Digital turnaround for a leading European credit institution, which by implementing the ADVERTO and TENEO platforms manages and controls electricity consumption, air conditioning systems and real estate assets.

Properties to manage, branches across Italy, plants that consume thousands of KWh and in need of control, maintenance and monitoring to reduce costs. The puzzle for the energy managers of a credit institution, leader in Italy and in Europe, was complex and difficult to solve. However, the Bank has found the key word to solve the puzzle: Softeco, with its platform for remote control of air conditioning systems, consumption monitoring and asset management.

Softeco and its innovative platform are the plus for facility management

Founded in 1979, a digital company of the TerniEnergia Group, Softeco is a leader in the ICT market and is the ideal partner for the supply of digital solutions for business development. The system supplied to the Credit Institute remotely monitors the technological systems of around 1300 properties and manages over 150,000 assets on 4,000 buildings. The ADVERTO and TENEO platforms support the facility companies, which manage the banking operator’s real estate portfolio.

More efficient systems thanks to digital technologies

Thanks to the calendars programmed to set the local temperature set-up and the switching on / off of the systems, the branches no longer intervene manually. “Thus the customer has introduced high standards of general efficiency and can verify the correctness of the parameters and optimal management of the plants by the Facility Management Companies – explains Massimo Mannori, DG of Softeco -. The correlation between operating data and consumption allows us to determine a set of KPIs to evaluate the activity of maintenance personnel “. But the tool is not the “watchdog” of the facility manager. On the contrary, it is an ally of the asset owner and a support for those who manage the plants, with a win-win logic. “By implementing the data with additional features and bundled with different sensors – continues Mannori – other benefits are generated. With presence sensors, for example, the lamps are switched on or off, or the luminous flux is adjusted according to the external light ”.

Maintenance changes paradigm and becomes “predictive”

The system is equipped with Optimal Start and Stop Control (OSSC) which, thanks to machine learning, optimizes the switching on and off times of the air conditioning and heating systems, depending on outside temperatures and weather conditions. In this way optimal comfort is obtained from the opening to closure of the branch, without wasting energy. But that is not all. By controlling the pressure differences upstream and downstream of the filters of the Air Treatment Units, predictive maintenance was introduced, anticipating possible failures, avoiding blockages and plant shutdowns, managing intervention times. Or, again, by measuring other parameters, such as fluid temperatures, flow rate and pressure, malfunctions have been identified in the refrigeration units, heat pumps, burners and electrical systems.

The customer wins the challenge thanks to data analysis

“We do not provide the customer only with big data, but with good data, measuring and analyzing this amount of information – concludes Softeco’s DG -. Thus we identify trends and process drifts, intervening in a timely and / or predictive manner on the components. Having to monitor a number
high number of systems installed on multiple sites, effective alarm automatisms have been generated ”.
Rebus resolved, then. And objective achieved: lower costs, reduced consumption, greater efficiency and a significant contribution to the environment, which today the Bank can boast in its sustainability report.