October/November/December 2022 I 53
Thousand TWh
40
30
20
10
0
2000 2010 2020 2030 2040
United States European Union
India Other developing economies
Japan Other advanced economies China
TWh = terawatt-hours IEQ. All Rights Reserved.
Network power distribution and its efficiency has been a topic of discussion for many years. The increased
capability of Power over Ethernet (PoE) and the introduction of fault managed power (FMP) have raised
the bar even higher. Sustainability initiatives and complex networks play key roles in smarter applications
and buildings to aid in the achievement of world impact goals and to make safer and healthier environments
for occupants. These strategies require a building network that transmits increasing amounts of data and
power at the same time. It is critical to understand the impacts these power levels and distribution strategies
have on traditional networks and implement best practices to ensure future networks are fully capable
of supporting smart applications for years to come.
REVIEW OF SMART BUILDING
HIGH-POWER APPLICATIONS
Power distribution strategies and efficiencies are
key focus areas because global electrical demand
is increasing at high rates with no end in sight.
An illustration from the International Energy
Agency (IEA) highlights this upward trend
of demand (Figure 1).
Figure 2 breaks down ICT power loads and
the various applications that are responsible for
the ever-increasing power demands.
TWh
(terawatt-hours)
2010 2015 2020 2025 2030
Consumer devices use
Fixed access wired use
Fixed access WIFI use
Wireless networks access use
Data center use
Production
10000
8000
6000
4000
2000
0
Global electricity demand by region in the
stated policies scenario, 2000-2040
FIGURE 2: ICT power loads. Courtesy of Enerdata.
FIGURE 1: Global electricity demand. Source: IEA. All Rights
Reserved. https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-outlook-2019
