The moment you step inside the plush interiors of a five-star hotel lobby, the choreographed staff greets you with an almost theatrical aplomb and a tray full of sparkly welcome drinks. You walk through the scent of luxury and enter your pristine room each detail arranged immaculately. Behind those perfect folds of the bed-spread and the showmanship of the staff, is an intricate machinery that runs round the clock.

Yet, even as hotels deliver an experience of pure indulgence, they find themselves in a dilemma that underlines a challenge most five-star hotels face — a balancing act of employing sustainable practices while providing a luxurious experience. How can luxury be sustainable as it is, by nature, generous and indulgent? Technology is making some big improvements possible.

With an increasing awareness around sustainability, several luxury hotels and resorts are doing their bit to reduce their carbon footprint. Moreover, it makes business sense for a hotel to implement sustainable and efficient technologies since it directly leads to savings. For instance, energy accounts for 60% of a property’s carbon footprint and represents 3% to 6% of a hotel’s running cost. Turning off the supply of energy when not in use, dimming hallway lights during daytime, making sure pools and hot tubs are covered after hours to diminish heat loss and turning off lights after cleaning each room are just some zero-cost measures to use energy efficiently. But these measures are not enough when it comes to conserving energy of a luxury hotel with 507 rooms and 52 suites, spread over an area of 50,000 sq. feet — the Hyatt Regency, Delhi.

Hyatt Regency, part of one of the oldest international hotel chains in the country, was looking to manage the high energy consumption of its existing cooling system. Replacing the existing chillers would mean shutting down the property. For a hotel that operates at almost full capacity throughout the year, however, this wasn’t an option.

What was required was a feasible energy saving system that could be integrated seamlessly with the existing infrastructure. The digital era has enabled numerous efficiency and productivity solutions in manufacturing, health, hospitality and other industries. Making the hotel HVAC system smarter through digitalisation could help optimise energy consumption without compromising on comfort and enhancing the indoor air quality. Hyatt Regency, Delhi, partnered with Siemens to implement Demand Flow™ technology, an HVAC optimisation solution that reduces energy costs and ensures ongoing operational efficiency with healthy financial returns and long-term value.

Demand Flow™ uses an intelligent, powerful, and proven method developed from decades of experience in optimising chilled water systems. This unique application automatically optimises a water-cooled chiller plant according to different load conditions faced during the day and the year. The technology continuously monitors energy usage, ensuring reduced power consumption, reduced maintenance and an improved indoor environmental quality.


Siemens also deployed ‘Navigator’, an insightful and intuitive cloud-based system that is one of the most comprehensive energy and operational performance platforms. The Navigator technology includes both energy supply and demand analysis, turning data into results.

The implementation of both these technologies required only a micro-level shut down which was managed smoothly without causing any inconvenience to the hotel guests or interruption of hotel services. The hotel saw a 30% drop in energy expenses in the first five months post installation. Apart from the direct savings, Hyatt Regency was promised an 18-month payback period for the recovery of their investment. Moreover, the guests now enjoy improved cooling and humidity standards.

They say that good hospitality is when the service is felt and not seen. Functioning behind the scenes, the Demand Flow™ technology has proven successful in meeting energy reduction and sustainability goals in more than 350 installations globally. Reducing the energy consumption of a building is a giant step towards creating a sustainable building and managing operating costs. With immense experience in buildings technology, Siemens is bringing in energy efficiencies in hospitals, hotels, universities, manufacturing units and other commercial buildings across the globe. To know more about the technology, see here.

This article was produced by the Scroll marketing team on behalf of Siemens and not by the Scroll editorial team.