A DARWEN company is pioneering the way holiday parks and caravan sites will manage their energy consumption.

Bglobal, in Commercial Road, which manufactures smart meters and other energy-saving software, has recently demonstrated its new ZigBee smart metering system.

A two-month project was carried out at a caravan park in the south of England, trialling the use of the ZigBee radio system, collecting data from smart meters across the site.

During the demonstration, Bglobal built a network of meters, repeaters and receivers, sending messages around physical obstacles, such as trees and buildings, which usually limit the signals for transferring data.

The company now intends to roll the equipment out across the caravan site and holiday park sector, with other similar industries such as commercial landlords with multiple tenants earmarked as part of an ambitious business development strategy.

John Cowburn, chief engineer at Bglobal, said: “This is the first time the technology has been used to collect smart meter readings in this way.

“The pioneering trial has proved that by using this technology, a physical line of sight is not necessary to collect data, opening up a number of potential benefits for owners of holiday park and caravan sites.”