ALCOTRA is a complex system capable of monitoring the measurement, acquisition, transport, storage, and analysis of data on energy consumption and production from buildings and facilities. It was developed by GFM-Net - in partnership with the Energy and Living Lab Department of the Polytechnic University of Turin - on behalf of the Aosta Valley Region.

ALCOTRA is currently applied in the field in the areas of the municipalities of Saint Denis (AO) and Verrès (AO), where it acquires and processes monitoring and control data of:

• grid-connected solar photovoltaic systems
• an "off-grid" stand-alone solar photovoltaic street lamp plant
• a wind power plant located in the municipality of Verrès
• a central heating system with a pellet-burning central heating plant for heating the municipal building;
• an electrical system, concerning the consumption of utilities at the Town Hall building;
• an indoor temperature detection and control system at the City Hall building;
• anemometer installations at the Saint Denis Town Hall and at the Verrès wind farm.

The collected data are stored in a single, virtualized central database at GFM-Net's data center. Based on planned settings, the system can capture and analyze data collected in the field, and prepare and publish a series of predefined reports on a web interface.

Within the project, forecast curves have been created based on the time series of energy consumption; each deviation is analyzed and immediate action is taken to limit the extra consumption over time and thus enable predictive maintenance, avoiding unnecessary waste due to inefficient operation of the plants under observation.


Photo by Ravi Subramanyan on Unsplash