This news is classified in: Sustainable Energy Solar
Apr 8, 2019
With almost ten million passengers in 2018, Catania Airport is continuing to grow, solidifying its number one position in southern Italy. This makes the hub an increasingly important strategic part of the Mediterranean aviation network. As a result, however, it faces greater security and energy efficiency challenges. This is the context in which the Sicilian airport made the decision to entrust Siemens with its integrated building automation project, intended to increase security levels and monitor overall energy consumption at the hub.
"We are extremely satisfied with our collaboration with Siemens, which has allowed us to further improve the safety and energy efficiency of our hub," says Antonio Palumbo, head of Catania Airport Terminal's Information Systems. "The continued growth of Catania Airport, expected to exceed 10 million passengers in 2019, means greater challenges to face and overcome, which is possible only with the help of cutting-edge, innovative companies such as Siemens. With a new video surveillance system, integrated with access controls, an energy-efficiency platform and a new fire detection system, we can certainly claim to have brought our hub up to the standard of the major international airports."
One of the main tasks required was the complete migration of the CCTV analog monitoring system to the Siveillance digital platform, as well as the installation of 250 Full HD digital video cameras, added to the 180 already located across the airport. Siveillance is a command and control platform designed to help organizations improve security and safety when managing critical situations. The Siveillance Video Management System platform has also been integrated with the SiPass access control system in order to further increase the control levels in the "sterile" zones of the hub, which are accessible only to authorized personnel.
The next step was to replace the previous Algorex system with new Sinteso fire detectors. They are managed entirely using the Desigo CC software, which is locally connected to the airport's virtual server. This increases the reliability, safety and accuracy levels, and at the same time ensures almost limitless scalability.
In order to make Catania Airport, which is already ISO 50001-certified, even more energy-efficient, the cloud-based Navigator platform will be installed in order to monitor and manage all of the hub's energy-consuming assets. Navigator will allow the airport to identify areas of inefficient energy use and, after a 5- to 6-month analysis period, to determine how to cut energy consumption. This is essential for a structured, energy-efficient design.
"Airports are increasingly complex to operate. Disparate building systems make integration challenging and put significant demands on staff training," says Duncan Hand, Business Development Manager of Siemens Digital Airports. "Catania Airport has chosen a seamless experience with the fully integrated Siemens Desigo CC, Siveillance and Navigator platforms. This ideally positions Catania Airport to optimize their operational efficiency and take advantage of the further benefits that digitalization will bring."
