SkyFoundry is excited to announce a comprehensive new case study - Analytics in Action at the University of British Columbia, UBC’s Pathway to Driving Value from Big Data
The case study, based on recent presentation by UBC on a webinar hosted by Yorkland Controls, highlights the multi-year deployment of SkySpark to the energy, control, and equipment systems across the UBC campus.
The case study provides detailed examples of analytics use cases and the technical and financial results achieved. SkySpark has become an invaluable part of the UBC conservation group’s efforts, generating more than $10 million per year in recurring savings*. It’s truly an exciting and informative read. Find the UBC Case Study here
Machine Learning and other AI-based techniques continue to gain attention as they are applied to real world challenges. In the field of analytics in the built environment, SkySpark has employed a range of AI techniques since its introduction – well before the terms were hot. The foundation of SkySpark is its pattern recognition capability and technology to manage and interpret “graph” relationships between data, devices and equipment systems.
Real world examples are the best way to highlight how these technologies actually deliver value to facility operators and we are excited to publish a case study, Energy Twin: SkySpark-based Machine Learning for Monitoring-Based Commissioning. Developed and implemented fully in SkySpark, Energy Twin, is a machine learning application for energy consumption analysis that reveals areas for energy use reductions and system optimization.
In this case study, the Energy Twin team, a SkyFoundry partner, showcases their work in applying these advanced techniques to monitoring based commissioning. Access the Energy Twin case study here
We are excited to introduce a new SkySpark App focused on Greenhouse Gas Performance. The new GhG App allows greenhouse gas emissions to be easily calculated from energy consumption data.
Read the official GhG App Press Release here
The GhG App provides the ability to look up emission-source data available online from government agencies to simplify the configuration of location-specific emission factors to enable accurate GhG calculations. Examples of online resources that have been integrated include the US Environmental Protection Agency Emissions & Generation Resource Integrated Database (eGrid) for individual eGrid subregions (searchable via zip code or individual states/territories), and the US Environmental Protection Agency Emission Factors Hub for Natural Gas and Propane. If a source for a specific location or fuel type is not available via an online resource, an emission source and conversion factors can be defined manually. Once an emission source is created, it is easily associated with the device that measures consumption data, such as an electric meter or gas meter.
SkyFoundry has formally announced the release of Haxall, our new initiative that open sources many of SkySpark’s core software modules. We are open sourcing these proven software components will streamline development and reduce the cost of creating IoT devices for the built environment (BIoT). We believe this will directly help to accelerate the transition to data-driven, intelligent buildings.
To read Haxall Press Release click here
What Is Haxall
We are excited to publish a new case study that explores the application of data analytics in a district energy system.
Xcel Energy owns and operates a district energy system in downtown Denver offering steam heating and chilled water cooling to a variety of large customers. With the support of SkyFoundry partner Group 14 Engineering, Xcel Energy deployed analytics software using near real-time data from the entire system—resulting in a variety of benefits.
We are excited to inform the community of the publication of the Spring 2021 Haystack Connections Magazine! This issue commemorates the 10th Anniversary of Project Haystack, founded in March 2011, and highlights the continued advancement of the Haystack standard and the commitment of the community to further enhance the value the Haystack semantic tagging standard brings to the built environment.
Articles highlight new releases of Haystack 4 technology, new corporate members of the Haystack organization, a new JSON encoding standard, new advertisers and supporters, Haystack tagging in Niagara, Data Standardization for Retail applications, Working Group updates, detailed information on the upcoming Haystack Connect 2021 event which will be held online May 4-6, and a retrospective on past Haystack Connect conferences.
We are excited to publish a new case study that explores the use of data analytics to manage energy costs in Cannabis grow facilities. These sophisticated indoor agriculture facilities are one of the most energy-intensive segments across regulated and competitive markets in North America.
SkyFoundry partner GrowFit Analytics shares expert insight into how the application of data analytics brings myriad benefits to this expanding industry.
To read the case study click here.
For more information on GrowFit Analytics, visit: https://growfitanalytics.com/
In an increasingly interconnected world, the need for a diverse range of systems to communicate and interact with one another has grown exponentially. For those managing the systems, this raises the question of how and where to structure and process the vast quantities of data being generated. While many will initially look to either Cloud Computing or Edge Computing, neither one is capable of fully addressing the complexity of this issue alone.
This is where a distributed architecture comes in. A distributed computing environment allows for multiple computing nodes connected together to share data and communicate with each other, and execute functions at all levels of the system, from the Edge to the Cloud. It is where benefits of both Cloud and Edge Computing intersect, a key requirement to effectively derive value from the data produced by the IoT.
SkyFoundry’s John Petze recently joined President of Harbor Research Glen Allmendinger for an in-depth discussion on distributed architectures and Edge-to-Cloud IoT architectures. An internationally recognized research, technology and business development consulting firm, Harbor Research has predicted, tracked and driven the development of the Internet of Things for the past 30 years.
In this issue of the Insider, we are excited to highlight major enhancements included in the latest release (3.0.28) of SkySpark. First, we highlight our newest presentation feature we call Cards. Cards make it easy to create customized dashboards of operational data and performance metrics. Cards bring easily configurable dashboarding to SkySpark to provide easy-to-understand summaries of key operational metrics with both live and static data.
Other major enhancements include a suite of new features that streamline the setup of notifications – automatically emailing essential information to users based on their specific areas of interest or job responsibilities.
SkyFoundry’s John Petze recently took part in a webinar presented by the Energy Management Association. Entitled Utilizing a Distributed Data and Computing Architecture in Analytics Applications, John was joined by colleagues from BASSG, Altura Associates and ATS Automation to discuss applying analytics from the "edge" to the cloud. A video of the webinar is available here.