Intelligent CIO LATAM Issue 05 | Page 69

INTELLIGENT BRANDS // Green Technology

IoT can be an ally in the energy crisis

Thiago Guimarães , Senior Risk and Performance Manager at ICTS Protiviti , explains that by using IoT , it is possible to install sensors that collect equipment data , such as temperature and port opening and transmit this information via Bluetooth to the network , without the need to run any wiring .

Brazilian companies , which are still recovering from the impacts brought by the pandemic and its challenges , already have another concern on the horizon : the blackout . After years of some energy stability , in 2021 this word returned to the news due to the period of little rain and reservoirs at critical levels . In this scenario , initiatives to reduce consumption became challenging for organizations .

In food retail , for example , the main villain in the energy bill is refrigeration equipment to keep food within recommended temperatures . We know that in many supermarkets the equipment is old and the maintenance teams end up being overloaded .
Just as we needed to defrost the freezers in our old refrigerators , in supermarket refrigerators there are electrical resistances that are periodically turned on to remove the ice that ends up forming in the cold air outlet , thus avoiding blocking that air outlet . The more times this resistance is activated , the lower the risk of ice formation and , consequently , the lower the risk of loss of products and damage to equipment . However , this strategy ends up bringing greater energy consumption by generating heat in the resistance and then lowering the temperature again .
Thiago Guimarães , Senior Risk and Performance Manager at ICTS Protiviti
common . As a result , the increase in energy consumption often ends up being hidden .
The good news is that Industry 4.0 technologies can support this scenario . Using the Internet of Things ( IoT ), it is possible to install sensors that collect equipment data , such as temperature and door opening and transmit this information via bluetooth to the network , without the need to run any wires in the store . With the data available , AI algorithms analyze the equipment ’ s operating patterns , indicating when there is a risk of equipment failure or risk of product loss , allowing a predictive action by the maintenance team .
Real-time monitoring through AI will reduce the number of refrigerator defrosts , without exposing the products to risk and without overloading the maintenance team . The adoption of this technology in some retailers provides , on average , a 100 % reduction in product losses due to refrigeration problems , in addition to a reduction of more than 10 % in the store ’ s energy consumption . Just as technology was important to overcome the challenges brought by the pandemic , it can also be an important ally for companies at this time of energy crisis . p
In a supermarket scenario with old refrigerators and poor maintenance , this condition of operating with a greater amount of defrosts to reduce the risk of equipment breakage and product loss is very
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