Erik’s area of speciality is that of analytics. This allows for the comprehensive analysis of a site and the best placement of these technologies thereby ensuring optimal coverage and the elimination of unnecessary overhead costs, providing a greater return on a client’s investment. A defined approach is utilised whereby a client’s requirements, time constraints and budgets are reviewed and a proposal drafted in accordance with that.

SI Systems is a specialist integration company with extensive product knowledge and technical capability. Adhering to the highest installation standards, it is unrivalled in terms of the service and support it offers its clientele.

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The Agreement scope of works include:

1 – Integrated Security Systems

2 – Telecoms – FTTH (Fiber To The Home)

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On Monday morning, the state-owned electricity utility said it had applied to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) for permission to increase its revenue from customers by an average of 16 percent a year to 2017/18. Nersa must approve any power prices.

This will effectively double the price of electricity from today’s average of 61c per kilowatt-hour (c/kWh) to 128c/kWh in 2017/18.

“Eskom needs to keep the lights on and this has a cost,” said Eskom CEO Brian Dames.

If the prices are approved, the first increase will start on April 1 next year to Eskom’s customers; municipalities will have to include that in their annual increases in July.

Eskom’s application focuses on increasing the utility’s revenue, but ultimately this means a price increase as the utility is not funded by the government.

Eskom said 13 percent is to cover Eskom’s own costs, and the additional 3 percent is the cost of introducing independent power producers (IPPs) – the private businesses which will start producing power during those five years to sell to Eskom.

Dames said electricity prices were still below cost-reflective levels and this was not sustainable.

The current price agreement – the Multi-Year Price Determination 2 (MYPD2) – was a two-year agreement which runs until March 31 next year.

The new price application – the MYPD3 – is for a five-year agreement, which Eskom said was to give more stability to the public.

Eskom encouraged the public to comment on the application.

The Eskom application to Nersa is on the Eskom website at www.eskom.co.za

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ABI Research released its study, “Energy Management and  Commercial Building Automation,” .

The projected growth to more than $36 billion by 2015, represents a 3 percent increase since 2009.

The small but steady growth reflects the tendency for building owners and operators to “re-evaluate energy management and call for new ways to ensure organizations and nations use energy more efficiently,” during a recession or times of economic conflict.

“Government financial incentives and regulations as well as organizations’ own financial and environmental goals are coinciding with a drive to open up building automation systems to wider network management and integration, drawing companies such as IBM and Cisco into a market traditionally dominated by more specialist global companies such as Johnson Controls, Honeywell and others,” ABI Research Principal Analyst Jonathan Collins said in a prepared statement.

Firms and organizations now in the arena include:

• AirTest Technologies Inc
• Cisco Systems, Inc
• Continental Automated Buildings Association (CABA)
• Echelon Corporation
• EnerNOC Inc
• EnOcean GmbH
• Green Building Certification Institute
• Honeywell Building Control Systems
• IBM Corporation
• Invensys
• Johnson Controls Inc
• Scientific Conservation, Inc (SCI)
• Siemens Building Technologies
• Schneider Electric, formerly TAC
• Trane Global Control Systems
• Tridium Inc
• ZigBee Alliance

Image Courtesy of ABI Research.

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At an Intel Labs showcase at the Computer History Museum, the chip giant showed off technologies for managing energy in commercial buildings and homes. Interestingly, though, Intel is not targeting the control of air conditioners or heaters, the usual targets of building control systems.

Instead, Intel largely tries to monitor, and perhaps one day control, power going to things plugged into wall sockets: computers, lamps, television sets, etc. In the Eco Sense Buildings prototype, data from these appliances are collected by sensors and forwarded to a company’s IT backbone. The information is then shipped over to a traditional building management system.

Approximately 30 percent to 60 percent of the power in a commercial building gets consumed by plug loads, but most building management systems only track the HVAC system. Thus, Eco Sense would create a bridge between the management system and all the things in the office and provide a more complete, holistic picture of energy consumption. A trial is coming up in Japan.

Ultimately, assuming smart appliances and controls could be added, this would allow facilities manager or demand response providers to add things like copy machines, data storage systems or even fridges to peak reduction and conservation programs.

For homes, Intel Labs has created WEST, or wireless energy sensing technology. It is basically a small box that contains a microcontroller and a Wi-Fi chip that you plug into a socket. It captures energy consumption information and forwards it to a local computer or the cloud. The computer or cloud then analyzes the data and then determines what appliances can be shut off, powered down, etc. The device follows some home monitoring technology released earlier.

Still, it is interesting how Intel is leveraging its strengths in WiFi and computing to get into energy management. At the same time, and unlike most of the other building management systems, Intel is not competing directly against the established giants like Johnson Controls or Honeywell. If this works, the functionality would be additive.

Most building startups — as much as they deny it — do at some level try to displace existing management systems.

Cisco moved into building management with its purchase of Richards-Zeta, which developed one of the more interesting modern building management systems, in 2009. Last year, Microsoft said it planned to move into commercial building management, acknowledging that its Hohm product was floundering.

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