Tag Archives: energy cost

New Technologies for Energy Management

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s a common phrase that many people use but it can be difficult for building owners and property managers – especially when dealing with older buildings with legacy systems.  In September 2011, Verdantix, an independent analyst firm focused on energy, environment, and sustainability issues, released a report in which they said,  “Optimizing enterprise-wide energy consumption… is a big prize that firms are waking up to. But the vast diversity of energy-consuming assets- lights, security systems, HVAC, boilers, elevators, servers, routers, and manufacturing equipment-means no single application will collect the data from all energy-consuming end points.”

A recent article in Control Engineering noted that the key to successfully implementing an effective energy management program is system integration. This is the only way to simultaneously measure all of the energy-consuming systems that provide heating, cooling, lighting, etc… Unfortunately, this sounds easier than it usually turns out to be. One reason is that most of the energy management products available on the market only address one piece of the energy management puzzle. Another is that these same products are also built on proprietary platforms such that they can’t talk to other solutions that may solve those other pieces.
The Future of Energy Management

The Control Engineering article has the following to say about the benefits of implementing an integrated, enterprise-wide energy management solution:

In May 2012, Verdantix released a report titled “The Future of Energy Management” based on a survey of 210 corporate executives from around the globe with responsibility for making decisions about corporate energy use.

The survey subjects represented companies with at least $250 million in annual revenue in 21 industries. Nearly half the respondents said they plan to make “significant” changes in the way in which they manage energy over the next two years. The survey also revealed that 35% of corporations already have a global energy strategy that revolves around central decision making.

That’s a major shift-especially in the manufacturing sector-from the long-standing practice of allowing corporate divisions, or even individual plants, to make their own energy-management decisions. In fact, 40% of the companies represented in the Verdantix survey still make those decisions at the national level, while 21% still make them at the local level. But it’s clear that those numbers are changing.

“Corporations really are catching on to the strategic importance of energy management,” declares Janet Lin, a senior manager at Verdantix and co-lead of its energy practice. “They also are realizing that central decision making is the foundation for strategic energy management.”

As companies move toward strategic energy management, Lin says they ultimately will find themselves adopting new technology, and they would be well served to heed sound IT project management practices when doing so.

Chief among those practices is determining exactly what the organization wants to accomplish before purchasing any new technology. When it comes to energy management, Lin advises companies to “first look at their usage scenario and pick the category of software with the appropriate functionality.” That method is likely to lead to an incremental approach to implementing comprehensive energy management, starting with the scenarios and solutions that provide the quickest payback.

General Motors saved $50 million in energy costs and reduced its energy intensity 25 percent by working with SAIC to integrate its systems. Since the partnership began 10 years ago, SAIC has executed more than $75 million in energy management projects across multiple contracts for GM, and helped GM avoid more than 778,000 metric tons of excessive greenhouse gas emissions.

Usage Scenarios for Energy Management Software Categories

Communication Protocols

Feras Karim, SAIC senior systems engineer, talks about the difficulties associated with getting these systems to talk to one another. In the past, this has proven very difficult due to the proprietary nature of communication protocols. However, more recently vendors have developed intelligent devices that make them easier to connect to one another. “We can now work with protocol gateway translators,” Karim says. “So if you have systems that talk BACNET, LON, Modbus, Modbus TCP OPC, or other major protocols, you can have a single point to coordinate between different types of devices for a reasonable cost. Previously, if you couldn’t afford an expensive system, you couldn’t do this type of integration.”

For those companies who invest the time and money into these energy management systems, the payback can be substantial. ”Just a simple building tune-up, making HVAC equipment more efficient, can render savings of 5% to 15%,” Karim says. “When you go beyond that and start doing things like data mining and making adjustments to implement best practices in scheduling facility and production equipment, you can yield up to a 45% reduction in energy use.”

If you’re interested in a free energy audit, please see how you can Use less energy with our Jump Start Program.

Daily Energy Use ProfileYou can’t manage what you don’t measure. That’s a common phrase that many people use but it can be difficult for building owners and property managers – especially when dealing with older buildings with legacy systems.  In September 2011, Verdantix, an independent analyst firm focused on energy, environment, and sustainability issues, released a report in which they said,  “Optimizing enterprise-wide energy consumption… is a big prize that firms are waking up to. But the vast diversity of energy-consuming assets- lights, security systems, HVAC, boilers, elevators, servers, routers, and manufacturing equipment-means no single application will collect the data from all energy-consuming end points.”

