By Kari Suihkonen, Chair of the Digitalization and Cybersecurity Committee at the European Lift Association

The buildings of the future are likely to be much more intelligent than they are now. Advances in technology are allowing systems and equipment within a building to communicate with each other, send real time status updates to the cloud and make user convenience, safety and comfort the top priority. Sensors, connected systems and big data analytics are driving transformation for all types of technology, and the lift industry must adapt to the IoT trend to become included in the now vast ecosystem of connected “things” that communicate with each other to unlock enhanced functionality.

Currently, digitalization presents a major challenge to the industry. Although lift manufacturers and service providers are beginning to innovate in this space to enable cloud-based predictive maintenance and touchless lift access, the main obstacle in unlocking all the possibilities of digital technology lies in the lack of interoperability between systems.

Rising demand for BIM

In the construction industry, a new trend for digitalization is taking hold. Building Information Modelling (BIM) is the digital process of creating and managing information for a building. The digital BIM model on a cloud-based platform integrates structured data to produce a “digital twin” representation of an asset across its lifecycle, from planning and design to construction and operations.

In several countries throughout the world, BIM is mandatory for all large or public building projects. Even in countries where it is not yet mandatory, adoption rates have steadily increased, as the benefits of BIM mean that building owners are increasingly demanding contractors that can deliver it. Because of this general trend in the construction industry, lift and component manufacturers are now finding themselves under pressure to include sensors and data analytics with their product and service offerings.

Tackling downtime and conserving energy

For manufacturers and service providers, digitalization is the clear innovation path for new products and services. The biggest benefit of digitalization is expected to be apparent in the service section, where the auditable trail of data that can be easily stored and searched will provide a great opportunity for transparency of maintenance in order to improve safety and operation of the lifts being maintained. Digitalization also encompasses predictive maintenance, artificial intelligence and machine learning.

The interface challenge

The problem, however, comes in when these individual pieces of “smart” technology connected to the lift need to communicate with other connected things as part of the building’s wider building management system (BMS) infrastructure. Smart lifts require interoperability where their interfaces with other systems in the building, such as fire alarm systems and access control systems, and a data stream connection is also required for the company that carries out maintenance on the equipment.

The European Lift Association’s Digitalization Committee defines interfaces as follows: “An interface is a shared boundary between two or more objects with the intention to communicate and exchange information. Interfaces can be physical (hardware) or non-physical (software) in nature. They are an enabling tool for digitization, but also are an opening point for additional threats that haven’t been there before.”

Interfaces in the lift environment have been in existence for a long time, but typically they have been complicated, proprietary and expensive. Now, with the advent of the IoT era, these interfaces are becoming cheaper and more widely used as demand increases.

Next to platforms and devices, interfaces are an integral part of and subject to the process of digitalization. External objects or building management systems which connect to the elevator via an interface can affect the operability of the installation.

Making progress through open standards

European Lift Association (ELA) is committed to driving the vision of digitalization in the industry forward by promoting standard interfaces and interoperability. The aim is to achieve optimum safety and continuity with maximum functionality.

The European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), in cooperation with ELA, has developed a smart lift IoT system standard coupled to the oneM2M platform, but the drawback is that this particular platform is currently not commonly compatible with popular BMS interfaces, and it does not yet address the variety of lift functionality. To overcome these drawbacks, telecom experts must become more aware of the requirements of the lift and escalator world, in the same way that the lift experts must become more aware of modern telecom and interoperability methodologies.

European lift and escalator standards are plentiful, but most of these are centred around safety and usability. The lift industry is severely lacking in open interface standards, as most technologies are currently based on proprietary systems.

ELA is contributing to an ISO working group to standardise lift interfaces. For this, ELA is favouring close collaboration with standardization bodies that bring the communication expertise to the lift and escalator industry. Initial collaboration with ETSI has shown this approach to be very promising. If this is achieved, the adoption of digitalization within the industry is expected to accelerate in the next decade.

Although the path ahead to open interface standards will be challenging, the long-term benefits to the industry from the move to digitalization are expected to be far-reaching: improvements in data analytics, energy efficiency, predictive maintenance and overall performance will result in a massive uptick in innovation, improved safety and reduction in the downtime of lifts and escalators.

Article by Roger Beuret, Convenor of the ELA Ecodesign Working Group – 22 February 2019

Why Ecodesign?

There is a worldwide demand to reduce energy and resource consumption. The EU legislation on Ecodesign and energy labelling is a tool for improving the energy efficiency of products. It helps eliminate the least performing products from the market, contributing to the EU’s energy efficiency objective.

• The Ecodesign Directive 2009/125/EU provides consistent EU-wide rules for improving the environmental performance of products, such as household appliances, information and communication technologies or engineering.
• The Energy Labelling Regulation may complement those Ecodesign requirements with mandatory labelling requirements.

The latest Ecodesign Impact Accounting Status from October 2017 reports significant improvements for the period 2010 to 2020 in ecology as well as in economy:

• Close to 1788 TWh primary energy saving, i.e. saving of 16% for the average product.
• Reduction of 315 Mt CO₂ greenhouse gas emissions (7% of 2010 EU-total).
• € 104 bn net saving on consumer expenditure.
• € 58 bn extra revenue for industry, wholesale, retail and installation sector.
• 0.9 million extra direct jobs for industry, wholesale, retail and installation sector.

Why are lifts included in the Working Plan 2016 – 2019 (WP3)?

