Catching the energy tiger by its tail

When a leading private bank with 5,000 plus branches and 15,000 plus ATMs wanted to bring down its energy consumption, it engaged Zenatix, a start-up backed by Hero Electronix, which addresses such issues. The bank faced lack of centralised visibility into its energy consumption, leading to high energy expenses. It was not able to pinpoint energy leakages and whether compliance was taking place regarding temperature and humidity at its innumerable branches. It needed to assess the health of its electronic assets and cut out the possibility of unpredictable breakdowns.

So, what did Zenatix do? It analysed the issues and deployed various solutions at every branch and ATM. This included providing automated control of the HVAC at the branches and configuring split air-conditioners at the ATMs with predefined schedules. With centralised monitoring it kept a watch on the company’s electricity mains and the health of its assets including their temperature, humidity levels and what equipment ran unnecessarily.

And what were the results? The bank manged to improve energy efficiency by 20 per cent, reduce asset breakdowns by 22 per cent and improve customer comfort by 19 per cent.

Zenatix says it achieved similar results when it helped a leading sports goods retailer with over 60 stores. It annually spent over ₹10 crore on its electricity and faced similar issues as the bank.

The start-up deployed its technology and soon the store had centralised visibility into asset health, alerts to prevent frequent breakdowns and ensured safety. There was 13 per cent improvement in energy efficiency, 19 per cent reduction in asset breakdowns and 25 per cent improved customer comfort.

Zenatix has been doing this for eight years and has spread its wings across almost all sectors that house operations in small and medium sized buildings, including retail chains like Shopper’s Stop, hotels, food outlets like Pizza Hut and KFC— especially those that comprise multi-outlets and need a centralised understanding of what is happening energy-wise in each outlet to help cut consumption and their carbon footprint.

“We started Zenatix with the idea of using data and technology to improve energy efficiency. We developed our own IoT-based technology to help small and mid-sized buildings that are deprived of automation,” says co-founder and CEO Rahul Bhalla. He explains that the company deploys hardware and software to enable a customer to achieve energy saving outcomes. Its on-site plug and play hardware includes an industrial-grade gateway and an enhanced version of Google’s ‘OpenThread’ solution through which it can wirelessly sense and control.

Zenatix also has a Dubai office now and is planning to establish some key partnerships in the US and Europe, where there is comprehensive regulation and a large market for their services. Bhalla feels India too needs to start regulating energy and cooling along with strict penalties if it hopes to achieve the net-zero promises it has made.

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