Customer Case Study
Portuguese Schools Cut Energy Use by
25 Percent
Executive Summary
• Customer Name: Parque Escolar
EPE - Portuguese Public Company
• Industry: Education
• Location: Lisbon, Portugal
• Number of Employees: 3600
students and staff
Challenge
• Control and monitor energy
consumption from all new
equipment installed
• Better coordinate energy
management activities between
schools and maintenance and
central administrative office
• Raise community energy efficiency
awareness and encourage “green”
behaviors
Solution
• Schneider Electric-VerdiemCisco EnergyWise partnership for
centralized energy management
solution
• Help enable integration with local
renewable energy production and
with smartgrid
• Display and use real-time energy
data as educational tool at schools
to promote conservation
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Cisco, Schneider Electric, and Verdiem
deliver unified energy management
across lighting, HVAC, and ICT
infrastructures.
Challenge
The Ministry of Education and Science in Portugal oversees public schools across the
country and counts “improving the quality of student learning” and “strengthening the
working conditions, resources, and autonomy of schools” among its principal goals. One
of the ways that the Ministry pursues its mission is with the help of Parque Escolar, a
public company formed in 2007 to help implement an infrastructure modernization plan for
public high schools nationwide. The company is charged with renovating school buildings,
creating an efficient and effective facility management system, and helping enable better
integration of schools with the community.
As part of these renovations, Portuguese schools benefitted from structural and infrastructural improvements, namely the addition of heating, air conditioning, and ventilation
systems (HVAC). A state-of-the-art technology infrastructure, including an integrated
wired-wireless Cisco network, was also deployed at over 1000 public high schools
nationwide. Despite the use of energy-saving designs and materials, several newly
renovated schools showed a significant increase in energy usage (in some cases, power
bills doubled or tripled) as compared to pre-renovation numbers. This increase was
found to be not only due to school enlargement but also to the introduction of new
systems, in particular HVAC and also, to some extent, an increase in information and
communications technology (ICT) equipment such as PCs, interactive boards, IP phones,
and networking devices.
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Executive Summary (continued)
Results
• Achieved 25 percent energy
reduction on ICT devices
• Optimized energy use by HVAC and
lighting systems cut costs
• Developed greater awareness to
help change energy use behaviors
within community
To identify and test cost-effective resolutions to the problem, Parque Escolar joined the
Connected Urban Development (CUD) initiative. This Cisco commitment to the Clinton
Global Initiative consists of a set of partnerships with cities worldwide on the use of ICT
to promote innovative practices for reducing carbon emissions, while fostering economic
growth and improving the quality of life.
With the CUD Lisbon project, Parque Escolar partnered with Cisco, Schneider Electric,
Verdiem, and the local electric utility EDP-Energias de Portugal to explore innovative
solutions for a follow-on energy reduction program to reduce operating costs while
maintaining a safe and comfortable learning environment. Three Lisbon high schools,
Fonseca Benevides, D.Dinis, and Rainha D. Amélia, were chosen for pilot projects. Each
school serves nearly 1000 students and employs about 200 faculty and staff. The ten
buildings at the schools comprise over 71,000 square feet of classroom, office, and
public spaces.
Solution
“This Cisco-Schneider
Electric-Verdiem initiative
delivers greater energy
efficiency and important
cost savings for Portugal’s
schools. At the same
time, it fosters “green”
individual behaviors and
organizational policies
that help increase
the momentum for
sustainability on a
global scale.”
— Parque Escolar
Cisco, Schneider Electric, and Verdiem consolidated all relevant sources of energy
consumption via a single, unified IP network-based approach, helping enable realtime energy monitoring and management. The solution integrates Cisco EnergyWise™
technology with Schneider Electric EcoStruxure architecture, which includes management
of ICT devices, as well as lighting, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems. Verdiem
Surveyor software provides a single control pane to monitor, optimize, and regulate energy
use by all ICT devices and systems across all ten buildings at the three schools. The three
pilot schools were among the first worldwide beta testers of EnergyWise with Surveyor
and its integration with the Schneider Electric solution. Onsite work was delivered by
Regra, a Cisco partner in Portugal. Local renewable energy production and a bi-directional
energy and data connection to the electrical grid are also expected to improve the energy
monitoring and management system for the schools. Renewable sources presently installed
at all three schools include solar thermal, solar photovoltaic, and wind micro-turbines.
The solution also supports IP-based communication with the EDP-Energias de Portugal
electricity network to allow demand-side management and demand response (DSM/DR)
programs to further optimize the schools’ energy efficiency.
The energy management infrastructure leverages the schools’ new Cisco® Borderless
Network, consisting of Cisco Catalyst® switches, routers, and wireless access points.
The Cisco network equipment is embedded with support for EnergyWise, an energy
management protocol based on Cisco IOS® Software for monitoring, controlling, and
reporting the energy use of network devices.
Verdiem Surveyor software provides the power management for ICT devices, helping
enable energy consumption control over approximately 600 PCs, 120 Cisco IP phones,
150 Cisco wireless access points, a video surveillance system with over 75 IP cameras,
and 60 Cisco Catalyst switches, with the potential for adding the interactive white boards
and projectors in classrooms. Within the solution, devices are grouped into several
categories, and management can select devices by any category to which they have been
assigned. Each device is identified by its location, type of device, and by department or type
of use. This arrangement allows granular development of policies to turn groups of devices
on and off for better energy management.
