SMART BUILDINGS EMBRACING SUSTAINABILITY – CLEAN TECH PARK IN SINGAPORE by Marcus Koh Leong Hai, Energy Research Institute, Nanyang Technological University (ERI@N) Briefly put: Nanyang Technological University is developing an intelligent eco-building management system at Clean Tech One at Clean Tech Park, Singapore’s first eco- business park. It will feature a smart management system, for research on energy efficiency verification and intelligent control for buildings. With more than S$1 billion of research funding in the area of sustainability, Nanyang Technological University (NTU) started research into sustainable technologies back in the 1990s, when the city state of Singapore began to express a clear need for new and reclaimable sources of water. Though the concept of ‘sustainable development’ was not widely discussed at that time, the government of Singapore had the notion that making the most of scarce natural and energy resources was fundamental to attaining a good quality of life in the long run. Leading the research field in sustainability, NTU took a comprehensive approach towards research and development in water issues, alternative energy sources, clean technologies, urban systems and geological concerns. Under the university’s Five Peaks of Excellence, areas of research in which NTU hopes to make its international mark, ‘Sustainable Earth’ is the most important peak, and has also contributed to driving Singapore’s economy. As the world’s population continues to grow and with increasing migration to urban areas, the path towards a ‘Sustainable Earth’ includes developing sustainable cities and defining how to successfully evolve urban infrastructures and resources. NTU is putting special effort into smart building management, exploring new and innovative ways to ensure energy effi ciency and reduce overall energy consumption. Completed in 2012, Clean Tech One adopted many clean technology solutions. The building integrates a weather station which tracks temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind speed and wind direction. The challenge now is to collect information on all the energy supply and consumption throughout the building, in order to analyse it and provide effective energy effi ciency recommendations. In order to facilitate the analysis of the information, ERI@N is developing an intelligent eco-building management system to be implemented at Clean Tech One. Since the world is heading towards smart power grids, being able to verify energy effi ciency and to have intelligent control for buildings will be a boon. This project will be one of the pioneering research efforts in the Southeast Asian region, as it attempts to set a benchmark for smart building systems. The eco-building management system will be based on PE.AMI and PE.WSNi, two innovative solutions developed by engineering company Paradox Engineering. With these advanced technologies, the building will be equipped with a reliable wireless sensor network, which can then be used to implement a flexible and scalable communication infrastructure as well as several control functions. Within the wireless full mesh network, nodes will interface existing measurement and sub-metering instruments to collect data from the weather station and socket electricity consumption measured by energy meters. These diverse pieces of information will be analysed through a central analysis engine through PE.AMI and PE.WSNi gateways, where data will be standardised for processing, trending and analysis. This engine will operate as a sort of an intelligent database to analyse data, generate real-time optimal resources and load planning schemes. The analysis will represent the basis of programmes to improve energy effi ciency at ERI@N. The wireless sensor network may also enable basic control functions to carry out the dimming of lights, temperature settings of air conditioning, with partial automatic adjustments depending on forecasted weather condition or building load profiles. Moreover, the monitoring system will provide verification on the effectiveness of the system. Beyond the intelligent eco-building management system for ERI@N, additional outputs of this research initiative include The test bed for many of such projects is at the Energy Research Institute (ERI@N), at Clean Tech One, one of Singapore’s most sustainable buildings located at Clean Tech Park. A six-storey building with two towers, it has over 37 000 square metres of space, housing local and international organisations working on clean technologies, including NTU’s NEWRI and ERI@N, the Solar Energy Research Institute of Singapore (SERIS) and clean technology companies. 34 METERING INTERNATIONAL ISSUE - 3 | 2014