Fabio Mercurio, global head of strategy, sustainability & portfolio management at ABB Electrification's Smart Buildings Division, reveals how innovations in digital and electrification technology can help improve energy efficiency and reduce emissions from commercial and residential infrastructure.
All around the world, across multiple industry sectors, in both commercial and residential buildings, digital technologies and innovations in electrical installations are accelerating our journey to net zero.
Evolutions ranging from labor-saving designs that help address skills shortages; increased circularity to reduce materials used in product manufacturing; and advancing technology based on open standards, are all quietly helping to improve energy efficiency and decarbonize our buildings.
One revolutionary electrical innovation, the miniature circuit breaker (MCB), is celebrating 100 years since its patent this year. With nearly a quarter of all fires occurring in residential buildings, this little device transformed the way we live by enabling safe homes and workplaces1.
From the first resettable device, today’s MCB still sets standards for performance, compact size, and connectivity, and it has evolved to play a key role in powering and protecting the buildings of the future, something that is vital to the energy transition.
The operations of buildings account for 30 percent of global final energy consumption and 26 percent of global energy-related emissions2. As a technology leader in electrification and automation, ABB is at the core of accelerating the energy transition.
The power behind the smart communities of the future
Just as industrial and commercial systems are being digitalized and decarbonized, so too are residential buildings being transformed, ushering in a new era of connected communities where eco-savvy ‘prosumers’ maximize their use of self-generated energy by engaging with flexible and autonomous technology3.
As home residents, we can now manage everything from lighting to car charging via an App. Apply these solutions to larger, mixed-use commercial buildings and there is real potential to increase energy efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint of the built environment and combat climate change on a meaningful scale.
The challenge lies in meeting differing (and sometimes conflicting) customer needs. Take a multi-unit space, for example; here, customers may range from a building owner and facility manager to the individual tenants. Considering the different functions buildings rely on, everything from the electrical and mechanical installations to elevators, escalators, and security systems, integrating data to optimize energy efficiency and comfort for all users can be complex, and unique to each building.
Yet when all technologies, irrespective of the brand or manufacturer, communicate with one another, such complexity can be eliminated – but wait, enabling greater connectivity and integration between various devices can also boost energy efficiency and, ultimately, accelerate building decarbonization.
A new project in Sweden is a compelling case in point. The partnership between ABB Electrification’s Smart Buildings division and Samsung Electronics is part of a trend of large industry organizations collaborating to develop and deploy integrated smart home and energy management technologies.
The homes at Brobyholm, near Stockholm, will be the first buildings in the world to access a single, holistic smart home solution through a joint ABB-free@home and Samsung SmartThings system to ensure they can manage their households smoothly.
As well as bringing comfort and convenience to occupants and building owners alike, collaborations like this one deliver improvements in critical areas such as energy efficiency; for example, solar energy is integrated and off-peak tariffs can be utilized, while simultaneously supporting grid optimization and achieving lower energy costs.
Setting new standards for home connectivity
Part of the interoperable smart home technologies in Brobyholm are made possible by solutions using Matter and Thread, the universal home connectivity standards. Matter facilitates connection between different systems, and is backed by Apple, Google, Amazon, and Samsung, among other major players, to boost interoperability between smart devices and platforms.
Thread, on the other hand, is the wireless protocol that allows devices to seamlessly speak to each other. Supported by all major platforms, they enable the secure, open interconnection of previously separated worlds, ensuring that a diverse range of smart home devices and technology operate in complete harmony.
Decarbonizing buildings and fighting global warming is beyond any single individual or organization. By working together on open systems solutions, we can provide the right kind of connectivity access and functionality to property managers, while also individualizing homes for tenants and residents.
Ensuring smart and sustainable functionality is embedded at the beginning of a build – from design to construction – creates future-proof buildings. But retrofitting is also crucial, particularly in Europe, where around 40 percent of the buildings were constructed before the 1960s4.
It’s through partnership, collaboration and pulling together, that we can create the comfortable, cost-effective, and sustainable communities of the future.
1 https://www.iea.org/energy-sys...
2 ‘Opening the door to the smart, connected homes of the future’ – Lucy Han, ABB, Sept 2023
3 https://new.abb.com/news/detai...
4 ‘Smart solutions to the issue of buildings emissions’ – Oliver Iltisberger, ABB, August 2021