Energy monitoring for NH Hotels
NH Hotel Group is Europe’s third-ranked business hotel chain, with more than 180,000 employees and more than 380 hotels around the world. As a part of its corporate responsibility, the company has a strong commitment to the environment. Consequently, NH launched an environmental strategic plan to reduce energy consumption by 20% in their hotels.
In order to carry out this plan, the first step was to have a tool for energy-data visualization, so the company contacted Satel Spain and requested a monitoring system. Initially, the system was intended to be tested in a sample of hotels, extending it to the entire network in a second phase; hence, the chosen system had to be scalable. Furthermore, some hotels already had electricity meters, so NH wanted an open solution that could read meters from other manufacturers. Finally, they wanted an energy management platform, for which, Satel Spain decided to use DEXCell Energy Manager developed by the company Dexma. The reason was, the extensive features offered by this software.
NH Hotel Group (NH Hotels)
One of the 25 largest hotel chains in the world.
- 380 hotels
- Presence in 29 countries
- 60,000 rooms
- > 18,000 employees
- Commitment to reduce energy consumption by 20%
Energy monitoring system for all hotels of the chain, with a first phase, starting with 120 hotels in Spain in 2012 and a second phase of expansion to all hotels in Spain and abroad in 2013.
Electricity submetering : power (active, reactive, apparent), power, power factor, current, voltage, frequency. (X9)
Tariff meter (electricity) (x1)
Gas meter (from the utility company)
Water-meter (from the utility company)
- Datalogger OWA31ETH
- Electricity meters SenNet Meter
- Radio modems Satelline 1870 E
- Gateway Adam 4520
- Pulse counter DigiRail 4C
- Enclosures for Atex zone
2012 Pilot project. Monitoring of 120 hotels in Spain: electricity submetering, Water, Gas and Solar energy. Training
2013 Submetering for water, gas and solar energy in all hotels in Spain, hotels outside Spain
Solution proposed. Hardware diagram.
NH Hotels had to fulfill its commitment to reduce by 20% the energy consumption of its hotels. This was an essential aspect of its Environmental Strategic Plan, which is part of the Corporate Social Responsibility.
Given the characteristics of the hotels and given the size of the company, it was necessary to pay attention to the following technical requirements:
- Possibility to send data to external management software
- Robust platform, with capacity to monitor 370 hotels
- Possibility to monitor water, gas and electricity; at both, metering and submetering levels
- Able to monitor the electricity meters in Spain (IEC 870-5-102 protocol) and abroad (DLMS-COSEM and IEC 62056 mode C protocols)
- Capable of monitoring solar panels
- Possibility of communicating devices located in different floors with wireless connection
- Possibility of extending the scope of the solution in the future
After a technical visit, NH Hotels was offered an energy monitoring system that serve to detect inefficiencies and as a tool for decision making on energy efficiency.
The solution proposed by Satel Spain was based on the use of dataloggers, as the core of the monitoring system. The datalogger used offers a wide range of possibilities to monitor electricity meters, water, gas, etc. SenNet electricity meters were also used. Communications were both via cable and via radio frequency.
The software DEXCell Energy Manager, from the company Dexma, was proposed for the energy management, due to its outstanding performance.
The pilot project was ready in 3 hours. Subsequently, the customer was proposed a project carried out in two phases: a first phase of 120 hotels (metering gas, water and electricity and installing also electricity submeters).
An outstanding achievement of the project is that the Hotel Eurobuilding in Madrid – one of the flagships of the chain – was the first in the world to implement the ISO 50001. The solution proposed by SenNet Satel Spain, based on the datalogger and the management software was used as a tool for measuring energy performance.
The client was given a solution with centralized monitoring. All of the hotels are managed using the same platform. In addition, the system can be expanded at any time: more hotels can be monitored or more meters at each hotel can be installed.
Given the versatility of the solution, it is possible to expand the system to monitor comfort variables such as temperature or humidity.
Furthermore, the system can be easily transformed into a control system, since the dataloggers can act as remote controls. Alternatively, the monitoring system can be integrated into a building management system (BMS).
The solution also measures the energy performance of hotels and can be used to detect failures of certain equipment (boilers, lighting…).
- Savings in electricity consumption greater than 20%, which exceeded the initial target
- First hotel in the world to implement ISO 50001 using an energy-monitoring system
