How Energy Control Systems Curb Emissions

While much of the focus on reducing environmental impact has been placed on converting to renewable energy sources, some have overlooked the importance that IT systems can play. Reducing impact by improving efficiencies is a more cost effective way of cutting emissions without requiring as much investment. In fact, correct power management is one of the most powerful tools that green IT has to offer. This alone makes green IT a number one reason for businesses and management to implement.

To be able to cut energy uses and achieve greater efficiency, one must know exactly the energy supply and demand of their system. This approach has created the need for IT systems that can show real time data and use it to forecast energy needs in the future.  Simply put, “you can’t manage what you can’t measure.”

At the University of Iowa, an Energy Control Center was created with IT systems that would allow the university to monitor their power plant production of steam, electricity, and chilled water and relate it to the demands of the buildings on campus. This central system allows weather forecasts and building energy levels to forecast how much energy production should be brought on or offline in the power plant.

The Control Center is not just a way to save money and energy, but also a learning tool that allows the public to access campus buildings’ energy usage at any given time. It is one demonstration of how many organizations around the world are looking to IT departments to help them become greener.

There are obviously some challenges to this approach. By predicting patterns, things become very aligned to usual procedures. If however anything out of the ordinary happens, problems could occur. Stronger storms or unexpected colder weather could threats like that.  Taking electricity produced through an atomic reactor as an example, if suddenly more energy is required, the reactor would require at least a day to increase production again to meet the demand. Usually, this results in blackouts until then. As with every challenge though, this only represents an opportunity to improve further.

Similar energy analytics software examples include ERACS and ZEUS. They provide the same benefits to businesses who have high energy usage: pattern analysis, need recognition and output optimization and suggestions.

In conclusion, energy control systems are a form of business intelligence and analysis. By learning from usage patterns one can reduce costs and optimize resource allocation. This is a great business value proposition, not just to energy producers, but also to companies that require a lot of energy. Analyzing and adapting leads to correct power management. In turn, this becomes a correct implementation of green IT.

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