This project is about mobility resources and its optimisation using the knowledge of their real-time demand, with the aim of saving electric energy in ropeways and fuel in unnecessary trips around fulfilled parking lots.
In ski lifts and ropeways in general attendance uses to be very irregular, with occasional rush hours but with most of time with low or null number of people boarding on them. Nevertheless, the engine of those facilities keeps turning at the same speed with a significant energetic cost regardless the service demand. Moreover, in ski resorts, some ski lifts can be crowded while other can be empty. In that context, knowledge of Queue Waiting Time (QWT) can be used to:
• Be published throughout different means –web page, app, local display…- to inform users.
• Modify the speed of the ropeway within an accepted margin (patent pending).
From publishing Waiting Time Information (WTI) to users, more rational distribution of the demand is achieved. While reducing speed when there are no queues or speeding the system up in the rush hour means a total balance of significant energy savings, in other words, an Energy Optimisation (EO). In other words, the system is aligned with the company mission of providing tools to the society to make more sustainable their activities by reducing the energy consumption.
Knowledge of the QWT is obtained by means of video analytics from existing or new cameras. These cameras can be also thermal in the case of privacy-respectful demanding environments or when fog and snow are usual.
That solution can be applied to cable transit systems like:
• Chair Lifts and Gondola Systems in Ski Resorts
• Tourist Cable Cars
• Urban Cable Transit
Moreover, wherever queues are formed, like security check points at airports, museums, certain public events, etc., QWT information is valuable for the users so that they can plan better their time.
On the other hand, the same technology behind the video analytics system used to determine the WTI in human queues can be used to determine the occupation in outdoor parking lots, where no barriers or other possible control access exists. Also in that case, publicizing the obtained information to drivers can help avoiding unnecessary rides searching for an available parking.
Conclusions of the action:
1. The product is technically viable as it is currently, after some changes already implemented.
2. Economic viability of the product is now even clearer, after a deep review of the commercialization policy with respect what was initially considered.
Regarding technical viability, the action showed the possibility to use cheaper elements to reduce the initial estimated price.
Regarding economic viability, the prospection works revealed the necessity to:
1. Widen the initially planned market to those similar applications where the same technology can be applied.
2. Offer the product as a service.
3. Offer the Energy Optimisation module to a cost conditioned to the savings it provides.
Despite moving the economic estimations to a much more prudent scenario, the business keeps profitability higher than 400% at the end of the fifth year.
A total 1M€ investment is envisaged as a balanced trade-off between profitability and risk. Own funds could cover a 20% of it, while search of other funding options, without excluding a priori investors, has started to cover the rest.