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© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Surveyor provides an easy-to-use, web-based console for a unified view of all the
networked devices. It generates energy management and IT efficiency reports that dive
down into data based on group, location, and other categories of interest. The software
also assists with a common need for the schools’ computers to receive software updates
overnight. For these situations, Surveyor integrates with Microsoft System Center and other
client management solutions, and Verdiem’s patented Wake-on-WAN capability provides a
network-friendly approach to reliably wake up computers for the updates and then turning
them off upon completion.
At Rainha D. Amélia School, a Schneider Electric building management system (BMS)
provides a dashboard to monitor and control the HVAC, lighting, and access control
systems. The BMS controllers integrate with room lighting systems and occupancy
detectors as well as key components of the HVAC system, including variable air volume
(VAV) air handlers, fan coil units (FCUs), heat pumps, and chilled beams. The open
architecture of the BMS allows cohesive integration with Cisco EnergyWise and
Verdiem Surveyor software.
In all three schools, the primary technique for network-managed energy savings consists
of scheduling the operation of HVAC, lighting, and ICT equipment to coincide with the
occupancy plan for the buildings. Core school hours and official school breaks are quite
similar at all three schools, but exam periods and night courses, as well as public usage
of facilities outside of school hours, can be quite different at each school. Despite the fact
that the details of device grouping and scheduling vary from school to school, the pilot
has proven an effective venue in which to test different approaches.
For example, most of the phones can be shut off at night, while emergency phones remain
active. Additionally, some devices are controlled based on occupancy or current use, such
as PCs running a specific application or used for specific services, such as backups. In
addition, so as not to interrupt work in progress by individual users, PC users receive popup messages that allow them to override or delay an impending shut-down command from
the central system.
Policies can also be applied to centrally turn off HVAC and lighting systems in all of the
buildings outside of occupancy hours. As a result, room temperatures can be maintained
at a comfortable level while student, staff, or community groups are present, and be set
to conserve power after hours. The lighting system controls provide automatic means to
optimize lighting based on three main variables: time, intensity, and occupancy. Because
lighting systems can create a significant heat load for a building, optimized lighting policies
can reduce the cooling load on the HVAC system for overall lower energy use.
The pilot included the launch of Web 2.0 tools to connect the schools and promote
engagement around energy conservation among students, teachers, and staff. Interactive
displays with real-time data, benchmarks, and carbon footprint calculators encourage
greater awareness and energy-saving behaviors among the school population. The use
of project results data as educational material also reinforces the fact that energy savings
promote sustainable school communities.
Results
Reductions in energy use by HVAC, lighting systems, and ICT devices at the schools are
expected to provide significant cost savings, which can then be applied by the schools
to capital improvements, teacher training, and other learning initiatives in concert with
its mission.
3
© 2013 Cisco and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. This document is Cisco Public Information.
Product List
Routing and Switching
• Cisco Catalyst 4500 E-Series
Switches
• Cisco Catalyst 3560 Series
Switches
• Cisco Catalyst 3750 Series
Switches
• Cisco Catalyst 2960 Series
Switches
• Cisco 4400 Series Wireless LAN
Controllers
• Cisco Aironet 1240AG Series
Access Points
• Cisco ASA 5500 Series Adaptive
Security Appliances
In one of the schools, centralized control and policies for ICT devices alone yielded a 25
percent reduction in their energy use, representing savings of approximately €10,000
per year. Although the ICT category represents only 10-20 percent of overall energy
consumption in renovated schools, if the solution were applied to all similar schools in
Portugal, savings on ICT device energy costs would amount to nearly €3 million annually.
The successes at Fonseca Benevides, D. Dinis, and Rainha D. Amélia provide a model for
energy savings at hundreds of similar schools in Portugal, and many thousands worldwide.
“We believe that we can be connected and green. In the 21st century, it should not have to
be a trade-off, as ICT has the potential to be the basis for helping us achieve our end goal:
to be carbon neutral and energy self-sufficient in every school in the country,” says João
Fernandes, director of Information Systems for Parque Escolar.
The pilot project is also providing learning opportunities. With school populations acting
as testers and evaluators, technically minded students can gain knowledge and apply
experience in the field of energy management. At Fonseca Benevides, for example,
students in technical degree programs took an active role in the end-to-end configuration
and deployment of the solution, successfully using their work in the pilot as the basis for
their final year degree project.
Many students are inspired to change their energy-use behaviors beyond school premises,
and some have expressed interest in pursuing careers in environmental sciences.
“This Cisco-Schneider Electric-Verdiem initiative delivers greater energy efficiency and
important cost savings for Portugal’s schools. At the same time, it fosters “green” individual
behaviors and organizational policies that help increase the momentum for sustainability on
a global scale,” says Parque Escolar.
For More Information
To find out more about Cisco EnergyWise, please visit: www.cisco.com/go/energywise.
For more information on Schneider Electric and its Building Management solutions, please
visit: www.schneider-electric.com/buildings.
For information on Schneider Electric’s Torana gateway integration with EnergyWise, please
visit: www.cisco.com/en/US/prod/collateral/switches/ps5718/ps10195/solution_overview_
c22-676327.pdf.
For more information on Verdiem and its Surveyor ICT device energy management solution,
please visit: www.verdiem.com.
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