Energy Management and Project Consulting


Simbalism - Power & Contractive on Facebook

PowerWatch

Electricity consumption visible in real time / Bottom line benefit all the time

The exclusive PowerWatchTM service is an internet delivered facility that in effect makes the consumption of electricity visible to all chosen members (staff) of an organisation in real time, providing a clear foundation for better financial and management decisions as well as a base from which to make decisions about further automated / technological energy-saving interventions.

In addition, with its unique and patent-pending alert system, PowerWatchTM provides the possibility for behaviour adjustment amongst company members (staff) thereby tapping into the typically 5-15% of free saving available through adjustment of peoples' habits and energy-consuming behaviour.

PowerWatchTM is a South African developed, purely internet-delivered service. The concept developer - Energy Cybernetics (EC) - are specialists in the disciplines of measurement & verification (M&V), energy optimisation and software development and have spent 150+ man years constructing the system. EC is the brains behind the Eskom / SABC 'Power Alert'; an initiative that has earned them many awards including prestigious recognition from the American Association of Energy Engineers for the project that demonstrated highest efficacy and return on investment.

The fantastic success of that work led us to realise that a powerful way to create meaningful change in the energy consumption profile of an organisation is to make the use immediately apparent to all members of that organisation, rather than just a few 'energy managers' within the enterprise. PowerWatchTM makes electricity use visible to everyone in real time and supports automatic behaviour change.

Simbalism is a Certified Solutions Partner to EC and typically we deploy PowerWatchTM either as a component of our consulting engagement with a client in order that we can all be on the same page as to the energy savings accumulating as a result of our intervention(s), or in its own right as the 1st step in an ultimate energy management strategy so that we can begin to understand how and where electricity is being consumed and begin to adjust the users' wasteful consumption habits.

To the typical user PowerWatchTM appears as a small colour-button icon (Green / Amber / Red) at the bottom corner of their computer screen showing the real-time electricity use. When consumption exceeds the configured target for that time of day, a pop-up expands to fill a larger proportion of the screen, demanding acknowledgement and a behavioural response from the user.
It is also possible to display alerts via traffic lights on a factory floor, SMS, etc
A click on the icon launches a full facilities dashboard and tool set with access to a wide range of detail related to the organisation's energy consumption, environmental impact and including an extensive set of configurable reports.

Features include:

  • Very simple control unit installation; typically per metering point
  • Delivered on a SaaS (software as a service) basis with no intrusion to the IT environment other than the opening of a port for RSS feed. (Thus if ever the company relocates, the service moves with you)
  • Visible to all chosen staff on their PC screens
  • Target and baseline consumption pre-loaded; adjustable at any time on instruction
  • Dashboard includes view of all divisions of the organisation so each area can assess its position relative to the other (on an equalised basis). This is excellent for stimulating energy-saving competition amongst business divisions
  • Considerable reporting facilities and detail extraction
  • Summation of various metering points to achieve an enterprise view of a functional unit view (eg All mills / All floors / etc)
  • SMS, email and other alerts available where required
  • Can be integrated as a front-end management & control system for BMS and other central control options, allowing an energy manager to control consumption across the enterprise from his/her desktop.
  • Out of target spikes must be acknowledged before the alert will minimise (on screen)
  • Monitor / television feed to display in public and/or key areas (including 3rd party news feeds if desired)
  • Service support by the developers
  • Software 'learns' all of the variables associated with each of it's installation points, ie:
    • Baseline and target consumption (programmed at set-up from the organisations historic billing)
    • Weather patterns
    • Hours of business
    • Pattern and nature of use
    • Human behaviour across the monitored area
    • Specific intervention and energy-friendly behaviour training with recognised certification available as an additional service

Benefits

Financial

The purpose of PowerWatchTM is to assist in cost saving by:

  • Presenting real-time energy consumption information at all times. Availability of this info can greatly contribute to general financial and operational management improvement
  • Serving as sound basis for establishing what other interventions will be most efficient once management improvements and behavioural efficiencies have taken full effect
  • Stimulating energy-saving behaviour amongst all of the members (staff) of an organisation by the nature of the consumption becoming immediately, and continually, transparent to all

Carbon credit
We are currently investigating the potential of PowerWatchTM to certify carbon emission reduction and thereby assist in the Client's harvesting of carbon credits. This presents the potential for further improved returns on investment made.

Public and internal relations
In addition to the financial benefits, organisations will fundamentally be taking clear, visible, effective and meaningful action to address their 'carbon footprint' and this is something to be rightfully proud and vocal about. Thus it will make sense to extract maximum PR and moral benefit from the implementation. Apart from having consumption feeds to display panels in public areas (such as reception and auditorium areas), reporting in financial statements as well as advertising messages can all incorporate the benefit of PowerWatchTM to the enterprise.

 

This solution is remarkably simple to deploy and use and very effective because of the care that has been taken to achieve this result.
Designed to address the first line of intervention for improved efficiency: complete awareness and analysis of consumption available to as many people as possible, PowerWatchTM is likely to be soon the base standard for a sustainable energy management programme.

To download a brief overview of the PowerWatchTM system, click here
[PDF document – 425KB]