Eaton launches new building energy management software

Eaton has designed its new software to integrate EV chargers, solar panels, battery energy storage and an external electricity supply, and make the energy flows between these assets and the grid clear to see, as well as easy to manage on a simple dashboard.

Commercial and industrial building owners can avoid high energy bills for electric vehicle (EV) charging, and use more zero-carbon energy, by installing the new software to monitor and manage how their buildings produce and consume energy.

Fabrice Roudet, General Manager of Eaton’s Energy Transition Division, EMEA, says, “Our new software provides unique insight and control for building managers, facilities managers, and fleet managers. They can use it, even in a relatively small building, to manage renewable energy strategically and charge electric vehicles as cheaply and sustainably as possible.”

Its new cyber secure software intelligently analyses data that includes the building’s own previous energy use, energy prices, and even weather forecasts to provide accurate predictions of expected solar production and consumption. This helps the user to make very efficient use of renewable energy for EV charging and other electrical requirements to reduce the amount of power its building takes from the grid, while at the same time ensuring its services are run effectively and occupant comfort is maintained.

In this way, users can avoid the peak grid usage fees that can be triggered by EV charging, reduce the building’s energy bills, and minimise its carbon footprint to comply with net zero building regulations that exist, or are upcoming, throughout Europe.

The new software is integral to Eaton’s buildings as a grid approach to the energy transition, which means transforming a building into an energy hub. Typical implementation involves using it with the company’s xStorage battery energy storage system to deploy output from a PV array either for substituting peak power from the grid or selling to the grid with resulting revenue offsetting energy bills.

“By implementing the buildings as a grid approach at Eaton’s own office, the base for our EV Charging Centre of Excellence in Le Mont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland, we saved an average of €1,700 per month on energy bills in 2022, despite soaring energy prices, and reduced carbon emissions by an average of one ton per month. This included savings generated by facilitating the transition to EVs for our employees,” concludes Fabrice.