Thomond Park introduces green-energy analytics system

Thomond Park Stadium is the home ground of Munster Rugby, one of the most successful and best-supported rugby clubs in the world. The famous venue, renowned for its unique history and atmosphere, has been redeveloped and now boasts an increased capacity of 25,600, plus an extensive range of conference and banqueting facilities that have further enhanced its reputation.

Since 2009, Thomond Park has been working to reduce the environmental impact of managing the stadium by participating in an environmental project to conserve energy, waste and water. Part of this project involved the implementation of an energy analytics software solution in the stadium. The solution would allow management and staff to monitor the electricity use and make financial and process decisions about reducing costs and increasing efficiency.

“We required a system that would provide continuous detail on actual electricity use,” explained Colm Moran, operations manager at Thomond Park Stadium. “We didn’t have any means of monitoring our electricity usage and the absence of this type of data represented one of our biggest challenges.”

Thomond Park selected ResourceKraft’s Energy Analytics Software solution as its standard platform. The solution would allow the park to meet its goals by implementing three ‘smart meters’ in the east and west stands. The web-based energy management cost-control system gathers, processes and analyses energy data from the meters and converts it into business information, enabling the park to understand how and where energy is being consumed at any given time across all sites.

It also enables the park to incorporate key performance indicators, set targets, generate reports and involve management and staff in making informed energy-management decisions in the drive to further reduce energy costs and meet carbon commitments.

“ResourceKraft Advisor created alerts to monitor the east and west stands’ electricity consumption and set alerts to be sent when our threshold of 8kW was reached,” continued Moran. “With the data gathered and analysed, we could put a plan in motion to implement operational savings. The solution provides us with standard and customised reports and we can also record non-energy information.

“We’ve been using ResourceKraft’s Advisor software for six months now and we’re monitoring our electricity use”, concluded Moran. “Advisor has helped us with the implementation of a number of energy-saving initiatives by monitoring our usage in specific areas such as air conditioning, refrigeration and lighting. Thanks to the customised alerts, we’re able to keep a close eye on our maximum threshold target in the monitored areas.”