As energy costs rise, there is a greater need to uncover how energy is wasted throughout an enterprise by leveraging analytics to implement a solution.
And that is exactly what Samit Sen does at Johnson Controls where he is at the forefront of energy efficiency and smart buildings.
The Innovator of the Year Award winner has been working with a team and designed an energy dashboard that combines data analytics with asset management for an enterprise.
This work, which began in Australia, is now being rolled out globally as Metasys Enterprise Management (MEM).
Since it was installed at 200 George Street in Sydney, the customer has saved 600,000kWh and $13,500 per month.
“Our goal is not only to decrease building costs, but to actually influence the value, thereby transforming building to actually achieve business objectives,” Sen said.
“For example, helping hospital staff care for patients better or uniting airport systems to improve the experience for travellers.”
Sen said buildings today are complex ecosystems. “The growth of connected end-points within buildings has reached a peak, pointing the way toward exponential technology growth,” Sen said.
“A building is no longer just a building. It is an intricate network of information. Security, HVAC, energy management and fire detection systems are all steadily increasing their capacity to connect devices, optimise data and perform advanced analytics – creating new value for building owners that never existed before.”
Sen joined Johnson Controls in 1999 as a graduate application engineer and has now been in the industry for 18 years.
He has seen a lot of change during this time. “It's exciting because the cost of increasing connectivity to make a building smart is dramatically decreasing,” Sen said.
“While saving energy and increasing operational efficiency is top of mind for most building managers today, companies are starting to realise they can use data to make their people, resources and assets not only more efficient, but also more productive. It's an interesting time for our industry.
“I believe the next generation of buildings will go beyond being smart buildings, but through connectivity, analytics, artificial intelligence and sustainability it will help create a new generation of living buildings, which will need high domain skills for HVACR.”
Once again the sponsor for this award is Toshiba Air Conditioning. The company's business unit manager for Australia, John Caione, presented the award at CCN Live.
“Toshiba has always been an innovator, one example is the introduction of inverter technology back in 1981. We recognise that innovation is the lifeblood of growth for all industry types," Caione said.
“Toshiba Air Conditioning is extremely proud to have sponsored the 2017 Innovator of the Year Award, and extend our sincere congratulations to Samit Sen for tackling the burden of rising energy use.
“Innovation needs to be encouraged and by recognising its leaders and encouraging them to go further it inspires others to follow in their footstep to usher in the next generation of innovators.”