Effects of introducing the improved energy management system in the Urgent Care Center of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina

Abstract

The Urgent Care Center of the Clinical Center of Vojvodina in city of Novi Sad, Republic od Serbia, as a specific medical facility with very demanding conditions of work and functioning, has an extensive and constant energy demands. The building is new, set into operation in 2010. The state-of-the-art concept and the equipment installed create conditions for using advanced solutions in the framework of supervisory and control systems, increasing energy efficiency and reducing operating costs in the Urgent Center. The aim of this paper is the assessment of additional possibilities for increasing energy efficiency in the building using a number of control techniques available today. According to a source of energy, the most utilized is the electric power, which is consumed for air conditioning, compressed air, and lighting. Thermal energy is used for space heating in winter and the preparation of hot water. The first step in increasing energy efficiency was the continuous monitoring and recording of consumption. The next step was the analysis of the energy consumption and the discovery of critical areas of consumption. The final step was related to the plans and algorithms for the energy reduction. To this goal, the energy consumption in the period March 2014-February 2016 was measured and recorded. According to that measuring and data analysis, an expert system based on the methods of computational intelligence that combines all the developed actions and algorithms for increasing energy efficiency in one unit was implemented.