SIPe at the University of Surrey

Local monitoring to drive energy awareness

The University of Surrey is passionate about embedding sustainability into every aspect of campus life. A range of environmental policies and initiatives has seen Surrey leap 13 places in the ‘green university’ league placing it in the first class category. Synapsys Solutions has been working with University for over 5 years with SIP interfaces, providing interface solutions for equipment and sub metering to the onsite BMS.

With the addition of a new premium student accommodation estate, the University wanted to trial and introduce a software platform that offers in-depth, site-wide monitoring and analysis tools. In order to use the platform they needed to enable local monitoring of each accommodation block whilst maintaining integration with the building management system (BMS) for control purposes. With extensive sub metering already installed, the University also wanted to maximise this investment and avoid the need to install new hardware.

Using effective and reliable data to achieve results

Synapsys Solutions was able to meet all these requirements with a simple upgrade of existing SIP interfaces to our SIPe energy monitoring system. Each SIPe meter interface continues to map points to the BMS but can now be accessed independently to monitor energy in each of the 8 accommodation blocks through on-board and public display options. The energy data is collated within the SIPe database and can be scheduled to send raw files via FTP to the site-wide management platform.

Meeting the key energy objectives

The key objective from this project was for the University to become better informed about energy use in the building. SIPe enables staff to virtually monitor trends in consumption and identify patterns that are outside the norm, for example when plant is not operating efficiently or residents are not using energy responsibly.The long-term, detailed monitoring enabled by SIPe is fundamental in allowing the University to develop an energy reduction strategy in line with their carbon reduction and cost management plans.

Encouraging behavior change for lasting reductions

In the next phase of the installation, the SIPe will also make a valuable contribution to encouraging behaviour change. The public display options available through the addition of our SIPe Vision solutions will allow the data from each block to be sent to ‘green screens’. Positioned in communal areas these can show real-time usage data against past patterns or usage in other buildings. This opens up a range of possible engagement initiatives from each building being challenged to reach agreed consumption target to creating savings competition between blocks.

“We have used SIP interfaces across the campus for many years and they have proven to be a reliable and robust solution. To meet our precise requirements for energy monitoring and management we have been able to simply upgrade our existing hardware rather than invest in new or additional equipment. We now have local energy monitoring and visualisation in place whilst maintaining the important interfacing of our meter networks to Trend BMS. The SIP solution is easy to use and we can configure the built in reporting tools to send raw data to our top level energy management software”. Dale Meadows, Carbon Manager, University of Surrey.

We have used SIP interfaces across the campus for many years and they have proven to be a reliable and robust solution. To meet our precise requirements for energy monitoring and management we have been able to simply upgrade our existing hardware rather than invest in new or additional equipment.

We now have local energy monitoring and visualisation in place whilst maintaining the important interfacing of our meter networks to Trend BMS. The SIP solution is easy to use and we can configure the built in reporting tools to send raw data to our top level energy management software.