Page 29 - EngineerIT May 2022

AUTOMATION

The EU aims to retrofit 30 million and more intelligent buildings. In London, research has shown that certified buildings
buildings by 2030. Equally, there’s hope command a 4% premium for rental and sales relative to noncertified buildings in the
that the Infrastructure Bill and Smart same area. 6
Buildings Acceleration Act in the U.S. and From world events to world economics, the shape of buildings is changing, and the
the China five year plan will drive similar top building automation companies are taking note. We notice that in line with quarterly
initiatives in these markets. 5 revenue reporting, the megatons of CO 2 saved for their customers are being reported
In the EU, government policies along with emphasis on greener and healthier buildings. How these building automation
and building regulations drive energy companies will achieve this savings is through vast building digitisation and digitalisation,
improvements with the upcoming facilitating intelligence all the way to the edge node – gathering more intelligent data,
updates to the Energy Performance and generating more actionable insights across multiple building systems, allowing
of Buildings Directive. Equally, the the opportunities to fine tune and optimise each building’s performance to ensure
ASHRAE standards in the U.S. are driving maximum energy efficiency and maximum sustainability.
regulatory compliance, with other
country-specific regulations also coming How to achieve an intelligent building
online. Most buildings today have a building management system or BMS. These comprise
It is also becoming more and more disconnected sub-systems specific to the function they perform as stated in the
common for buildings to have green introduction, namely lighting, HVAC, access control, etc. To make these buildings
and intelligent building certification. intelligent, it is not just a case of gutting them and putting a whole new infrastructure
In some cases, this is a requirement in; this would be too costly. It is up to the semi-conductor industry to enable the retrofit
for specific financial investments, but market with technologies that can digitise the current infrastructure and connect
mostly it is understood that these separate building systems to each other. Figure 2 is a good example of how multiple
certificates add a significant premium to technologies and communications protocols could transform a legacy BMS system into
the building’s earning potential. LEED, an intelligent building.
BREEAM and EDGE are all well-known Ethernet is a common protocol that enables our day-to-day life and businesses with
green certificates, but local certification high data rates, but it is limited in terms of the distance it can reach and the topologies
in China is now gaining pace. Intelligent it can support. What if we could run Ethernet and IP over simple cables, such as a single
building certification is newer but twisted pair over a one km distance? This would provide seamless connectivity all the
with TIA and UL coming together to way from the cloud to the edge node, converging the IT and OT worlds to break down
form SPIRE, this too will become more the silos of existing systems where data may be gathered but is not actionable, nor does
popular. it generate valuable insights.
Looking at the economics of these 10BASE-T1L is a key technology to enable edge connectivity – this protocol allows
potential improvements to buildings the seamless connectivity from the cloud all the way to the edge node, allowing IP
creates a premium for healthier, greener addressable edge nodes that in turn allow real-time actionable control from anywhere.

Figure 2. Intelligent building infrastructure.

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