Energy Efficiency Monitoring and Management System Solution

Chinese economic development has entered a "new normal," characterized by significantly accelerated industrial restructuring, slowing growth in energy consumption, and a gradual decline in resource-intensive, high-energy-consuming, and high-emission industries. However, as industrialization and urbanization accelerate and consumption patterns evolve, energy and environmental issues have become bottlenecks for economic growth, making the tasks of energy conservation and emission reduction particularly arduous. Consequently, the government is playing a leading role—utilizing administrative measures—to accelerate the deployment of online energy consumption monitoring systems for energy-using entities and to improve energy metering frameworks. Driven by societal demand and strong government advocacy, the sectors for electrical energy management systems and broader energy management systems have expanded rapidly. These systems are undergoing continuous technological innovation, broadening their scope of application, and incorporating increasingly comprehensive intelligent features.

 

Most energy systems in complex buildings currently achieve real-time monitoring of various energy sources, including water, electricity, gas, and thermal energy. However, the supply, consumption, and storage systems within these buildings operate independently of one another; this lack of coordination creates "information islands." Furthermore, integration with various automated control systems is hindered by incompatible communication protocols, preventing seamless connectivity and making coordinated control and management difficult. Current energy management in complex buildings faces the following issues:

 

(1) Energy-consuming equipment lacks effective process monitoring, making it impossible to preemptively identify or eliminate safety hazards or to adequately handle system faults and anomalies. Operational management lacks systematic maintenance support and diagnostic measures; energy optimization strategies lack scientific grounding and feasibility, resulting in suboptimal implementation outcomes.

 

(2) The functionality of existing energy management systems in complex buildings is largely limited to "energy consumption monitoring." These systems collect consumption data but fail to capture other influencing factors—such as indoor and outdoor temperatures, lighting levels, and HVAC operating parameters. This limits the system's overall analytical capability, making it difficult to quickly pinpoint energy inefficiencies or conduct effective energy-efficiency assessments, thereby preventing the system from fulfilling its "management" function.

 

(3) The low level of energy management in complex buildings results in poor energy efficiency. Regarding the practical use of comprehensive building energy management systems, the limited proficiency of operational personnel—who are often capable of performing only basic start/stop operations and routine maintenance—leads to a scenario where high-efficiency equipment is installed but operated using low-level strategies, ultimately resulting in poor overall energy efficiency.

(4) Inability to interact with the main power grid. None of the comprehensive building energy management systems account for interaction with the main grid; with the exception of a few individual devices or modules that support automated demand response standards, neither domestic nor imported energy control systems for such buildings possess similar interactive capabilities.

 

Major Energy-Consuming Systems and Equipment in Comprehensive Buildings

(1) Power supply system: Supplied by external distribution lines or on-site rooftop photovoltaic arrays. External high-voltage power requires step-down transformation for use. Aside from the high-voltage equipment itself, major energy-consuming systems and devices include HVAC systems, lighting, elevators, fans, water supply pumps, office power outlets, and electric vehicle charging facilities.

 

(2) Water supply system: Supplied by the municipal water network; internally, it is divided into systems for domestic water, fire-fighting water, HVAC make-up water, and landscape water.

 

(3) Gas supply system: Supplied by the external gas network. Gas costs account for approximately 10% of the total energy expenditure of a comprehensive building; the primary gas-consuming equipment within the building consists of gas boilers and kitchen cooking appliances.

 

(4) Heating system: Jiangsu is not located in a region subject to mandatory state-provided heating; therefore, winter heating for comprehensive buildings is typically supplied by on-site boiler rooms or heat-pump-based HVAC units.

 

(5) HVAC system: This system accounts for approximately 50% of the building's total energy consumption. It converts energy sources—such as electricity, natural gas, and steam—into cooling and heating sources for climate control, with electrically powered systems predominating. HVAC systems are categorized into water-cooled central air conditioning, multi-split systems, and split-system units. Water-cooled central air conditioning equipment includes the main chiller unit, chilled water pumps, cooling towers, boilers, and terminal units.

 

(6) Lighting system: Lighting accounts for approximately 15% of the building's total energy consumption. The lighting system equipment primarily includes electrodeless lamps, incandescent lamps, tungsten-halogen lamps, fluorescent lamps, metal-halide lamps, high-pressure sodium lamps, LED lamps, and xenon lamps, as well as downstream equipment connected to sockets.

 

 

The energy flow diagram for the comprehensive building is shown in the figure below.