Sustainability solutions at Melbourne Cricket Ground, Australia

An environmentally-friendly stadium
The Melbourne Cricket Ground is an iconic 100,000 seat stadium, and the home of Australian sports. The new cloud-based utility monitoring and visualization system implemented by Schneider Electric and EcoXpert AZZO enables the MCG to visualize and analyze real-time utility consumption, and helps them reduce energy costs and carbon footprint, to become a more SUSTAINABLE stadium.

The Challenge

• The MCG is the 10th largest stadium in the world and the largest in Australia, it requires a significant amount of electricity, gas and water to operate.

• With energy costs rising, the MCG is facing the challenge of reducing its costs, improving its energy efficiency and asset management, all while minimizing its environmental footprint.

• The MCG was already monitoring electricity, but they needed to integrate water and gas data into a centralized system and turn all the utility data into meaningful and actionable insights for its various stakeholder groups.

• The MCG needed to keep improving power quality and proactively maintaining the site, mitigating risks coming from poor power quality. Hence, the maximum uptime can be achieved to ensure the game is always on.

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The Solution

Sustainability and Efficiency with EcoStruxure™ Power
   Apps, Analytics & Services : Utilities Monitoring and Visualization System (UMVS), a cloud-hosted and real-time system for electricity, gas and water
   Edge Control: Schneider Electric’s EcoStruxure Power Monitoring Expert Platform
   Connected Products: Power meters and gateways, Programmable Logic Controllers (Hot Standby Quantum PLC’s), PowerSCADA Operations and C-Bus lighting automation systems

• The Utilities Monitoring and Visualization System (UMVS) is cloud-hosted and allows MCG to track live consumption of electricity, water and gas during an event and when the stadium is not in use.

• With the comprehensive metering system (over 100 metering points), the UMVS system not only provides the cost of running the facility, but also allows the customer to track real-time cost savings when they are making the changes.

• The UMVS system has been integrated with other systems including C-Bus lighting automation control, the Power Monitoring and Control System (PowerSCADA Operations and Hot Standby Quantum PLC’s) and building management system.

The Results

• As part of the Energy Committee at the MCG, Schneider Electric and EcoXpert AZZO were able to identify up to 5 percent savings in specific areas of the facility, during the first six months after the system was implemented.

• All the data is monitored and visualized and is now turned into actionable insights, relevant to various stakeholder groups within the Melbourne Cricket Club, enabling them to become accountable for their consumption of energy and allowing for the facility to operate in a more efficient way.

• The MCG has improved asset management and energy efficiency, and integrated the actionable insights from the UMVS with other systems like lighting control and building management for enhanced supported decision making.

• Financial benefits: the MCG now operates the facility in a more efficient way, identifying waste. The MCG has also created cost centers, allowing them to keep the different stakeholder groups accountable for the energy that they use.