Casinos and energy efficiency: strategy for sustainable development

Profitability and sustainable development

The globalization of the economy establishes a highly competitive scenario, in which the profitability of companies is directly linked to an increase in productivity. 

This constant search for improvement in the use of an organization’s productive resources is not possible without considering the concept of sustainable development. Productivity and sustainability are binding concepts. 

Companies’ plans for economic development must include strategies oriented to the efficient use of resources and environmental conservation, enabling businesses to satisfy the needs of the present without endangering those of the future.

As such,  a primary goal is to implement plans to optimize the use of energy resources. Its aim will be to reduce the energy consumption without affecting the amount of  energy that each process needs. This, in practice, is called increasing energy efficiency. It means that every time there is a decrease in the energy consumption per product unit produced or service offered, the energy efficiency increases.

The result of these actions will contribute to the care of the environment, as well as generating savings in operational costs. So, establishing procedures of the best practices for  responsible energy consumption is a clear example of sustainability going hand in hand with business profitability.

Energy efficiency in Entertainment Centers

The Entertainment Industry as a whole in not immune to the need of adopting policies to increase productivity with sustainable development.

In the particular case of Entertainment Centers, electricity is the source of energy that makes its operations possible. There are venues that, courtesy of their building characteristics, equipment, setting and the comfort they provide to their customers, end up consuming – often 24/7- vast amounts of electricity.

In line with an approach properly taking into consideration energy efficiency, these peculiar characteristics must be considered at the design stage or the refurbishment stage of the building. The project -orientation of the building, interior space, etc-, construction and setting materials, equipment in general -furniture, games, signage-, the services -fuel, water, air conditioning, illumination, data center, among others-, the generation and treatment of waste and effluent, as well as the operational management model, will have an impact on the energy efficiency of the venue. 

Casinos 

Casinos, being in the traditional sense physical spaces of air and light separated from the outside, require a great amount of energy to operate. The comfort of that closed environment depends on the illumination, ventilation and air conditioning provided by the systems and services of the building. 

It is possible to optimize that demand of energy – demand for electricity – by planning for best practices and using suitable technology. Although it is easier to incorporate at the planning stage, it is also possible to implement actions in existing buildings. Let’s analyze some strategies:

Illuminating systems: The considerations around the design of illumination in casinos are conditioned to the requirements related to the functionality of the operating area considered: external and internal signing, live table games, slots area, boxes, vaults, offices, bars, restaurants, etc. Conceptually, the aim of the lighting system is to bring the adequate and differentiated light intensity for each requirement, the value in lux is not a variable. As a result, the improvement in the performance of the system is obtained with the use of devices with high luminous efficiency and low consumption. The use of dimmers is useful to make adjustments on the levels of illumination and extension of the life of the lamp. Preventive maintenance work is also necessary to change old lamps and clean the devices in order to maintain their performance. It is highly advisable to increase the use of the light from the outside where this is possible. In general, use of electricity by lighting represents between 20% and 25 % of the total energy consumption, so conservation in this area is a top priority. In this sector, the change towards new technologies has a high coefficient on the return of investment.

HVAC Systems: HVAC -Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning- systems are put in place for the purpose of air treatment: its quality, temperature, humidity and movement. Its function is to ensure adequate ventilation and air conditioning in each area of the casino, maintaining the required levels of temperature, humidity and quality of the air beyond fluctuations in the outdoor environment. Those systems account for between  45% to 50% of the total energy use. Thus there is good reason to fully evaluate the efficiency of existing systems including equipment and injection and extraction systems. The optimization of HVAC systems must aim to maintain proper parameters of acclimatization, while at the same time maximizing energy efficiency. The performance of HVAC systems impact directly on the quality of the air supplied, on overall energy consumption and on the quality of the air expelled to the environment. 

An important factor to consider is that, inside casinos, there are two types of heat generating sources that affect the operation of those systems. A constant source comprising illumination, gaming machines, equipment, etc, and a variable source related to the grade of occupation, ie how full the casino is. The installation of temperature and air quality sensors will allow for automatic control of air leaks to the exterior, depending on that variable source, with consequent energy saving.

Electronic gaming machines: Electronic machines contribute to the overall lighting and are also a heat source to consider. The energy efficiency of a machine is thus something to consider when selecting games. It is possible to consider the following parameters of consumption as a reference: very efficient, less than 200 W/h, efficient, between 200W/h and 350 W/h, inefficient, more than 350 W/h. A good practice is to keep machines totally inactive outside of working hours, unless where maintenance is needed. It can be estimated that games’ usage of electricity makes up between 30% and a 35% of the total.

Conclusions

Very briefly, we have looked at the optimization of energy performance in casinos through the application of strategies for reducing usage of lighting and ventilation/air control, as well as the selection of equipment with high energy efficiency.

A company can go further than this. For example, through the implementation of  plans for co-generation of local electrical energy by harnessing alternative energy sources such as solar energy, eolic energy, biomass, etc. 

In all the cases presented, it is necessary to conduct research beforehand to evaluate initial costs and estimate the time of return on investment. For example, in illumination and air conditioning, one can expect a return on investment within 3 years. In terms of energy co-generation return on investment analysis would be more project-specific.

Through the continuous improvement of energy efficiency I wanted to show that the policies on sustainable development, when they are based on sound planning and the adequate use of technologies, are profitable and increase productivity. The conclusion is that productivity and sustainability are binding concepts. 

Here you can obtain more information on the services that Gerardo Taccone offers for the gaming industry.