Measuring energy consumption to improve energy efficiency

Homewares retailer IKEA decided to ‘fraction-monitor’ power consumption in all of its stores globally to reduce its carbon footprint and future-proof its Australian stores from the impending Emission Trading Scheme requirements. To do this, IKEA selected Schneider Electric Compact NSX circuit breakers to replace the existing breakers in every store across Australia, starting with the IKEA Richmond store in Victoria.

This upgrade enables IKEA to focus on energy consumption holistically and to identify where electricity waste is occurring and why, by measuring and analysing its consumption from one device.

“We wanted a product that would enable us to monitor and transport crucial data via an electronic system that could be monitored locally in-store and remotely from IKEA head office in Sweden,” says IKEA National Facilities and Service Manager Chris Hamilton. “After looking at several products on the market, we found the Compact NSX solution ticked every box - an easy upgrade from the existing Compact NS circuit breakers, the trusted name and the guarantee.

“IKEA was initially attracted to the system because they identified that it would reduce the downtime normally associated with lengthy current transfer installs. Greatly reducing the angst associated with turning off the power on a 24/7 operation was vital to our operations team.

“The easy-to-change-over system could also work in tandem with our existing Building Management System (BMS); and we found that, with little modification, the new system could be incorporated and all data sent abroad easily.”

The IKEA installation was carried out by a crew of Relec Switchboards technicians, who fully connected and tested the system in their Sydney workshop before disassembling it for dispatch directly to the IKEA store. Next day, the same crew flew to Victoria and installed the system without a glitch and with minimum downtime.

Relec designed a metering solution to retrofit the existing switchboard with the new circuit breakers and interfaced them through Modbus, allowing remote monitoring via an ethernet gateway, which was programmed and installed by Relec’s Production Engineer, Patrick Seage, who states: “The advantage with Compact NSX breakers is that they’re quick to change over compared to installing current transformers, shorting links, fuses and a meter. Quick changeover was critical for this upgrade, as the time we could shut down the switchboard was very limited.”

Downtime and installation costs were further minimised because Compact NSX is attached and wired the same way as Compact NS and has the same footprint.

Schneider Electric Product Manager, Low Voltage, Haytham Tabbara comments: “With the power monitoring unit integrated into the circuit breaker, Compact NSX provides a 65% time saving in comparison to standard meter installation. It can measure, process and display data on its LCD screen, a switchboard front panel, or remotely via a Powerlogic monitoring system.”

Compact NSX has the same electrical characteristics as its predecessor, which means no change requirements for type-tested boards. Once installed, electrical testing is no longer necessary.

Schneider Electric Sales Engineer Robert Christensen adds: “Benefits include pre-wired communication cables and plug-and-play interface modules to facilitate easy integration with communication networks and BMS. Users can customise alarms for all specifications, choose display priorities and configure time-delay modes. Continuously activated event logs and tables provide critical, up-to-date information and allow facility managers to access real-time energy usage data to help them realise energy savings while ensuring electrical service continuity.

“This system will help IKEA reduce its carbon footprint because they’ll be fully aware of exactly what energy is being used for power, lighting and heating/cooling on a store-by-store basis. They can then look at ways to reduce their energy consumption and use that as a benchmark to further reduce their carbon footprint across all their stores.

“Today, we’re all developing energy ‘consciences’ and just monitoring energy consumption of an entire store no longer suffices. You now need to know what’s consumed by lighting, air conditioning and heating. Perhaps the heating is on in one part of the store while the air conditioning is cooling down another part, or the energy used for lighting may be excessive. Compact NSX empowers customers like IKEA to create a total picture of where energy is being used, providing them with the information to make informed decisions to reduce energy waste.”