Electronic control manufacturer CAREL Controls is working towards compliance with the EU’s Cyber Resilience Act – a regulation that introduces mandatory cybersecurity standards for products that have “digital elements”.

“It is one thing that CAREL Controls has worked on quite aggressively in the last year . . . There’s been a lot of talk on the Cyber Resilience Act, which has essentially been established to strengthen systems and processes and improve resilience against cyberattacks targeting connected equipment,” says CAREL Controls MD Vernon Vandrau.

The company has until the end of 2027 to achieve compliance, with several key milestones that must be met along the way.

CAREL Controls offers a variety of humidity, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVAC-R) control solutions to facilitate optimal performance for clients’ respective operations – whether they be stores, supermarkets and commercial refrigeration facilities or large industrial facilities and data centres.

Vandrau explains that HVAC-R technologies used in refrigeration and temperature control applications are evolving rapidly. Through Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, these systems can communicate with one another, allowing operators to remotely monitor performance and make adjustments such as modifying temperatures or shutting down units when necessary. This capability gives clients confidence that their systems operate at optimal efficiency at all times.

AI is playing a complementary role in enabling retail, commercial and industrial operators to ensure that all HVAC-R solutions are working optimally.

“We have already begun incorporating some measure of AI assistance into our refrigeration controllers. A typical application for a retailer is to set up a controller on a cabinet to keep the products at the desired temperature. We will get to a stage where AI will start pulling data from these systems and begin to make adjustments that keep things within specified temperature limits,” he adds.

Vandrau adds that AI can provide suggestions for technicians and operators who handle the controllers, enabling them to better optimise HVAC-R applications.

CAREL Controls already integrates HVAC-R control systems with monitoring solutions.

“We offer a solution where we monitor all the cabinets inside the retail outlet, and the owner can compare the different stores to one another, which immediately provides updates on what is being done at the best-performing stores that should be replicated at the worst-performing stores,” he notes.

Consequently, overall productivity and operationality can be increased.

These controls and monitoring systems also enable clients to analyse their employee and customer behaviour such as leaving refrigerator doors open, says Vandrau.

The HVAC-R industry is expected to increasingly adopt natural refrigerants and energy-efficient technologies, including CO2-based HVAC systems and chillers, R-32 HVAC units, and propane refrigeration systems. This shift is being driven by “growing frustration with the continual changes in refrigerant technologies and a preference for refrigerants that occur naturally in the environment”.

For him, there is a significant need for government and industry stakeholders to emphasise skills development in the HVAC-R manufacturing industry, as this would help to bolster growth in the sector. It would also require an import tariff being placed on imported HVAC-R components to further justify skills development within the local manufacturing sector.

The HVAC-R market will continue to grow in South Africa as long as industrial, retail and commercial sectors continue to require HVAC-R solutions. However, Vandrau expects demand for data centre applications to balloon, as it is “fast becoming a booming industry” in South Africa.