A recent article in Control Engineering noted that the key to successfully implementing an effective energy management program is system integration. This is the only way to simultaneously measure all of the energy-consuming systems that provide heating, cooling, lighting, etc… Unfortunately, this sounds easier than it usually turns out to be. One reason is that most of the energy management products available on the market only address one piece of the energy management puzzle. Another is that these same products are also built on proprietary platforms such that they can’t talk to other solutions that may solve those other pieces.

The Future of Energy Management

The Control Engineering article has the following to say about the benefits of implementing an integrated, enterprise-wide energy management solution:

In May 2012, Verdantix released a report titled “The Future of Energy Management” based on a survey of 210 corporate executives from around the globe with responsibility for making decisions about corporate energy use.

The survey subjects represented companies with at least $250 million in annual revenue in 21 industries. Nearly half the respondents said they plan to make “significant” changes in the way in which they manage energy over the next two years. The survey also revealed that 35% of corporations already have a global energy strategy that revolves around central decision making.

That’s a major shift-especially in the manufacturing sector-from the long-standing practice of allowing corporate divisions, or even individual plants, to make their own energy-management decisions. In fact, 40% of the companies represented in the Verdantix survey still make those decisions at the national level, while 21% still make them at the local level. But it’s clear that those numbers are changing.

“Corporations really are catching on to the strategic importance of energy management,” declares Janet Lin, a senior manager at Verdantix and co-lead of its energy practice. “They also are realizing that central decision making is the foundation for strategic energy management.”

As companies move toward strategic energy management, Lin says they ultimately will find themselves adopting new technology, and they would be well served to heed sound IT project management practices when doing so.

Chief among those practices is determining exactly what the organization wants to accomplish before purchasing any new technology. When it comes to energy management, Lin advises companies to “first look at their usage scenario and pick the category of software with the appropriate functionality.” That method is likely to lead to an incremental approach to implementing comprehensive energy management, starting with the scenarios and solutions that provide the quickest payback.

General Motors saved $50 million in energy costs and reduced its energy intensity 25 percent by working with SAIC to integrate its systems. Since the partnership began 10 years ago, SAIC has executed more than $75 million in energy management projects across multiple contracts for GM, and helped GM avoid more than 778,000 metric tons of excessive greenhouse gas emissions.

Usage Scenarios for Energy Management Software Categories

Communication Protocols

Feras Karim, SAIC senior systems engineer, talks about the difficulties associated with getting these systems to talk to one another. In the past, this has proven very difficult due to the proprietary nature of communication protocols. However, more recently vendors have developed intelligent devices that make them easier to connect to one another. “We can now work with protocol gateway translators,” Karim says. “So if you have systems that talk BACNET, LON, Modbus, Modbus TCP OPC, or other major protocols, you can have a single point to coordinate between different types of devices for a reasonable cost. Previously, if you couldn’t afford an expensive system, you couldn’t do this type of integration.”

For those companies who invest the time and money into these energy management systems, the payback can be substantial. “Just a simple building tune-up, making HVAC equipment more efficient, can render savings of 5% to 15%,” Karim says. “When you go beyond that and start doing things like data mining and making adjustments to implement best practices in scheduling facility and production equipment, you can yield up to a 45% reduction in energy use.”

If you’re interested in a free energy audit, please see how you can Use less energy with our Jump Start Program.

Person confused about energy billYou may not realize it, but your monthly electric bill is a valuable tool. It tells you what, when and how you spend your energy dollars every month. By knowing how to “translate” these dollars and cents into energy use information, you can identify energy and cost-saving opportunities. Then, after you’ve taken steps to reduce energy use, your bill can act as a “score card” and give you monthly feedback on your progress.

Most electric bills are complex and can be difficult to read or understand. As a property or facility manager, you might not even see them on a monthly basis.

However, the operating decisions you make each day directly affect your bill’s bottom line.   Also, by understanding how energy is measured and billed, you can discover ways to reduce energy cost by controlling when and how energy is consumed.

Typical electric bills are broken down into three major categories of costs:

Delivery Services

Customer charge:  The customer charge recovers costs associated with making service available to a customer, such as installing and maintaining meters, utility poles, power lines and equipment, as well as meter reading and PSNH’s 24-hour customer service center.

