Take a look through our crystal ball and be transported to an unusually hot summer’s day in 2030, where theatre-goers are due to attend the two performances taking place at the local theatre. Despite the heat, humidity and subsequent need to have a cool space, the facilities management teams aren’t worried about an increased use of air conditioning. Why? Because they aren’t going to increase the air conditioning at all! Fear not! This does not mean the audience will spend the next few hours in discomfort. Indeed, increasing the comfort of the theatre’s occupants doesn’t necessarily mean sacrificing carbon neutrality or Net Zero goals.
As the audience walks through the building for their pre-show refreshments, the area is cool and comfortable. It was ‘pre-cooled’ by the free, zero-carbon cooling; the result of filling the space with cool, fresh air overnight, in data-driven anticipation of the temperature profile the day ahead.
By the intervals, the facilities management team have moved on to proactively responding to an opportunity through their Grid Edge platform from their electricity supplier: to time-shift the theatre’s expected electric cooling duty to later in the day. They benefit from cheaper, renewable power as wind and solar generation ramps up throughout the afternoon.
As the day draws to a close the theatre’s facilities manager receives a Grid Edge notification alerting them to tomorrow’s energy profile, forecast by the buildings’ predictive algorithms. With the click of a button, they seamlessly send tomorrow’s newly optimised control strategy directly to their Building Management System (BMS), confident that they have taken all the right measures into consideration.