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High Voltage Energy Monitoring at Hobart Airport
Using IoT to remotely monitor energy consumption and quality
BACKGROUND
Hobart Airport stands as the primary gateway to Southern Tasmania, serving as a hub for tourism, cargo, and crucial deliveries to Antarctica. As Australia's ninth busiest airport, it annually welcomes over 2.6 million passengers, and is a major economic contributor to the Tasmanian economy.
Hobart Airport is responsible for the ownership, operation, and maintenance of the comprehensive utility infrastructure spanning a 565-hectare site. The precinct encompasses diverse infrastructure, ranging from domestic and international terminals, aircraft pavements, and visitor parking to car rentals, freight facilities, and general aviation spaces. Hobart Airport also hosts critical services like the Royal Flying Doctor Service, air traffic control tower, and BioSecurity operations.
In 2024, Hobart Airport will commence $200 million of investment to double the size of the current terminal as well as critical developments of the precinct including ground transport. With passenger numbers forecast to reach 3.5 million by 2030 this development will meet current and future growth into the state and deliver a uniquely Tasmanian experience for all who come through the doors.
CHALLENGES
The static nature of the meter data meant that Hobart Airport lacked insights into historical power usage levels and patterns. There arose a need for more granular visibility into energy usage data and alignment to National Metering Standards.
Existing practices were identified as being inefficient and costly, requiring electrical staff to manually read analogue energy meters installed across the airport site. Depending on the billing arrangement with tenants, readings occurred either monthly or quarterly, requiring at minimum a day’s effort by a qualified electrician and then subsequent accounting processing. Once collected, the tenant was billed accordingly.
The lack of insight into historical power usage levels and patterns also meant that the Hobart Airport could not delve into consumption specifics, or create efficiencies through the automation of tenant billing processes. Enhanced visibility was needed to facilitate better forecasting of usage needs throughout the site, aiding in the strategic planning of infrastructure developments in line with Hobart Airport’s 2023 Energy Strategy.
SOLUTION
To meet these objectives, Indicium, alongside our electrical engineering partner Enginuity Power Solutions, installed 80 NMI-compliant energy meters across the airport site. The meters were equipped with LoRaWAN IoT nodes, allowing them to remotely collect energy usage data, which could be stored and displayed in real-time, and be integrated into billing systems to automate billing for airport tenants.
Indicium also deployed monitoring capabilities across the Airport’s high-voltage network to provide real-time alarms triggered by threshold exceedance. This assists in assessing the network's future design, identifying upgrade needs, and evaluating the existing infrastructure's capacity to accommodate additional power loads, such as EV chargers.
Data is accessible via Indicium Cloud, where Hobart Airport staff can access live information and historical reports on energy usage and power quality across the site. Enabling them to better monitor and subsequently manage their private high-voltage power network.
Through the creation of customer-specific dashboards, airport tenants can access their data, empowering them to make decisions around their energy use to improve efficiencies and reduce their carbon footprint.
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PROJECT BENEFITS
Data insights gained from historical analysis will enable the Airport to work with tenants to help them implement energy-saving initiatives, and then be able to demonstrate the impact of these changes using the data as a transparent and trustworthy source of evidence.
WIDER SCALE ENERGY SAVINGS
The collection and access to accurate and real-time data by both airport staff and tenants have provided transparent insight into energy use. This resulted in the airport rectifying a situation in which a tenant was being undercharged for the energy consumed.
ACCURATE & TIMELY DATA
The historical storage and analysis of the data made possible with the INDICIUM Stack means that airport staff can now track power usage patterns over time, and can export the data for reporting requirements
EASY REPORTING
Using IoT technologies has allowed for the automation of data collection, removing the need for manual inspections and allowing for the redeployment of electrical labour to maintain other electrical components on-site to ensure the reliable operation of services for visitors and tenants.
AUTOMATION OF DATA COLLECTION
The storage of data in the INDICIUM Platform provides a basis to better understand patterns of usage and performance of the power system/grid, improving the predictive capabilities of airport energy managers to meet the change in energy requirements as they prepare for the upcoming infrastructure upgrades across the site.
IMPROVED PREDICTIVE CAPABILITIES