If you’re reading this I assume you want to know what’s required to “Innervate” a building (and you’re on a tight budget—if you weren’t, you’d simply call a major consulting firm and they’d send a team of high paid experts to customize a large scale program for you).  An Innervation project requires interaction among facilities, energy, network engineering and possibly a half dozen other groups including IT, sustainability, finance, HR (think leader board), security and marketing.  Moreover, an executive sponsor should be in the picture to facilitate cooperation among these disparate groups.

There are a few step required before turning up a real-time energy dashboard on your lobby signage.

Step 0:  Build the Team and Define the Project

In short, for most projects, three organizational tasks must be completed prior to work on an innervated building.  The project leader (and that can be anyone), must:

1.      1.  Imagine the final outcome (ideation).  Explore emerging trends in sustainability and reporting and create a blueprint that leverages those changes in order to develop an effective sustainability reporting process.

2.      2.  Assemble the team required to execute the project—gain agreement on the outcome.

3.      3.  Set milestones

Again, since you’re reading this and you’re on a budget, I will assume you have decided to start small and simple.  If you’ve never innervated a building before, it’s useful to take it one chunk at a time.  Set achievable goals and show solid results before layering additional complexity.  In our Innervated Building lab, we connect devices, collect data and then determine what information is useful and valuable and published the information to a digital sign in the lobby of our lab.  We called this project “Measurement and Visibility”.  This project is about getting the infrastructure in place to create energy literacy for all building users and save money.  The project also establishes a baseline from which to launch additional energy monitoring and control enhancements (such as energy consumption leader boards and tracking to reduction goals).

For the sake of this discussion, let’s assume that you’ve decided to collect and report all the energy consumed in the building in real-time.  This means that you’ve decided to capture and report the building’s “energy profile”.  Furthermore, I assume you want to project the relevant information to your Cisco Digital Media Signage.

Step 1.  Connect to the Whole Building Power Infrastructure

To get the data you need to help users see the building power profile, you will first need to connect and collect power consumption information from a whole building 3 phase power meter.

In our lab, there are three ways to connect and collect energy consumption data.  To date, Luis Suau has only configured this two ways.

1.      1.  Luis attached an ENthEnergy MITS unit to the power entrance facility.  This requires an electrician to connect a CT to each phase the power cables.  The ENthEnergy unit is connected to a Cisco EnergyWise enabled switch that collects the power information via EnergyWise.

2.      2.  Luis attached a FieldServer gateway to our existing Schneider Electric Power Logic 3 phase meter (CT cables were deployed previously).  This meter sends energy use information to the FieldServer gateway via an RS485 cable and  Modbus communication protocol.  The FieldServer gateway translates the information into the Cisco EnergyWise protocol.  This information can be collected by the Cisco Switch to which the FieldServer gateway is connected via an Ethernet cable.

3.      3.  The third way to collect energy use information is to use a WattNode or similar 3 phase meter and then extract and convert the energy use information into the EnergyWise protocol using a Field Server gateway.

4.      4.  There are several 3 phase meter manufacturers actively working to enable Cisco EnergyWise as a native protocol.  I expect to see several of these products soon.

Step 2.  Select an Energy Monitoring Application That Can Collect the Data

Now that your Cisco EnergyWise enabled network can query power consumption for the whole building, deploy a software package that can give you a simple graphical interface  to configure, collect and report energy use information.

There are several packages available today and more are in the works.

At this point we have a variety of product specific management tools deployed, but to date we have only one that can manage and monitor a complete Cisco EnergyWise deployment. This application is from JouleX.

Step 3.  Display Energy Use Information in Your Building Lobby

In this phase, you’ll need to deploy digital signs, kiosks and other display devices capable of supporting digital media.  Some customers have deployed dedicated energy dashboards.  We think a better way to do this is leverage digital media equipment for multiple information uses.  Why have multiple screens when one might be enough?  Our approach was to leverage as many preexisting assets as possible so that the benefit is maximized while enabling the lowest cost for solution development.

1.     1.  Luis installed a Cisco Digital Media System.  This includes a DMS controller and a digital display sign.  This system enables us to push energy use information from our JouleX management software to the lobby signage.

2.      2. In order to render multiple content streams we’ve also deployed CommandCenterHD from Industry Weapon.  This system enables our “content administrator” to push multiple streams of information throughout displays, kiosks, IP phones, and iPhones, in our building or campus.

Like the previous steps, this third one required us to work closely with the vendors involved.  Though we will have a working prototype for Cisco Live, I expect some additional time and testing is required before a product is commercialized.  By the time you’re ready to place an order, check with the vendors.  We will also work with them and post updates on their product status.

For more information about this process, visit my webinar entitled “Laying the Foundation for an Effective Sustainability Program” http://www.smartconnectedcommunities.org/blogs/webinars/2011/02/15/webinar-matt-laherty-1-25-11-laying-the-foundation-for-an-effective-sustainability-program

ENthEnergy MITS appliance:  www.enthenergy.com

FieldServer Gateway:  www.fieldserver.com

Schneider Electric Power Meters:  http://www.powerlogic.com/index.cfm

WattNode from Continental Control Systems:  http://www.ccontrolsys.com/w/Home

Cisco EnergyWise:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10195/index.html

Cisco Digital Media Suite:  http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps9339/Products_Sub_Category_Home.html

JouleX energy management application:  www.joulex.net

Industry Weapon CommandCenterHD:  www.industryweapon.com