Case Study August 2020 – The Challenge: Restaurant Chain Energy Management

28 August 2020

Restaurants by their very nature consume large amounts of energy, in fact, it’s often their third-highest overhead cost.

Identifying the areas of highest consumption and implementing technologies and solutions to reduce consumption can have a huge impact on the cost to run.

Shields Energy is working with a well known high street restaurant chain to identify areas of waste consumption and implement technologies and techniques to help the restaurant reduce consumption and cost.

As we are installing systems to reduce energy consumption the added challenge of is in the cost to deliver. At Shields Energy, we ensure that the solutions and services the team deliver provide a return on investment within 12-18months.

How We Do This

First, we take a digital replica of the building as well as the systems and assets within. The CODA digital twin technology is the secret behind this activity. We can assess the current situation within the building and identify the opportunities for energy reduction from a suggested change to the functionality of the systems, assets and processes within before we install and implement any energy efficiency activities. The digital twin gives the team an indication of the energy-saving opportunities and the cost benefits to the business from implementing.

The Digital Twin

As far as innovation goes, nothing could be more impressive than the ability to clone assets to support future-proofing and damage limitation – this is not a fantasy, this is a reality with CODA.

Our digital twin technology is embedded within the CODA cloud software platform providing clients with a digital representation of a single piece of equipment or entire estate/portfolio view.

A digital twin is a digital replica of a physical asset such as a machine, piece of equipment, device or even an entire building or estate. The digital twin delivers the elements and the dynamics of how the device, equipment, machine or building operates in real-time.

The Digital Twin Technology

Provides a digital representation for maintenance and facilities management personnel to interrogate remotely the asset or building performance and operations, to digitally diagnose and, where possible, remotely amend set points for improved operations.
Delivers scenarios in digital format first, so clients can see the impact a change in setting, situation or operation can have on their metering data and hence carbon footprint and energy consumption.
Allows clients to monitor, manage, evaluate and evidence energy and operational efficiencies, asset condition monitoring, health and safety improvements, as well as building and equipment health diagnostics.

The Results

An instant 21% cost saving for the business by switching items off outside of business hours and an additional 10% cost saving from controlling items during operational hours without affecting trade.
Over door heaters, water cylinders, AC, lighting, boilers and immersion heaters each took 6% of the total load with kitchen extract and supply equipment using 3% of the total restaurant load. Concentrating on these loads alone they are costing the restaurants BeMS installed to generate 253,299kWh savings, which equates to 72000kg Co2 saved and £27,863.00. An average saving of 12-18% and ROI 1.25years.
H&S issues from potential fire risks due to overloading of electric circuits.
Maintenance savings from optimisation of poorly performing or controlled equipment.
Out of hours consumption such as AC as well as kitchen extractor fans all running when the restaurant was closed.
The opportunity to save 2.2million kg of carbon plus ongoing savings of between £5-10k/annum is now being realised as the business rolls out the CODA system for full building internet of things (BIoT) controls

The Impact

CODA software collects, stores aggregates and presents data to businesses in a manner that they can quickly understand. This then helps businesses to identify any issues or requirements to take action immediately through dashboard displays. It provides real-time, remote building and equipment health, operation and energy efficiency diagnostics for their entire estate.
Through pre-set algorithms and alert thresholds, businesses are notified immediately of any issues or inefficiencies across the estate. Through the software, businesses can view and drill down into the detail, as the software provides estate wide down to site and individual piece of equipment viewing opportunities.
Installing a number of meters provides insights into all activities and operations, equipment performance and use and their impact on the building’s energy consumption. CODA devices are proactive in their function. They take data readings multiple times per second, send data to the cloud software every 5 minutes, however, if a significant event happens or a change in the state of any controlled and/or measured device then that data is sent in real-time to help optimise the communications costs and make granular data available on many sites.
Data from all devices is then transmitted to cloud-based software supported by a big data analytics platform. The data is stored, analysed, aggregated and displayed to provide businesses with unparalleled visibility from 360-degree data that is enabling actionable insights across its station estate.
CODA’s digital twin software maps an identical replica of the site it is monitoring and managing to create a digital twin version of the real-life version. In real-time, businesses can see light levels, temp levels, setpoints, meter data not just across the estate but can zoom into each site and then each IoT device, meter or distribution board.