With current environmental and global warming concerns being heavily politicised, reviews and amendments of government policies and industry standards occur regularly to meet the needs of the environment. The National Construction Code (NCC) and Building Code of Australia (BCA) underwent major changes in early 2020.
The updated codes now require commercial and industrial premises to monitor their energy usage, making building owners accountable for energy used in various applications within their building. The Department of Energy reports that commercial buildings account for approximately 25 per cent of overall electricity usage in Australia, emphasising the importance of the updates.
The following key changes apply to both low voltage and medium voltage applications across all commercial and industrial buildings, outlined in Section J8.3 of the NCC.
- A building or sole-occupancy unit with a floor area of more than 500m2 must have an energy meter configured to record the time-of-use consumption of gas and electricity
- A building with a floor area of more than 2,500m2 must have energy meters configured to enable individual time-of-use energy consumption data recording energy consumption of air-conditioning plant, artificial lighting, internal transport devices, appliance power, central hot water supply and other ancillary plant. This does not apply to Class 2 buildings where the total area of the common areas is less than 500m2
- Energy meters required for a floor area more than 2,500m2 must be interlinked by a communication system that collates the time-of-use energy consumption data to a single interface monitoring system where it can be stored, analysed and reviewed
IPD offers Socomec’s Digiware system, a complete power monitoring system with an unbeatable reputation for high performance. The Digiware system has metering systems available for both alternating current (AC) and direct current (DC) applications and provides end-to-end energy monitoring. The system has an AutoCorrect plug and play installation, meaning it will automatically correct itself if an installation was completed incorrectly.
With energy monitoring becoming increasingly important and a responsibility to comply with updated standards, implementing solutions such as Socomec’s Digiware system is highly valuable.
This sponsored editoiral was brought to you by IPD. Find out more information on energy management solutions here: http://bit.ly/3FBkf1s or contact an IPD representative on 1300 556 601 today.
