EcoEnergy Insights – Leading the way to make Building Operations in India more Sustainable

CXOToday has engaged in an exclusive interview with HAPS Dhillon, General Manager -Sales, EcoEnergy Insights

1. Tell us about EcoEnergy Insights – the company, how it began, its journey and where the company is today.

EcoEnergy Insights is a global leader in providing AI and IoT solutions and services for building and equipment operations, with its main offices in India in Bengaluru, Gurgaon and Mumbai. EcoEnergy Insights is recognized for its industry-leading AI platform, IoT solutions and command centers housing data scientists and domain experts.

The company was conceived as a start-up in 2008 inside a leading multi-national IT services corporation. EcoEnergy Insights designed and developed its own solutions, with its innovations winning multiple awards in the past few years. The company has also been granted 39 patents, with many more filed across multiple jurisdictions.

In 2017, EcoEnergy Insights became a part of Carrier Global Corporation, global leader in intelligent climate and energy solutions.

Today in India, EcoEnergy Insights has its IoT solutions deployed in over 3,500 sites in over 600 cities across leading customers in grocery, fashion & footwear retail, restaurants and banking. Over the years, the company has saved its customers over 121 million kWh. In addition to saving energy, EcoEnergy Insights can optimize maintenance costs, enhance occupant comfort and food safety, enabling customers to achieve their business goals while making their operations more sustainable.

2. What is EcoEnergy Insights’ take on India’s current focus on sustainability and energy-saving, its adoption? How is the company contributing in its own way towards India’s energy-saving initiatives?

India’s commitment to sustainable development and environmental conservation has gained significant momentum in the last decade. India has set ambitious goals to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070. India has a deep focus on sustainability and energy efficiency through its involvement in the Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI) and various national initiatives like Energy Conservation Building Codes (ECBC) and the National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency.

India’s sustainability goals make it imperative to focus on making buildings more energy efficient, given the rapid urbanization. According to the Alliance of Energy-Efficient Economy, commercial buildings currently constitute 33% of the total built space and is estimated to consume 320 TWh of energy by 2032. We at EcoEnergy Insights are leaders in developing technology solutions and services dedicated to making buildings more energy efficient along with associated aspects like equipment maintenance, to be more environmentally friendly as well.  The savings delivered by EcoEnergy Insights for all its customers across India so far have ranged from approximately 6% to 12%. Considering, a conservative estimate of 8%, EcoEnergy Insights can potentially help this segment to save 25.6 TWh of energy by 2032. This would result in avoiding a significant amount of carbon emissions and providing solutions to help fight climate change. By optimizing the equipment maintenance process for our customers, through the use of AI and remote services from our command centers, we can avoid unnecessary emissions by maintenance providers as well.

3. Why should businesses invest in IoT and AI for managing their buildings?

In an age where the significant focus is on transforming and making buildings energy-efficient and sustainable, businesses come across unique set of challenges in building management that can be resolved by the integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). Here are three compelling reasons why investment in AI and IoT is essential for modern enterprises.

1. Data-Driven Approach: AI and IoT enable businesses to acquire real-time insights into their building operations. By digitizing various processes and adopting a data-driven approach, building operations can be made traceable, thus fostering greater accountability among vendors and occupants. This transparency not only optimizes day-to-day operations but also builds trust within the building ecosystem.
2. Achieve Multiple Business Goals: These modern technologies empower businesses to ensure a comfortable yet highly efficient indoor environment. With AI and IoT, businesses can fine-tune not only indoor air quality and offer comfort to occupants but simultaneously meet their sustainability targets.
3. Future-Proof Building Operations: AI and IoT bring the power of automation to equipment operations, reducing labor intensity and the risk of human error. Predictive data analysis enables effective equipment management, minimizing downtime and maintenance expenses. It helps businesses achieve a proactive approach that ensures the uninterrupted functioning of critical building systems thereby saving resources and cost.

4. Give us an insight into EcoEnergy Insights solutions and services

Our solutions and services can be grouped under four categories:

• AI platform

The CORTIX^TM platform leverages AI to provide predictive insights, prescriptive recommendations and autonomous actions to optimize equipment and building operations. The CORTIX platform is part of Carrier’s Abound suite of connected solutions focused on real-time IAQ, thermal comfort and energy usage, which gives recommendations to optimize building equipment based on data collected from the existing building management system. The platform is technology-agnostic and can connect and manage equipment across an organization’s extensive network, offering a user-friendly, natural language interface for diagnosing and addressing equipment issues seamlessly.

• IoT solutions, that enable the buildings to be digitized, connected and operated based on AI recommendations.

The CORTIXedge^TM system is an IoT solution providing users with visibility into equipment operations through a cost-effective, scalable, and comprehensive suite of modules. These modules being:

1. CORTIXedge services: An intelligent edge software that autonomously manages connected equipment through local edge AI algorithms.
2. CORTIXedge data services: Ensures reliable data processing and exchange between the edge and the cloud, facilitating data management and edge upgrades.
3. CORTIXedge cockpit: A unified orchestration console for managing edge connectors, devices, data and networks.

• Command center where teams of experts manage processes remotely to take advantage of the installed technology.

BluEdge^TM Command Centers are teams of skilled analysts, data scientists, equipment and domain experts who manage requisite site interventions, define action plans, and ensure their comprehensive completion in a timely manner. These centers enable us to deliver services to our customers and manage their operations remotely, to achieve target outcomes.

• Deep domain analytics that enable insights and decision-making related to building operations for the C-Suite executives.

Our deep analytics allows the C-suite executives to see the bigger picture related to how they take decisions that enable sustainable operations of their buildings. The analytics are packaged into monthly or quarterly advisory reports that cover aspects related to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) like policy compliance, energy benchmarking and capital planning for asset health improvement.

5. What does EcoEnergy Insights envision the future to be?

We aim to simplify building operations management, leveraging technology such as AI and IoT.

With this, we envision a future where we can see fundamental shifts:

1. Increased diversity in building operations management workforce.
2. Reduced information silos in building management and information to all stakeholders accessible in the right packaging so that they can take precise actions.
3. Building operations are more adaptive and predictive to meet sustainability goals – make building healthy environments, avoid wastage of energy and avoid unnecessary emissions.