One of the main themes of the G8 Hokkaido Toyako Summit was global environmental issues. As various solutions are put in place to reduce CO2 emissions, the University of Tokyo launched a project to save energy using IT, by connecting networks of facility control management systems. Building No. 2 of the Faculty of Engineering at Hongo Campus was chosen for that purpose.
Which business uses the most power in Tokyo? The answer may surprise you. It is the Tokyo University Faculty of Engineering at Hongo Campus. Many experiment equipments for research and computers are currently running the Faculty of Engineering of the Tokyo University. In fact, the daily power consumption of one floor the building is equivalent to that of a small factory. Inevitably, the amount of CO2 emissions is high. The total amount of CO2 emissions generated at the Faculty of Engineering is higher than that of Haneda Airport (Tokyo International Airport) and high-rise buildings in the city, which means the Tokyo University Faculty of Engineering is the place with the highest amount of CO2 emissions in all of Tokyo.
“Green Tokyo University Project” aims to reduce CO2 emissions generated at the campus by using IT. The project has specific targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 15% by 2015 and by 50% by 2030. As the first step, they will use HD-PLC to make power consumption “visible”. This has been attracting attention since 2007 and is based on “Green IT” actively being promoted by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. In other words, this is based on the idea of reducing the effects on the environment using IT. Through the Green Tokyo University Project, they feel they can spread the concept of Green IT by actually developing an advanced model based on the idea.
• Tokyo University Project first aims to make power consumption “visible”. Caluculates power consumption of the equipments individually and collects data via PLC adaptors for analysis
Generates graphs in real-time to show power consumption per equipment
The first step in this project is to install commercial power meters to all equipments to be monitored, such as computer servers in the Faculty of Engineering Building No. 2. All power meters are connected to PLC adaptors and power consumption data of equipments measured by the power meters will be sent to administrative computers via power lines. This system allows the data to be visible; power consumption data sent via power line and PLC adaptors will be displayed on the computer screen in real-time.
Although a system which can display power consumption data on distribution panels already exists, using HD-PLC can make the detailed data of each equipment more visible. The big difference with HD-PLC is that it can display an overview of the status of the power consumption based on location or per user.
• Demonstration at “Interop Tokyo 2008” held in June, 2008. Power meters and PLC adaptors are connected to the equipment to be monitored (in this case a TV). The data is visible; power consumption data sent via power line is displayed on the administrative computer screen in real-time
Although this system visually shows the amount of power consumption as it gradually changes using a graph, it is not enough for each user to maintain a strong awareness about saving power simply by proclaiming its importance. However, if power consumption by each individual is reported frequently, they will naturally become aware of the problems, and furthermore, will try to address the problems voluntarily. After the system of making power consumption visible is put in place, the project is planning to move on to the next phase to save power by controlling equipments via the Internet. The first task is to instill the basic habit of saving power to each individual with a system using HD-PLC.
PLC adaptors used in this project comes equipped with serial port* for connecting to power meters. Plans to develop this model to go on the general market are currently under consideration. According to Panasonic Communications Co., Ltd., combining PLC adaptors and power meters, or building both power meters and PLC adaptors into equipments are also in the works.
*serial port: an interface for computers which adopts the methodology where data is sent in order. RS-232C is an example.
