PSV football club is committed to sustainability and has even been recognized as the first climate-neutral top club in the world. For example, to offset CO2 emissions, the club works with the Climate Neutral Group to invest in international projects, such as an innovative biomass project in Brazil.
Today, Philips Stadium, the home of PSV since 1920, seats 35,000 spectators during matches, making it the Netherlands’ third largest stadium. A great deal of attention is also paid to sustainability here. In 2015, the stadium was the first in the Netherlands to be equipped with LED stadium lighting, for example.
Insight into energy consumption
PSV recently decided to revamp the stadium’s electrical infrastructure with sustainability in mind. The club is highly aware of the ecological footprint of matches and wants to know the peak levels and consumption in order to make improvements where possible. As part of this, PSV decided to have a monitoring system designed and implemented to precisely map electricity consumption during, before and after matches.
With clear insights into energy consumption, stadiums can identify and adjust inefficient processes, plan budgets more accurately, avoid unforeseen costs, and reduce their energy consumption and emissions. Energy monitoring can also help to better plan maintenance and upgrades, and comply with local, national and international energy standards and data can also be used for strategic decisions, such as investments in renewable energy sources or renovations.
Solutions for the Installation Manager
“We initially installed nine meters at main distribution points in two locations: seven at the PSV stadium and two at the football team’s training centre,” says Anil Kumar, Electrical Engineer, HyTEPS. “Each of these main distributors in turn feeds a number of sub-distributors. To ensure even more granular insight into consumption, PSV recently asked us to install seven additional meters. This makes it clearer where energy is being saved, and where there are improvement opportunities. This can now be done almost down to the level of individual devices.”
The demands on an electrical installation in a football stadium are huge – the loads generated by, for example, cooling and heating systems, floodlights, and special lighting for grass maintenance are significant and vary enormously over time. The monitoring capabilities offered by the implemented solutions help plant managers to manage the installation and to detect and remedy the causes of (potential) problems more quickly and efficiently.
“Heijmans provided support for the installation of the meters,” says André van Meijl, Project Manager Heijmans. “For example, securing the main distributors so that HyTEPS could install the meters safely and without voltage. Collaboration is essential to be able to work safely. As Heijmans says: “we either work safely or we don’t work at all.”