Distribution Charge: This charge recovers costs related to the maintenance and operation of PSNH’s distribution system, and PSNH’s power restoration and service operations. The KWH charge is based on the number of kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity used during a billing period. The KW charge, or “demand” charge, is based on the greatest amount of electricity used in any half-hour period during a billing period.

Transmission Charge:  This charge recovers costs related to the delivery of electricity over the high-voltage or transmission system power lines. The KWH charge is based on the number of kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity used during a billing period. The KW charge, or “demand” charge, is based on the greatest amount of electricity used in any half-hour period during a billing period.

Stranded Cost Recovery Charge:  This charge helps fund the recovery of PSNH’s past investment costs, including expenses incurred through mandated power contracts and other long-term investments and obligations. The KWH charge is based on the amount of kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity a customer has used during a billing period. The KW charge, or “demand” charge, is based on the greatest amount of electricity used in any half-hour period during a billing period. A portion of this charge is owned by PSNH Funding LLC and is being collected on its behalf.

System Benefits Charge:  This charge funds energy efficiency programs for all customers as well as assistance programs for residential customers within certain income guidelines.

Deregulated Supply

Energy Charge:  This charge is based on the amount of kilowatt-hours (KWH) of electricity a customer has used during a billing period. It includes a supplier’s costs to generate and/or buy power.

Taxes

Electricity Consumption Tax:  This is a state-mandated tax on electricity consumption.

Get Going

Once you understand how your facility’s electricity use is metered and billed, you can better manage your energy consumption. Next, taking the steps necessary to make operational changes to reduce these costs becomes a lot easier. For example, energy and cost-saving steps can include:

  • Comparing the present bill with the bill for the same billing period in the previous year, not the previous month. There can be various usage differences in a month-to-month comparison, such as warmer or cool weather conditions or holidays.
    Sailor switches his lights to high efficiency bulbs

    Image courtesy of US Navy on Flickr

  • Developing a comprehensive energy and cost reduction plan and sharing it with your employees, and submitting the application for your building’s “Energy Star” rating.
  • Making utility costs known to employees.
  • Getting copies of your electric bills and keeping track of monthly expenses and usage with an energy management software solution.
  • Setting goals and targets for both energy consumption reduction and demand reduction.
  • Looking for periods of unusually high or abnormal energy use and determining the cause.
  • Identifying the time of your peak demand, determining causes of this peak, and finding ways to reduce it. Consider possible strategies for shifting equipment operations into utility off-peak periods.
  • Identifying equipment that runs excessively and using automatic controls to shut it down when not needed.
  • Setting controls so that operation is staggered (for instance two pumps that need to operate only one hour per day should be controlled so as not to operate at the same time).
  • Understanding that utilities have different rates for different types of customers. Talk with your utility representative, and make sure you are being charged the correct rate for your facility. Inquire if there are programs offered that will allow lower rates.
  • Implementing energy conservation and efficiency measures.

rising business performanceThere are many options for evaluating energy savings ROI (return on investment).  “Payback” is still the most widely used measure of value and describes the number of years it takes for the cost of an investment to be recovered through the annual savings that it provides.

Many industry corporate managers are often not impressed by proposed energy savings.  Yet the same results may be enthusiastically received when impacts are related to Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) of the client’s business operations.  This means expressing a reduction in energy use (or cost) per unit that the business uses to measure output and productivity on a daily basis:  tons of product, barrels of product, gallons per revenue passenger mile, energy costs per square foot, energy cost per meal served in a restaurant, BTUs per employee, or the total annual energy spent as a percentage of net income.

Defining your energy costs of production is an essential step to understanding how energy affects your productivity and profit margin.  Businesses are best served by making the additional effort to carry the efficiency project ROI, Payback and Savings calculations out one step further and applying the energy costs/ savings to the functional business KPIs that represent the strategic purpose of the business.

Once the energy efficiency projects are brought back full circle and get measured in day-to-day operational terms the company will achieve true synergistic reductions in energy use.

Get Going

Armed with total energy usage data, meter data, Energy Star rankings and a prioritized list of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), a Facilities Manager is prepared to establish a list of operational units of output that can be directly tied to energy consumed.  Conversely, all energy conservation measures and energy efficiency measures can now be expressed in operational business terms

  • Define your organizational business metrics or production measurements.
  • Redefine your current energy efficiency project in terms of Business KPIs.
  • Create company, employee and/or tenant awareness with lobby and cafeteria based energy reporting kiosks.
  • Establish an on-going measurement, monitoring and tracking program for these newly established KPIs.