ACR Journal

CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai CMYK / .ai acrjournal.uk 25 REFRIGERATION assets it seeks to integrate with, while also being able to communicate and interact with all types of controllers, sensors and systems. This is where IoT is getting really clever. The Technical Bit: integration and agnosticism When looking to deploy an IoT solution at scale, the key challenge faced is the proprietary nature of the infrastructure that is already in place. So much of the thinking behind IoT is based on the premise of a greenfield site where entirely new and compliant technology can be wheeled in and switched on. Unfortunately, reality is not quite so kind. In practice, an IoT solution would need to integrate with a complex range of existing legacy and modern equipment from a variety of manufacturers (OEMs), many of which use controllers with closed protocols or siloed monitoring systems – and all speaking di€erent data languages. All too often, IoT projects flounder on the requirement to integrate the old and the new in a seamless architecture, rendering the project unable to move beyond a pilot stage. E€ective IoT solutions must be able to integrate with existing infrastructure and legacy equipment to be a realistic option for most food retailers, especially at a time when few can a€ord to rip and replace their existing assets. In other words, the solution needs to be agnostic. An agnostic solution is one that communicates seamlessly across all levels and types of devices across the network. In layman terms, they can collect data from and optimise any device – legacy or brand new – without the need for costly infrastructure upgrades to the latest smart-assets. This ‘plug and play’ approach can provide almost immediate energy savings at minimal start-up cost. A second challenge for IoT solutions is being able to understand and contextualise the information being collected across all connected assets. To achieve this, data needs to be acquired, processed and analysed locally through what’s known as edge computing. This allows for both a cleaner dataset in which the data can be contextualised, but also for analytics to take place in real-time. It’s this real-time analysis that allows for rapid automation to take place – critical when responding to a potential fault. Edge-based processing enables the system to focus on exceptions from pre-determined rules, prioritising potential asset failures that threaten customer safety or energy eˆciency. Through this deeper operational understanding, IoT solutions can look for ineˆciencies in asset behaviour, schedule condition-based maintenance, drive predictive maintenance and identify root causes, such as compressor issues and temperature variation in refrigeration cases, that if unattended can lead to machine failure. A greener future for retail As the sector looks to adapt to the ‘new normal’, it must juggle its responsibilities to the environment with the economic uncertainty of our post-lockdown world. Balancing the two is crucial, but agnostic IoT is proving to be an important tool for food retailers. It is this real-time identification and correction of ineˆciencies and automated optimisation of assets that leads to significant reductions in energy consumption across a food retail estate. With an IoT solution capable of connecting all aspects of a store, combined savings in areas such as HVAC, lighting and refrigeration will drive down a retailer’s carbon footprint, streamline operations and improve customer experience, whilst positively impacting their bottom line. Seasonal temperature optimisation has been proven to reduce HVAC-related energy consumption by up to 10% and the use of sensor data to identify potential faults in a machine early can save anywhere between 40% to 75% of energy usage in a single asset by highlighting problems in compressor running times, operating capacity or operating condition. IoT is already having a huge impact across the food retail sector. Will it be an e€ective tool in decarbonising the sector? Well, last year, one major food retailer saved over 120,000 tonnes of CO2 just six months after integrating an IoT solution, equivalent to around 13,847 domestic homes’ energy use for one whole year, without having to replace a single piece of hardware. IoT is helping to ensure that supermarkets don’t need to break the bank to contribute towards building a greener future. www.ims-evolve.com