OPC

Energy Saving Solutions - Building IT with OPC

Eric Murphy
The key part of the term Building Information
Technology (BIT) is information, and how it is used
in optimization and energy savings. Often when
OPC is used in reference to building automation
or management systems, it is in terms of being
a protocol. OPC and OPC UA offer the potential
for much more. OPC provides the advantages
of standardized data connectivity among many
isolated systems, and industry-proven applications
to turn that data into information, and hence into
cost and energy savings.
Building IT is more than HVAC
All too often people think of building systems as
just HVAC systems, but a truly integrated system
covers much more. Modern building management
monitors and operates all technical facilities:
heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems,
security and surveillance, lighting, fire and safety
systems and other equipment. Managing these
data sources ensures optimal building performance
by enabling control of building systems in an
integrated manner. Fully integrating the enterprise
also involves information from the systems within
the building: plant-floor manufacturing systems,
energy and power monitoring equipment, utility
operations and industrial control systems. There
is a symbiotic relationship between the systems
controlling the environment, and the people and
systems contained within it. Integration of the
systems is needed to fully realize optimization
possibilities.

Whats the impact?

There have been numerous studies on the benefits
of integration of building systems. Recurring
conclusions include improved monitoring, alarming,
diagnostics and initial troubleshooting, as well as
lower maintenance costs, optimized energy usage
and improved safety and security measures.
In the current world of high oil prices, political
instability, and concerns on climate change the key
benefits are those associated with energy savings.
What is the potential in this area? The following
is an excerpt from the testimony of the American
Institute of Architects President RK Stewart, FAIA,
before the Subcommittee on Energy of the Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources1 on
the issue of energy efficiency in buildings.
According to the Department of Energys Energy
Information Administration, buildings and their
construction are responsible for nearly half of all
greenhouse gas emissions produced in the U.S.
every year.
An essential part of reducing emissions is
optimizing the way energy is used today, and
building systems are a signification portion of
overall energy consumption. In order to improve
the use of existing systems, timely access to data
is required to determine how best to control energy
usage. Ultimately its all about connecting the
assets in the enterprise. There is a lot of overlap
between managing building systems and controlling
industrial automation systems, and therefore much
in common with the energy usage solutions.

OPC
OPC provides the ways and the means
In the industrial automation world, OPC has
long been recognized and utilized for providing
standardized, real-time data access to disparate
systems. Industrial processes and manufacturing
sites produce tremendous amounts of real-time
data, which requires transformation into useful
information. In terms of using OPC to connect
systems, building controls, HVAC, lighting and
security devices are all assets as well. As with other
industry verticals, building automation systems
have a wide range of proprietary protocols, as
well as several emerging common interfaces
such as BACnet, LonWorks and Modbus. OPC
servers are available for all these protocols, and
provide connectivity to OPC-based advanced
applications, such as decision support systems,
historical analysis, process optimizations, energy
calculations and other high-level information
processing systems. Getting the raw data into the
system is the first step in translating data into
energy savings. Simplified access to real-time data
and enterprise connectivity enables applications to
provide optimizations such as:

Such solutions allow organizations to use existing

systems to document, track and control the use
of energy. OPC UA provides a rich information
model and standardized messaging which will
provide interoperability between the various event
processing and automated analysis applications. As
a service-based technology, OPC UA provides a truly
open and systematic method for monitoring and
controlling energy consumption and for coordinating
the use of energy-consuming equipment.

Bibliography:
[1] The American Institute of Architects,
Statement of RK Stewart, President. Energy
Efficient Federal Buildings before the United
States Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources Subcommittee on energy.
(http://energy.senate.gov/public/_files/
RKStewartatSenateEnergyFebruary82007FINAL.pdf)

Centralized management systems for

maintenance and energy monitoring.
Historical data analysis of peak demand usage
and optimizations of utility costs.
Unified data processing and troubleshooting of
real-time systems.
Standardized connectivity to cross-platform and
multiple-vendor products.

Go for the green

System integration means more green in terms of
economic savings, as well as the obvious energy
usage and environmental impacts. Organizations
can use OPC to integrate real-time and historic
energy information into existing business
applications to improve the balance between
people, infrastructure, facilities and their overall
impact on the enterprise energy usage bottom line.
In order to truly manage energy needs and combat
greenhouse gas emissions, a balanced portfolio of
remedies is needed, including a focus on energy
efficiency in building systems.

OPC UA Next evolution in transforming

data into information
Currently OPC can provide the standard for
collecting and presenting real-time information from
various building systems. Truly powerful systems
integration will require higher-level abstraction of
building automation data, and presentation in a
format that simplifies communications with other
systems. OPC UA can standardize the integration
of existing facility management systems, building
automaton systems and business management
applications to perform the complex task of
enterprise energy management.
Copyright 2007 Matrikon, Inc.

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