High-quality electricity data opened new possibilities for Savonia's research and development work
Savonia University of Applied Sciences needed as accurate electricity data as possible for the Ällilä research and development project. eWatt delivered raw data measured every 10 seconds — and the cooperation continued long after the project ended.
- Savonia University of Applied Sciences launched the Ällilä research and development project to analyse a campus building's energy use with real measurement data.
- The project needed the most accurate electricity data possible, so it could be combined with other measurements collected from the building.
- eWatt provided Savonia with raw electricity data measured every 10 seconds.
- The data was used in research and development work and combined with solar production, indoor air sensors, CO₂ measurements and other campus telemetry.
- During the project it became clear that accurate electricity data has far wider value than a single project — the cooperation between eWatt and Savonia continued afterwards.
When Savonia University of Applied Sciences launched the Ällilä research and development project, the goal was to examine a campus building's energy use with real measurement data.
The project did not only look at how much energy the building consumes. The aim was to understand how the building behaves as a whole and to review energy use together with the other measurements collected from it.
That called for the most accurate electricity data available — data that could be used in research and development work and combined with other information gathered on campus. Savonia turned to eWatt to get raw data for analysis.
What was the Ällilä project?
Ällilä was a research and development project in which a campus building's energy use was studied with real measurement data instead of estimates or billing history.
Rather than a single consumption figure, the researchers wanted to see the building as a system: how consumption behaves, how it correlates with other conditions, and where the improvement potential lies.
Traditional 15-minute or hourly data from the electricity company was not detailed enough for that purpose.
What eWatt provided
Building electricity consumption is traditionally reviewed using the 15-minute or hourly data supplied by electricity companies. eWatt provided Savonia with a considerably more accurate dataset.
Electricity was measured every 10 seconds and the data was delivered directly for Savonia's use. The measurements included active power, reactive power and per-phase values (L1, L2 and L3).
This made it possible to examine electricity data in far more detail and to combine it with the other measurements collected on campus.
How the data was used
Thanks to the accurate consumption data, Savonia's research and development work could examine the building's energy use in far more detail than traditional measurement data would ever have allowed. The data was used, for example, in:
- analysing the building's base load
- comparing active and passive use
- identifying phase imbalance
- reviewing active and reactive power
- assessing consumption peaks and their cost impact
- combining electricity consumption with solar production, indoor air sensors, CO₂ measurements and other campus telemetry
In addition, eWatt delivered Savonia information about the improvement targets it identified in the property, which helped improve energy efficiency.
Imagine watching a film by taking one photo every 15 minutes. You see the outcome, but not what happened between the frames.
When the same event is recorded every 10 seconds, small changes, anomalies and details become visible too — and they can be compared with everything else measured in the building.
High-quality electricity data is useful not only for energy monitoring, but also for research, development work and building entirely new energy solutions.
In the Ällilä project the accurate electricity data served as one of the primary research datasets. The 10-second interval allowed consumption to be examined in far more detail than conventional 15-minute data, and reviewing it alongside the building's other measurements produced a more complete picture of its energy use.
The cooperation continued after the project
The original goal was simply to deliver data for a research and development project. During the project, however, it became clear that accurate measurement data had considerably wider value both in research and in improving the property's energy efficiency. Savonia decided to continue working with eWatt after the first project as well.
Today eWatt's measurement data supports several research and development projects, and it is used among other things in developing AI-based energy analytics solutions. What started from the needs of a single project grew into a long-term partnership in which eWatt's data continuously supports new research and development work.