Energy and water costs under control

Management begins with a thorough analysis of the figures. Regardless of specialisation or industry, an entrepreneur must rely on reliable information and data. The larger the scale of the business or the scope of assets under management, the greater the volume of data. Technology helps to manage data and generate savings.

Ultimately, we will pay a high price for decisions based on superficial information or intuition. The words of Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft, remain relevant. Many business owners, property managers or local authority representatives struggle with the large volume of measurement data relating to Electricity and other utilities, leading to inefficient consumption management and incurring avoidable costs due to mismanagement or contractual penalties. Meanwhile, rising energy and water prices are hitting the budgets of businesses and local authorities hard. Optimising utility consumption is the first step towards achieving measurable savings. However, to start saving, we need precise data that will allow us to analyse costs incurred in specific locations, operational processes or areas of activity on an ongoing basis.

Utility consumption management system

Modern IT solutions for managing utility consumption are available on the market for a wide range of users. The OMNITORUS system is based on the long-standing experience of the Apator Group, a manufacturer of metering devices and systems for the electricity, water, heating and gas sectors. This proven Polish supplier of meters therefore guarantees the reliability of measurements. Another advantage is the system’s comprehensiveness – it can analyse and integrate data on any combination of all utility media in a single location. OMNITORUS has been designed to be easy to implement – the supplier takes responsibility for the solution’s operation and the customer receives what they need in the form of services. Operation is simple and does not require advanced technical skills – the user has a single data dashboard at their disposal, and reports can be generated automatically or freely configured according to current needs.

Practical application of the OMNITORUS system

The system has already been tested by clients from various industries and regions of Poland. Savings – depending on the scope of application and scale of operations – have already materialised within a few weeks or months of the system’s implementation and have reached as much as several thousand zlotys per month. An example from a municipality in the Świętokrzyskie Province shows that the investment has brought multifaceted benefits to the local community. Thanks to accurate data from 50 measurement points, energy consumption was adjusted to the actual needs of the buildings and operating costs were reduced. Thanks to data from the system, the efficiency of photovoltaic installations and heat pumps was also increased, which reduced energy losses and allowed for its maximum utilisation. The system has also seen application in housing cooperatives, where it helps streamline the billing of water consumption by residents, configure metering devices and plan equipment replacements. Additionally, the system generates alerts that inform the property manager of leaks and other faults.

In the case of industrial plants, the power consumption data analysed by the system enables the identification of cost-intensive processes and the management of operations. This is where the power guard function proves its worth, signalling potential breaches of the contracted power limit and helping to avoid penalties. We can therefore control processes, switching equipment on or off depending on the current situation. Property managers can streamline tenant billing. Thanks to utility management systems, we are also able to make better use of energy generated from RES. Thanks to the alarm function, we receive information about PV system shutdowns or faults. There can be many scenarios and applications – in each of them, the system has delivered tangible results.

The OMNITORUS system offers much more than just real-time analyses of utility consumption. Useful features include energy balancing (analysis of energy produced and consumed) and prediction (based on collected data, we can predict equipment failures or maintenance needs, and thus intervene proactively to prevent costly downtime). The system also allows you to analyse grid quality based on the parameters collected.

One of the interesting applications of the OMNITORUS system is the automation of energy billing in warehouse spaces. Energy billing for tenants can be a challenge here, especially when based on manual meter readings, which exposes businesses to errors, time-consuming processes and additional costs. One of OMNITORUS’s clients needed to streamline the electricity billing process and integrate the metering system with their internal SAP system to simplify data management and automate the billing process. OMNITORUS was purchased as part of a three-year subscription. The project began with the installation of 300 energy meters, which continuously collect data on tenants’ utility consumption across various warehouse locations. The system automatically transfers the data to the ERP system, eliminating the need for manual meter reading and minimising the risk of errors.

The project began with the optimisation of energy consumption management, whilst the next phase involves the implementation of water metering and gas metering, which will automate utility management processes to a much greater extent. The system is fully scalable, allowing it to be adapted to the company’s current development needs. The technology has proven highly effective in managing utilities in large industrial and warehouse facilities, delivering financial benefits and simplifying the day-to-day work of managers and technicians responsible for the infrastructure.