Memoori was joined by Ville Ilkkala, the CEO of Finnish startup Valaa Technologies. We discussed how they are using software robots to unlock energy efficiency in aging building stock and are aiming to become the “Chromecast of Building Automation”.

1. Robotic Automation Engineers
Sustainable Shortcut to a Smart Building Portfolio
Valaa Technologies
Ville Ilkkala, CEO
13.12.2021
Presentation

2. 96 months
until January 2030.

3. 29%
Over 1/4 of the world's energy
is consumed by HVAC.
20%
Smart controls could enable
over 20% energy savings.
6%
That's 6% of the global
greenhouse gas emissions.
3x
Or three times the emissions
of the aviation industry.
Cost of upgrading legacy automation systems slows
down the transition to energy efficient buildings.
Connected smart buildings are more cost-effective to operate, provide
better living and working conditions, and can quite literally save the planet.
Problem

4. 220 million
Over 20-year-old buildings in EU
1% per year
Speed of renovating buildings
15 years
Lifetime of an automation system
10x harder
To control vs. just read legacy systems

5. 0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
Satchwell StruxureWare Unigyr DEOS Fidelix Atmostech Desigo
Past end-of-life (PEOL) End-of-life (EOL) OK
82 non-residential buildings (65%) owned by a Finnish
town run end-of-life building automation systems
Example

6. Controller PC
Controller IoT robot
Our unique IoT solution mimicks humans
interacting with existing HMIs to enable
real-time bidirectional cloud connectivity
Robot interaction
Human interaction
Connectivity, control & comprehension with robotic
automation engineers and artificial intelligence
Solution

7. PLC robots BMS robots
€50
per month / controller
3.6% of the cost of full upgrade per year
€5
per month / supervisor
0.5% of the cost of full upgrade per year
€1
per physical I/O point
0.8% of the cost of full upgrade, once
Patent pending IoT device with
a built-in software robot that
mimics the HMIs of building
automation controllers.
Unique cloud application that
mimics a human using the Web
interface of a Web-connected
building management system.
Automated digital twinning
converts P&I diagrams and BAS
points into standard metadata
schemas, or digital twins.
Digital Twinning

8. Savings without investments
Unlock energy optimization, predictive
maintenance and enhanced remote
supervision without upfront costs.
300% return on investment by
unlocking 15% operational savings
Put capital where it matters
With all that free capital that you don’t
have to spend on automation systems,
why not fix things that are beyond digital?
225% return on investment from
8% interest rate on freed capital
Understand what you renovate
Ditch error bars from quotes and remove
costs from manual preliminary studies.
Then fix only what needs to be fixed.
350% return on investment with 25%
more affordable renovation after 2 years
Target and measure investments
Get a bird’s-eye view to your deferred
maintenance backlog and stop guessing
your climate impact after investments.
It’s hard to put a number on this,
but 875% ROI feels good already

9. Save 20 000 € per building* in two years.
* 2 400 m2, 3 substations, 300 I/O points, 36k€ / year spend on energy, 15% energy savings, 10-year lifetime
of new automation, normal upgrade cost is 130 € / point, 8% internal interest rate and 2% inflation per year

10. Engineering
consultancies
Aging building stock
with legacy systems
Impact potential.
Energy SaaS
providers like
TietoEVRY
IoT SaaS
solutions
like Wapice
Automation
contractors
like Adconsys
Engineering
consultancies
like Ramboll
Facility
service firms
like L&T
Energy
companies
like Helen
IAQ sensor
providers like
Loopshore
R&D groups
like VTT and
HAMK Smart
Digitally ambitious
partner network
Impact, actualized.
Aging building stock holds the largest potential in emission reduction and savings. This potential is actualized by a
growing network of digitally ambitious companies that can instantly start providing value from your real estate data.

11. Opportunity
PLC and BMS robots can enhance and integrate over 94% of the
city’s building automation systems that are at or beyond end-of-life.
0 10 20 30 40 50 60
Satchwell
StruxureWare
Unigyr
DEOS
Fidelix
Atmostech
Desigo
After the robot invasion
PEOL EOL OK PLC Robot BMS Robot
86
old sites that can be
connected with robots
674k€
annual HVAC
optimization potential
305k€
annual interest on
avoided investment
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Satchwell
StruxureWare
Unigyr
DEOS
Fidelix
Atmostech
Desigo
Current situation
Past end-of-life (PEOL) End-of-life (EOL) OK
91
sites with (past) end-
of-life control system
3.8M€
renovation budget
needed to upgrade all
713k€
lost savings due to
non-optimized HVAC
Estimations assume 4.4 substations / site, upgrade cost of 10k€ / substation, 8% internal interest rate,
55 € / MWh energy cost, 10448 MWh total energy consumption and 15% savings potential with smart controls.

12. -50 000 €
-40 000 €
-30 000 €
-20 000 €
-10 000 €
0 €
10 000 €
20 000 €
30 000 €
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Year
Case comparison
Renovation now Robots for 3 years, renovate then
Renovation
or robots?
 Both achieve 15% energy savings potential
 Robots require miniscule initial investments
 Robots allow capital to be invested elsewhere
 Data-driven renovation is 25% more affordable
100x better net present value!
Renovation now vs. robots for 3 years and renovation then. Cumulative
investments and savings, inflation adjusted and discounted to present value.
• 2 400 m2, 3 substations, 300 I/O points
• 36k€ / year spend on energy
• 10-year lifetime of new automation
• Normal upgrade cost is 130 € / point
• 8% internal interest rate and 2% inflation per year

13. Sustainable Shortcut to a Smart Building Portfolio
Valaa Technologies
Ville Ilkkala, CEO
+358 503 088 877
ville@valaa.com