E-World 2023: Make way for the ZENNER digitalisation express!
Published: 28. Apr 2023
ZENNER presents new solutions for efficient digitalisation
ZENNER will present its tried and tested solutions at the E-world energy & water 2023 in Essen, Germany. The focus is on innovative applications for cross-sector digitalisation as well as for energy efficiency and smart city solutions. These are given a new impetus with the Element Suite – a new IoT complete solution for cost-effective implementation of IoT solutions.
Digitalisation constantly needs new solutions to keep up with climate protection and energy efficiency requirements. The speed of implementation is also increasingly crucial, as it is now more important than ever to respond quickly to new situations. Cost-effective yet flexible technologies such as the Internet of Things and LoRaWAN® are thus increasingly becoming digital standards in metering, the building sector, the smart grid and the smart city.
Save energy costs with smart building solutions
Sustainability and energy efficiency continue to be important issues for the building sector. Measures to save heating energy are currently at the top of the agenda as well. To monitor the indoor climate in public buildings and control it accordingly, building administrators and facility managers need new solutions – such as intelligent radiator thermostat control via LoRaWAN®. ZENNER offers the IoT solution BuildingLink for this. BuildingLink enables entire buildings or specific areas to be controlled remotely, and temperatures can be adjusted according to the actual degree of use. Smart thermostats also automatically detect when a window has been opened and then temporarily turn down the radiator. This avoids inefficient energy consumption when heating, saves energy costs in the long term and protects the building fabric by recording additional values such as humidity and dew points.
Smart grid solutions provide transparency
The energy transition, with its current focuses on e-mobility, the heating transition and the use of renewable energies, is having a major impact on the stability of the electricity grids and presents electricity grid operators with ever new challenges. Valuable real-time data on the performance or condition of certain assets such as outflows, transformers and cable distribution cabinets is often missing. With the help of smart sensors and LoRaWAN®, the required data can be processed in an IoT platform, such as Element IoT from ZENNER, for the utility’s network control centre and forwarded for further processing in compliance with information security management. Monitoring detects unusual operational statuses at an early stage so that operators can react proactively – before disruptions occur. This makes the entire low-voltage network in the city transparent.
The Internet of Things creates digital diversity
The foundation of the smart city is its digital infrastructure. It determines whether and how quickly digital solutions can be implemented. In most cities and municipalities, it is still the municipal utilities that position themselves as service providers for general and digital public services. ZENNER provides the necessary technologies and tools for digitalisation. In this way, a wide range of smart city solutions can be implemented. These include intelligent car park monitoring (Smart Parking), smart street lighting (Smart Lighting) or fill level monitoring in waste containers (Smart Waste). Various smart building solutions that enable the networking and automation of buildings and thus save considerable amounts of CO2 also have a positive impact on sustainability.
Monitoring of waterways and flood detection
The water management sector can also use intelligent solutions such as flood detection via LoRaWAN®. The challenges resulting from climate change are already visible and will increase in the future. Cities and municipalities therefore need a demand-oriented and real-time provision of data via an IoT-based platform. With LoRaWAN®-supported monitoring of water levels with sensors at neuralgic points, relevant data can be automatically collected and forwarded to the necessary sites. Municipal utilities, the fire brigade or specialist relief organisations can intervene immediately and remedy the problem – ideally before any major damage occurs or lives are endangered.
Highlight: The new Element Suite
“Element Suite is the smart city’s digitalisation tool and can be used across all sectors and applications within the city,” explains René Claussen, Business Unit Manager IoT and Digital Solutions at ZENNER. “As an off-the-shelf solution for scalable IoT, Element Suite is much more than just another IoT platform, providing a fully digital end-to-end data flow from equipment assembly and commissioning to the final application.”
This is made possible by combining three components. The mobile application Element Go enables continuous digitalisation of installation processes without media disruption. Element IoT is the platform for IoT solutions operation as well as equipment, network, user and data management. Element Apps gives the user access to a low-code app construction kit that enables them to create their own visualisations with no programming knowledge required. In addition, Element Apps allows the use of ready-to-use out-of-the-box applications, such as ZENNER BuildingLink or GridLink. ZENNER has already successfully implemented over 300 IoT projects with public utilities and municipal utilities in Germany and has incorporated its experience into the development of this new complete IoT solution.
“Element Suite enables the implementation and mapping of cross-sector digitalisation from smart metering to smart cities,” says Claussen. “It doesn’t matter which application our customers start with. Successful use cases can be scaled and new ones easily added.”
ZENNER will be presenting its digital solutions for the Smart City at E-world energy & water 2023 in Hall 2, Stand 314.