How History and Culture Benefit from Modern Innovations: FLOWBOX at the State Opera
The State Opera in Prague implemented the FLOWBOX EMOS system, integrating electricity, gas, water, and heat measurements for more efficient energy management in the historical complex. Advanced analytics and data visualization enable identifying potential savings, optimizing the performance of heat pumps and cooling machines, and automating reporting to reduce administrative burden.
How to combine a historic building, cultural heritage and state-of-the-art technology? The Prague State Opera shows that innovation and tradition can go hand in hand. One of the most important cultural institutions in the Czech Republic is located in a historic building that has undergone extensive renovation. Today it serves not only as a prestigious opera house, but also as a technologically advanced complex. The complex includes the historic and operational State Opera House and other associated facilities, while also generating and supplying thermal energy to other major external customers.
Implementation of the advanced energy management system FLOWBOX EMOS was completed in March 2025. The project aims to investigate advanced energy management options, improve operational efficiency, identify potential savings and opportunities to reduce the carbon footprint.
The main objectives of the FLOWBOX EMOS deployment project at the State Opera
- Investigate the possibility of advanced energy management in the historic buildings of the State Opera House
- Refine and simplify the work of energy engineers and other staff.
- Identify potential savings and look for inefficiencies in energy consumption.
- Automation of data collection for easier reporting and more accurate overview of consumption.
FLOWBOX Implementation
FLOWBOX was connected to the existing MaR system, where it serves as a superstructure and connects all measurements into a clear visual interface. It integrates electricity, gas, water and heat metering and creates virtual meters that simplify the monitoring of individual buildings or parts of buildings according to the users' needs.
Data is available in FLOWBOX from August 2024 and the implementation includes a Data Intelligence Module to identify hidden inefficiencies, anomalies and opportunities for savings in energy consumption. This module performs automated analysis of consumption and presents the results in clear graphs that highlight potential problems.
FLOWBOX also performs calculations of the efficiency of heat and cold production from heat pumps and chillers. This allows you to compare individual machines against each other and see which units are operating most efficiently and under which conditions.
Key Features and Benefits
Advanced Analytics and Data Visualisation
FLOWBOX delivers advanced analytics and data visualization to enable efficient energy management. The system collects and stores all energy consumption data and provides detailed visualization of the data in a timeline. Sankey diagrams visualize the breakdown of consumption in detail, making it possible to monitor consumption in individual buildings or parts of buildings. It also automatically alerts of any meter failure or malfunction, making it easy to detect and solve problems.
Streamlining Work and Saving Time
The deployment of FLOWBOX significantly streamlines the work of energy engineers and other staff. Thanks to automated data collection and calculations, manual meter reading is no longer necessary, saving time and minimising the risk of errors. The system also performs automatic calculations of values that are not directly measured, allowing for more accurate analysis.
Increased Efficiency of Heat and Cold Production
FLOWBOX also performs detailed calculations of heat and cooling production efficiency, allowing the performance of heat pumps and chillers to be monitored and optimised in real time.
Automated Reporting and Data Visibility
FLOWBOX simplifies and streamlines reporting, reducing the administrative burden on staff. It generates reports on consumption and efficiency, making it easy to track trends and quickly identify potential savings. An important function is also to provide the basis for re-invoicing heat and cooling to external customers.
Next steps and evaluation of the project
The project is being implemented as a pilot and its evaluation is scheduled for August 2025. During these six months, FLOWBOX will collect data, analyze and show opportunities for savings and optimization for future energy management at the State Opera.
With its technology, FLOWBOX shows that even historic buildings can benefit from modern energy management. The State Opera House is proof that digitisation and innovation can be implemented unobtrusively even in listed buildings without compromising their historic value.
"Our aim in this pilot project is to get a more detailed overview of the energy flows, especially the heat and cold production at the sources and their consumption at the individual consumption points, within the premises of the State Opera House, which is one of the theatrical houses belonging to the National Theatre. The installed FLOWBOX EMOS system allows us to monitor in more detail and in real time and retrospectively the evolution of heat and cold production and energy and water consumption and to analyse this data. We expect that on the basis of the obtained data and the subsequent adjustment of the operating parameters of the technologies concerned, it will be possible to achieve more efficient operation and thus financial savings. Last but not least, FLOWBOX EMOS provides a summary of the data necessary for energy reporting."
Ing. Jan Míka, Deputy Director of Technical and Operational Administration of the National Theatre