Details for energy management software

Data collection

Data collection and transmission into the energy management database takes place automatically from data sources such as meters, automation centers or building management systems.

A vendor-neutral OPC interface allows data transfer from any OPC DA server.

Other options for data transfer include PDA or smart phone, data in Microsoft Excel formats and the Q-AMR wireless system. Even manual input is possible.

Consumption calculations

Energy management can calculate consumption amounts for real and virtual consumers.

Real consumers are the meters for individual floors of a building, for example. If the entire building doesn't have its own central meter but its consumption is instead formed by the sum of the real consumers, it would be a virtual consumer. Conversely, the individual floors of a building with a central meter are shown as virtual consumers, both statically with defined factors, or as a percentage with dynamic weights.

Adjustments for weather

The weather adjustment function integrated into the energy management system facilitates the comparison of consumption data with other consumption data. Influences from different weather conditions at different locations or in different years are factored out. The system also supports the separate calculation of degree day figures and heating degree days.

Generating characteristic data

In order to establish reference values for comparison, the energy management software generates different characteristic values for consumption, cost and emissions. Examples for this include kWh/m²a or €/ m²a.

The characteristic values are generally based on entire years. Incomplete years can be time-adjusted.

Comparison of characteristic values / benchmarking

The energy management software can compare the characteristic consumption values of a specific building with characteristic values of buildings with the same usage type. This requires the building to be assigned a usage type. This benchmarking identifies the characteristic consumption values of the specific building in comparison with other buildings or target values.

Calculating emission levels

Energy management calculates emission levels for CO2, SO2, NOx and particulate matter based on an integrated database of energy sources.

Tenant model function

The tenant model is a functional area specific to energy management. It is used for administration of tenancies and their consumption. The tenant model allows an overview of the tenancies and accurate consumption and cost analyses at any time for each tenant and rental unit.

Analysis and evaluation

Energy management offers many useful tools for data analysis and evaluation. Consumption and costs are represented in a table and/or graphic form. There are different visualization features available for the user: chart types like bar graphs, pie charts or tachograms and modes of presentation such as 2D, 3D, stacked, etc.

For the displays of energy management, different data series can also be used to show comparisons, such as consumptions in various years.

The energy management software also enables the representation of energy consumption for different object levels. With "drill down" the user can move through the different object levels and detect the energy consumption ratios and their mutual dependencies.

The evaluation of the parameter performance using the tachogram display format allows for the benchmarking of the particular characteristic values with comparative characteristic values as well as a display of this performance by showing the individual characteristic value development. Various performance indicators can be compiled onto a dashboard that contains all the important characteristic values.

Through the visualization features, abnormalities and dependencies are easily recognizable.

Via a copy function, the evaluations are also available for applications outside the energy management system (e.g. as a graphic in MS Word or as values in MS Excel).

Reports

Energy management includes prepared reporting formats (system reports) for common assessments and illustrations.

Exemplary contents of the system reports are data (trends, tables), consumption (for buildings, cost centers, tenants), meter reading lists for tenant billing, characteristic values (consumption, costs), and capacity evaluation.

In addition, users with report designers' know-how can create their own self-designed report variants (user reports) with the help of an integrated report designer.

The reports include an exchangeable customer logo. The format is always DIN A4 (210 x 297mm 8.3 x 11.7 inches). The reports can be printed and exported to various file formats.

The energy management system allows automated distribution of reports to various recipients. Times and file formats are freely selectable. E-mail and storage to network drives are available for transmissions.