It is no secret that the CERN accelerator complex consumes a vast amount of power – CERN’s global electricity consumption can easily be compared to that of a small city. Understanding and modelling this consumption is key to drawing up CERN’s annual budget as it helps forecast short-term and long-term needs1 and bring about changes in behaviour towards more sustainable practices.
This is why the WebEnergy tool (link only accessible from within the CERN network) was initially created. Through its interface, users can plot the electrical energy consumption and average power data over time at various levels of detail. The tool is based on energy measurements from the medium voltage (18 kV or 3.3 kV) network, so the level of granularity does not reach 400/230 V consumer level. Data presented by WebEnergy can then be used for a multitude of applications, including reports and virtual invoices (e.g. EDMS 2599454), an activity carried out within the Energy Management Panel (EMP) to promote energy awareness and energy efficiency.
WebEnergy 2.0, the latest upgrade of the app, introduces a new design for front-end users, but the real innovation is on the back end: it makes updating the counting structure easier thanks to a visual editor (see top figure) and a user-friendly balloon interface. Moreover, WebEnergy 2.0 now includes an electricity forecasting tool, which generates a consumption profile based on the accelerator’s planned operation.
WebEnergy 2.0 is an evolutive platform and new features will be coming. Most notably, the latest electricity forecast will soon be displayed on the front end and users will be able to navigate the counting structure in order to fully understand how energy is calculated and inform the Electrical Engineering group of potential discrepancies in the forecast.
1 CERN gets a monthly discount on electricity prices if the actual consumption is within 10% of the forecast.