Remote monitoring of renewable energy performance

Plymouth Marjon University is a distinctive higher education institution with a strong focus on health, wellbeing, sport, and education, delivering high-quality education from apprenticeships to PhDs.

In recognition of the climate emergency, Plymouth Marjon University set itself a goal of  reaching net-zero carbon emissions by 2030 through their “Marjon Zero” project.

Key achievements to date include installing approximately 2000 solar panels, completing one of England’s largest ground source heat pump projects, rolling out energy-efficient LED lighting, and electric vehicle charging stations. The university has divested from fossil fuels and continues retrofitting buildings, positioning themselves as one of the greenest universities in the country.

The challenge

Plymouth Marjon University had just completed one of England’s largest ground source heat pump installations as part of their ambitious “Marjon Zero” carbon-neutral initiative. However, they wanted to quantify the actual efficiency gains their system was delivering as research shows that improper operation of GSHP systems often leads to poor energy efficiency, with many systems failing to meet expected performance standards.

Most GSHP systems do not include performance monitoring equipment because of the complexity, cost, and accessibility challenges of installing sensors across distributed units. Without proper monitoring, Plymouth Marjon couldn’t verify that each heat pump was operating at optimal efficiency or identify any potential underperforming units.

The solution

skentel provided a comprehensive remote monitoring solution tailored to the university’s distributed heat pump infrastructure. The solution addressed the unique challenges of monitoring 44 heat pump units dispersed across accommodation buildings through:

• A Distributed LoRaWAN network: Long-range wireless connectivity linking all heat pump units without requiring extensive cabling across the campus
• Real-time performance monitoring: Continuous tracking of both electrical power consumption and heat energy output for each individual unit, enabling live calculation of Coefficient of Performance (CoP) values.
• A Centralised cloud based platoform: providing a dashboard with Live CoP values for each unit (daily, weekly, monthly and annual), individual and aggregated system performance metrics, fault status alerts for the maintenance team and trend analysis to identify declining performance before it becomes critical.

This solution transformed Plymouth Marjon’s substantial renewable energy investment from an unmeasured system into a fully visible, optimised network that can demonstrate real-world sustainability impact and identify issues before they affect performance.

Results

skentel’s integrated monitoring solutions have delivered measurable operational improvements:

• Time saved: The central online dashboard eliminated the need for manual site visits to check individual heat pump performance, allowing Campus Services staff to monitor all units remotely and freeing up valuable time for higher-value maintenance and sustainability initiatives.
• Performance validated: Live Coefficient of Performance data provided concrete evidence that the university’s substantial renewable energy investment was delivering the promised efficiency gains and supporting their “Marjon Zero” carbon-neutral commitments.
• Proactive maintenance: Automated fault alerts and performance trend analysis enabled the team to identify and address potential issues before they affected system performance or required emergency interventions.
• Strategic decision support: Historical performance data and trends inform future renewable energy investments and system expansion decisions across the university estate.