Building Energy Management System (BEMS)

Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) are integrated systems for monitoring and controlling energy-related infrastructure and equipment within a building, such as heating, ventilation and air conditioning, lighting, on-site generation and other technologies. A wider Building Management System (BMS) is also able to control a wider range of building systems, such as fire alarms and smoke detectors, CCTV, lifts, doors and computer systems.

All this requires a complex, intelligent software system to manage various energy vectors, inputs, outputs and conditions. If properly implemented, this can provide much better control over energy usage and significant savings through greater efficiency. While BEMS are typically designed for large sites, they are increasingly available for buildings of all sizes.

Real-time remote monitoring is one of the hallmarks of a BEMS, giving an oversight of how a site is using energy and rapidly flagging up any errors or inefficiencies. This more in-depth understanding of how your site is operating in terms of energy use can be vital when it comes to improving your energy strategy, allowing opportunities to reduce costs, improve sustainability or increase efficiency to be readily identified and acted upon.

BEMS and BMS systems are examples of the rapidly increasing interconnectivity and digitisation of modern business sites. While the greater connectivity, control and insight this provides is highly valuable for a wide range of businesses and organisations, it also makes your site and infrastructure increasingly vulnerable to power disruption. It also means that traditional Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS), which typically protects only critical equipment, may no longer provide the resilience required. In the event of a power disruption, interconnected systems may remain unprotected and cause a site-wide shut down or disruption despite key equipment being protected. Instead, many organisations are increasingly turning towards technology that provides site-wide resilience, such as Battery Energy Storage Systems.