Energy management in healthcare III

The project delivered smart energy metering in two buildings belonging to ÚVN, the Central Military Hospital, which are military healthcare facilities with specific operating and technical requirements.

At the polyclinic in Trenčín, smart electricity metering was delivered with 5 three-phase panel analysers installed in one main electrical switch room. The solution gives an overview of electricity consumption on the building’s key supply circuits.

The second part of the project took place at the military aviation polyclinic in Sliač, where a comprehensive smart metering system for several utilities was deployed. It includes electricity metering with 22 analysers, complemented by heat, water and gas metering. The most demanding part of the project was installing and integrating the electricity metering, which needed an individual technical approach and precise coordination given the building’s existing technical and operating constraints. The key technical problem turned out to be the state of the sub-distribution boards, where the unsuitable layout of the existing installation severely limited the space available for additional hardware. Despite these conditions, we successfully implemented a functional, reliable solution and put the whole system into regular operation.

The solution was implemented with regard to each building’s existing technical infrastructure and the requirements for stable, safe operation. At both sites, the metering devices were connected to a Modbus RTU (RS-485) communication bus, which reliably transfers the measured data from the individual metering points.

Data was collected, aggregated and processed locally by edge devices, which act as local data nodes and allow data to be pre-processed directly in the building without depending on external systems. This architecture keeps the system stable even when network connectivity is limited.

At the Trenčín building, the implementation focused on integrating the analysers in the switch room, configuring them, addressing them on the Modbus network and connecting them to the edge device.

At the Sliač building, the implementation needed an individual technical approach, especially for electricity. The complex layout of the wiring and the operating constraints required step-by-step delivery and careful coordination, and all metering points were successfully integrated into a single data collection system.

The implementation was completed by verifying the communication and the accuracy of the measurements, putting the system into regular operation and preparing the technical documentation.

The third stage of the project built on the smart metering solutions already delivered at ÚVN and extended the existing unified system to further buildings, without the need to build separate infrastructure. It provides reliable collection and processing of data on electricity, heat, water and gas consumption in real time. The centralised architecture, based on Modbus RTU communication and edge devices, allows consistent evaluation of energy data at both sites.

The system gives the operator clear data for tracking consumption and network quality, comparing individual buildings and evaluating energy trends over the long term. It also creates a technical basis for further development of energy management, cost optimisation and integration into higher-level monitoring or control systems.

Electricity: 22 network analysers

Heat: 2 heat meters (calorimetric / ultrasonic)

Gas: 1 metering point (main volume corrector + pulse sensor on the gas meters)

Water: 2 metering points (ultrasonic flow meters + optical reading heads on mechanical water meters)