organization’s
utility service provider(s) will continue
to be a major challenge for EIS developers. Current
options include utility data provided on
tape disk, or via email, data provided on-line,
and data recorded on parallel submeters. Before
EISs can ever hope to contain data integration features
that work like “plug and play” operating
system features there needs to be more XML utility
data exchange in the industry as a whole. Timely,
accurate and efficient data collection is critical
whether the data is coming from metering devices
or utility companies. Data integration is a primary
element in planning for an EIS whether the system
is COTS software or developed in-house.
Data from the data base is presented
to users in reports they see on their web browsers.
The browser presents a dashboard with a few key
functions displayed and access to much more information
available by drilling deeper into the database.
There are many advantages to browser-based software.
Upgrades to the browser software can be made in
the server and are then immediately available to
all users. Administrative and support functions
can also be accessed by any authorized user anywhere.
New meters can be enrolled and addresses and telephone
numbers entered from the field without returning
to the office. Tech support personnel can diagnose
and fix many problems remotely without field calls.
There are many EIS products on the market. Most
present some form of live data on a running basis.
This data can then be printed as reports or downloaded
into Excel for further processing by the user.
For
more information contacts at: info@intelen.gr
