Energy savings by energy management systems: A review

This study investigated energy saving effects of published papers related to energy management system (EMS), building energy management system (BEMS), industrial, company and factory energy management system (I/C/F/EMS); and EMS for heating, ventilation, air conditioning (HVAC) and refrigerating equipment, artificial lighting systems, motors and others (EMS for equipment). From 1976 to 2014, management performance reported by 305 EMS cases (105 BEMS cases, 103 I/C/F EMS cases and 97 cases of EMS for equipment) is analyzed to evaluate varied energy saving effects. Statistical results show that saving effects of BEMS increased from 11.39% to 16.22% yearly. Inversely, saving effects of I/C/F EMS decreased from 18.89% to 10.35%. Regarding to EMS for equipment, there is no obvious trend but only the averaged saving effect can be reported. EMS for artificial lighting systems has the highest saving effect up to 39.5% in average. For HVAC and other equipment, energy saving effects are around 14.07% and 16.66% respectively. These energy saving performances are correlated with developed EMS functions. The key EMS functions could be identified from their developing progress for effective energy savings. Based on the quantitative analysis, the future trends of EMS are discussed.