Energy efficiency is now on every organisation’s priority list. With worldwide efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and mitigate climate change, many in the Middle East are investing in and pursuing initiatives that confront their operational energy usage. That also goes for the security sector, ongoing trends are influencing efforts to reduce energy consumption across the entire value chain.

Doing more with less
As is the case with any sector, the increasing use of renewable energy sources in the security industry is being driven by a goal to reduce emissions. While change at a macro level may come slowly, such as transitioning an entire national power grid, renewable sources, most prominently solar, along with energy-saving measures are being integrated into specific security solution use cases.

One such use case is the installation of ‘smart poles’, which offer a wide range of functions such as integrated network surveillance cameras, intercoms, and even environmental sensors. Smart poles are also a response to calls to save energy but by doing so, do not compromise their core function of lighting up dark areas and improving overall safety and security. Smart poles also take energy savings to a new level, not only by powering down during the day but, with the help of sensors that detect people or vehicles, can dim surrounding areas if they do not sense anyone.

Such installations are applicable across all industries and not just lamps on street corners. Renewable energy sources are also being deployed as part of temporary or mobile solutions. Event planners or engineers can mount solar panels on trailers or the back of vehicles, taking them where they need to go or places where energy and network infrastructure are limited. They can then couple them with technologies that ensure power is consumed as efficiently as possible. Devices fitted with power profiles or low power modes let operators configure their devices to save energy without compromising solution performance.

In security use cases, operators can also deploy different technologies based on environmental conditions. Network cameras equipped with adaptive IR-LED illumination can provide high-quality images in areas with minimal lighting, or let operators dim an area’s lighting without impacting surveillance. At the end of the day, operators end up using less power than they normally would.

An injection of intelligence
Owing to a growing demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing, the Middle East has emerged as a data centre powerhouse with its capacity expected to more than triple over the next five years. AI’s computational demands create a huge energy demand, encompassing everything right down to a centre’s individual servers, and so there is a need to optimise energy consumption in its provision.

One way operators are addressing this is by balancing on-premise AI with AI at the edge. Edge computing, where computations take place at the edge of the network and closer to the point of origin for data, helps mitigate the energy consumption of data centres by deploying AI where it is most power efficient.

AI processing at the edge consumes less power than processing on a server, which is what makes them particularly ideal in security use cases where devices have to analyse data from a visual sensor. In turn, this helps to minimise bandwidth and storage requirements by reducing the amount of data that has to be sent across the network, logically resulting in energy savings from a network standpoint.

Growing demand fuels the need for change
Against the backdrop of growing demand for energy worldwide, the Middle East’s electricity consumption is expected to grow annually by around 4% every year through 2027, driven by an expansion of the region’s data centre industry as well as demand for industrial production and air conditioning. At the same time, renewable energy generation in the region is also expected to grow by around 14% every year during the same period with solar photovoltaics (VLs) leading that growth.

As the Middle East, along with the rest of the world, faces increasing energy demands, the greater the potential for energy supply to be less stable, even in the face of growing renewables. In light of that, energy efficiency becomes just as important a priority for all industries, including security. Businesses and individuals alike have an opportunity to contribute through product development and deployments, and it’s by working together that we not only reduce emissions, but make renewable energy a cornerstone of our technological infrastructure and systems.

By Rudie Opperman, Engineering & Training Manager MEA at Axis Communications

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