End-to-End Management System Framework for Smart Public Buildings

This paper presents a project aiming to design a complete framework to measure energy (electricity and gas) and water consumptions in a local Parish Council building and an adjacent Sports Hall located in the central part of Portugal. The goal is an end-to-end solution, from data acquisition to data analysis. Besides acquiring and storing the data, the aim is to make this information available and valuable to enhance better decisions in building management actions, to enable detection of situations of anomalous consumption and also to promote building users’ awareness. To pursue this goal, PLCnext technology solutions from Phoenix Contact are adopted. The system is based on a new generation industrial controller that communicates with energy and water meters distributed throughout the building using a standard Information Technology (IT) network. The solution explores Industry 4.0 concept, such as Cloud Data Management, Cybersecurity, and Machine Learning. With historic consumption records available, Machine Learning strategies are being used to predict load profiles in a short-term horizon and also planned to classify untypical consumption behaviors (for monitor and alarm purposes). This project is being deployed in partnership between Polytechnic of Leiria, EduNet International Education Network and involving the local Parish Council, owner of the monitored buildings.