Powercor, specialists in lighting, electrical services and sustainability monitoring, and smart energy Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company Simble Solutions, are partnering with Daizy to accelerate the rollout of energy efficiency and monitoring solutions.
With an increasing demand for energy monitoring, Powercor needed to implement a scalable, cost-effective and future proofed solution that could grow with their business. To find out more, I caught-up with Chris Wright, Technical Director at Powercor.
I started by asking Chris what has driven the need to implement a new energy monitoring solution. “We’ve been doing energy measurement and verification for a very long time. With the increasing focus on the drive to net zero, we’ve seen demand not only accelerate, but also diversify – the range of data points we need to collect is broadening, and we needed a solution that could scale at significant volume, and cope with the range of devices we’re deploying at our customer’s sites.”
With the increase in carbon retrofit work across many sectors, the demand for monitoring has been motivated by the need to demonstrate an ROI on any upgrade work conducted. Chris explained that the cost of running monitoring equipment was becoming too onerous for Powercor. “Before partnering with Daizy we were using a single type of energy meter, each with an individual GSM SIM. The costs were sky rocketing and we needed to find a more cost effective solution.”
“Simble, our energy analytics partner, was already partnering with Daizy, and it didn’t take long to realise that they would be the perfect partner for our needs. By adopting LoRaWAN to provide coverage throughout the customer’s premises, we’ve been able to drive down connectivity and hardware costs, while also expanding the range of metrics we can capture.”
“To verify the savings that we make as we decarbonise a customer’s site, we need to collect data at a granular level. Decarbonisation initiatives typically result in a higher electricity consumption – through heat pumps, air source, ground source, electrical kitchen equipment and so on. As a result, we need to be able to track where the electricity is being consumed.” Explained Chris. “We also need to measure the corresponding reduction in the consumption of gas and oil which requires additional hardware, datasets and analysis.”
I asked Chris about how his approach to implementing the monitoring aspects of his projects have evolved since partnering with Daizy. “We were quite restricted with what hardware and sensing metrics we had access to. Now we have access to Daizy’s entire device catalogue and can draw on Simble’s expertise to choose the best sensors for our needs. If we need a new device, Daizy can add that for us at very short notice.” Chris went on to explain that his initial nervousness of adopting a new solution soon dissipated. “If you’d asked me 12 months ago whether we’d be using LoRaWAN and other IoT technology with our key customers such as Charterhouse School, I’d have been much more reserved than I am now. The Daizy platform allows us to manage all of our sensors, connectivity and LoRa gateways in one place, and the process of deploying sensors using the Daizy mobile app couldn’t be simpler.”
Daizy’s standard integration with the Simble platform means that all sensing data is automatically available to view in SimbleSense. When new device types are added, Daizy decodes the payload and normalises the data, so there’s no heavy lifting for Simble to do – it just works.
I finished by asking Chris where he plans to go next with Powercor’s monitoring solution. “We’re seeing demand for solutions to new compliance and monitoring requirements every day. We’ve already started using Simble and Daizy to address legionella compliance, which is delivering huge ROIs for our customers.”
“The range of IoT hardware and solutions is growing rapidly – Simble and Daizy enable us to tap into the latest technology, and to realise the value it can deliver today and in the future.”
Want to discuss your energy monitoring, compliance or other remote sensing needs? Get in touch today.
