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Home Case Studies SmartCity Kochi
IT Park 2018 📍 Kochi, Kerala, India

The Facility Manager Who Had to Bill Electricity and Cooling as One System

Every month, the facility manager at a large IT park campus faced the same headache: tenants drew power from the grid, but many also depended on centralized chilled water for cooling. Two utilities, two sets of meters, and no single system that could turn both into one clean, prepaid bill. This is the story of how that changed — and stayed changed for seven years.

Commissioned in July 2018. Still running today, without interruption.

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22
BTU (Thermal Energy) Meters Integrated
55
Dual-Source Energy Meters Integrated
2
Protocols Unified on One Platform (BACnet IP + Modbus IP)
7+ Yrs
Continuous Operation Since Commissioning
The Challenge

I Don't Need Two Systems. I Need One Answer.

Imagine being the person responsible for billing dozens of tenants across an IT campus — not just for the electricity they use, but for the chilled water that keeps their server rooms and offices cool. Every tenant expects a fair, accurate, real-time bill. Every finance team expects predictable revenue. And every meter on site speaks its own language. In 2018, the facility manager overseeing this campus went looking for a platform that could read both energy and thermal consumption, convert it into a prepaid balance, and manage it all from one PC-based control point. Most vendors offered half the answer. None offered the whole thing.

The result:

  • Two different meter types — electrical and thermal (BTU) — with no common system to unify them
  • Existing billing software could handle electricity, but treated thermal energy as an afterthought or not at all
  • Devices on the ground spoke two separate protocol languages (BACnet IP and Modbus IP), and switching between systems to manage them wasn't practical
  • Tenants wanted prepaid clarity, not a surprise invoice at month's end
  • The facility manager needed one control screen, not a rack of disconnected tools
Why This Project Stood Out

When the Platform Had to Grow Up Fast

From "Good Enough" to "Built for This"
The team behind the deployment had just taken their billing platform from a basic tool to a genuine universal billing engine — and this was the first real test of whether it could handle a dual-utility, prepaid, multi-protocol environment at scale.
The Operator Got One Screen, Not Five
Instead of juggling separate interfaces for electrical and thermal metering, the facility manager could now see every tenant's consumption — power and cooling — in a single dashboard.
Prepaid Changed the Conversation with Tenants
Tenants stopped disputing bills after the fact and started managing their own consumption in real time, because they could see their balance before it ran out.
It Didn't Just Work on Day One — It kept working, year after year, without needing the operator to intervene, patch, or replace core components.
Who This Case Study Is For

If This Sounds Like Your Building, This Is For You

Relevant for teams managing
  • IT Parks & Business Campuses
  • Smart City Developments
  • Multi-Tenant Commercial Buildings
  • Mixed-Use Developments
Relevant Roles
  • Facility Managers
  • BMS Operators
  • System Integrators
  • Property/Campus Administrators
What You'll Learn Inside

Follow the Journey — From First Meter to Year Seven

Inside the full case study, you'll see:

  • What it actually looks like when a facility manager tries to bill electrical and thermal energy through one prepaid system
  • How a mixed fleet of 77 meters (22 BTU + 55 energy) got unified under BACnet IP and Modbus IP on a single control point
  • Why prepaid billing changed the day-to-day relationship between the operator and tenants
  • What "it just kept running" looks like in practice, seven years after go-live
  • The lesson the operator's team took away: that innovation isn't always visible — sometimes it's just quiet, dependable uptime
Business Impact

What Changed for the Person Running the Building

One Screen Replaced a Patchwork
The facility manager went from managing disconnected tools to overseeing every tenant's energy and thermal consumption from a single interface.
Fewer Billing Disputes
Because tenants could see their own prepaid balance in real time, the finance team stopped fielding end-of-month billing complaints.
No Midnight Calls
The system has run continuously since 2018, meaning the operator hasn't had to escalate a metering failure or replace core infrastructure.
A Platform That Scaled With Confidence
What started as a first-of-its-kind deployment became the template the team now trusts for future dual-utility, multi-tenant projects.
Deployment Timeline

From Commissioning to Continuous Operation

YearMilestone
2018 The facility manager's system goes live: 22 BTU meters + 55 dual-source energy meters integrated across BACnet IP and Modbus IP
2018–2024 The operator runs prepaid tenant billing across the campus without a single major interruption
2025 The system quietly completes 7+ years of continuous operation, still active today
Frequently Asked Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

Why did the facility manager need one system instead of separate tools for electricity and cooling?
Managing two disconnected systems meant double the effort and no unified view of tenant consumption. One platform meant one screen, one bill, and one source of truth.
How many meters and what protocols were unified?
22 BTU meters and 55 dual-source energy meters, brought together across both BACnet IP and Modbus IP on a single platform.
Did the operator have to intervene or replace parts of the system over the years?
No — the system has run continuously since July 2018 without requiring a major overhaul.
Is this approach relevant to facility managers outside IT parks?
Yes — any operator managing multiple utility types across multiple tenants (electrical, thermal, or even water) faces the same core problem this solution was built to solve.
Download the Full Case Study

Get the Full SmartCity Kochi Case Study

See how EnSmart helped SmartCity Kochi deliver this project — full methodology, system architecture, and measurable outcomes inside the PDF.

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The Best Systems Are the Ones You Forget Are There

For the facility manager running this campus, success wasn't a dashboard full of alerts — it was the opposite. It was going years without needing to think about the billing system at all, because it simply did its job. That's the real measure of a system built to last: not how impressive it looks on day one, but how invisible it becomes by year seven.