Lifts were already studied in 2011 for the Working Plan 2012-2014 (WP2). At that time, they were not selected but marked for follow up. In the preparatory study to establish the Ecodesign Working Plan now 2016 to 2019 (initially 2015 – 2017) a potential of 8 TWh primary energy savings (equals 3.2 TWh/y final energy savings) in use phase until 2030 was put on the table by the Commission consultant and considered promising by the Commission. It must be noted however that due to lack of up to date information, the consultant pre-study bases itself mainly on the E4 Project which dates back before 2009, and these savings’ estimates seem completely unrealistic. The consultants will need to take into account the numerous improvements achieved since then for their savings prediction.

Why the Ecodesign Preparatory Study for Lifts?

The aim of this preparatory study is to provide a detailed technical, ecological and economic analysis for the European Commission to decide for or against a regulation. Since July 2017 this preparatory study is in progress, open to all interested stakeholders for active contribution and participation. Following the “Methodology for Ecodesign of Energy related Products” (MEErP) of the European Commission seven tasks (shown below) are performed and draft reports published by the project team under the lead of Fraunhofer ISI.

By Carsten Henriksen, Chairman Codes & Standards Committee at the European Lift Association

A wide range of people depend on lifts for a variety of reasons, particularly those who live in densely populated urban areas. The lift has become a ubiquitous part of the urban environment; such a common, safe, and reliable feature of multi-level buildings that they are barely noticed and little appreciated vehicles for the transportation of people and goods. Indeed, people usually only really pay attention to lifts when they are out of service. In such instances it quickly becomes clear how essential these modern workhorses really are to the ease of urban life.

However, in many multi-level buildings that have been in existence for decades, building owners have found aging lift stocks difficult and costly to upgrade or replace. This leaves users at increased risk of injury from a lengthening list of safety hazards as older lift technologies become obsolete. Unfortunately, accidents – even fatal ones – do still happen on lifts and escalators, although they are quite  rare.

Aside from generally improving safety, modernizing lifts comes with a raft of additional benefits, such as improved energy efficiency and sustainability as well as increased accessibility for people with disabilities.

Rising trends, changing technology

More than six million lifts are in use today in Europe, and work to the satisfaction of the majority of users. But not everything about this picture is perfect. In many countries, more than half the existing lifts in use today are 25 years old or even older. Every market supplier in the lift industry has old lifts on its  service portfolio – some even going back a hundred years or more. Only a small percentage of the lifts installed before the turn of this century (i.e., pre-2000) have been modernized to meet current “state of the art” requirements when it comes to safety and performance.

This is an ongoing problem: with each passing year, more and more lifts become obsolete as new models come on the market with technology that continuously improves overall safety, energy efficiency, communication, and maintenance. With the current trends of IoT, smart buildings and “net zero” targets making demands on the construction industry, lifts are facing some of the biggest changes in technology, functionality, and system architecture in living memory.

The benefits of modernization

However, it is not all bad news. Just about any lift component can be replaced to improve the safety and operational performance of the overall system. Aesthetics, transportation capacity and comfort can be improved through a modernization of the car and the drive capabilities.

The end result can be a significant improvement in energy efficiency and sustainability for the building, lower maintenance costs for the lift owner, and increased safety, reliability and accessibility for users.

The regulation challenge

The current European Lifts Directive (2014/33/EU) is not retrospective and only regulates the installation of new lifts and the manufacture of new components for the industry. Of the lifts in use today in Europe, only a small percentage have been installed since the application of the new directive. The rest were installed before 2014, and for those the “state of the art” regarding technology shows clear gaps to the actual level of safety and performance.

Experts in the lift industry have compiled a list of 85 risks that can exist on old lifts, which are assessed under a gap analysis framework commonly known as EN 81-80 “SNEL” (Safety Norms for Existing Lifts) and forms part of the European Standard EN 81. Some of these 85 identified areas of risk can lead to fatal accidents and should urgently be addressed.

The difficulty is that in Europe there is no common set of regulations or standards on the matter of safety for existing lifts. Adoption of the EN 81-80 standard in EU member states is voluntary, so the uptake is dependent on national legislation & implementation in various jurisdictions.

In some countries, it is a legal requirement for the duty holder to carry out an EN 81-80 assessment. For example, in Germany, this risk assessment for any existing lifts not covered by the European Lifts Directive is now part of national legislation. Any deviation from the current “state of the art” standards will be noted in periodical inspections carried out by accredited national inspection bodies. The owner of the lift will then be given a deadline, according to the risk level found in the gap analysis, to bring the lift up to date with the minimum requirements. 

Even in other EU states where it is not mandatory, a risk assessment of used lifts is still recommended towards maintaining the safety and performance of lifts over time.

Enormous potential for improvement

In 2018, over 1,180 lift user accidents were recorded, with more than 20 fatalities and 60 causing “serious” injuries. When the root causes of these accidents were investigated, nearly half of these could have been avoided if the lift owner had taken actions to modernize their lifts based on a SNEL gap analysis.

The Safety, Accessibility and Energy efficiency in Existing Lifts (SAEL) Working Group, and the entirety of ELA as the voice of the elevator industry in Europe, must continuously work towards the adoption of standards for safer and better performing lifts, not only cover for new installations, but also for the safety of the existing lift base on the continent.

Although ELA continues to advocate for the acceptance and harmonious implementation of SNEL legislation throughout the EU member states for existing lift installations, individual lift owners are also urged to take action to modernize their existing lifts to prevent fatalities, further advance accessibility for disabled users and improve the overall energy efficiency of their buildings. A practical “step-by-step” approach can often be beneficial, easing the financial impact on the owner by splitting up the modernization investment into manageable pieces.