12: Energy Management

Energy management is the process of tracing and managing energy consumption to curb and conserve its usage while ensuring efficiency & operations. That further includes optimization of energy use to achieve the best possible outcomes in regard to economic and environmental values while keeping conservation in mind.

The Energy Management process also assists an organization with the production and storage of energy, to achieve sustainable, or even Net Zero operations. Businesses can minimize the necessity for on-site maintenance and upkeep over various locations and energy assets with the help of an efficient energy management system in place.

Here are a few steps involved in the process of energy management:

• Continuously collecting and analyzing data.
• Identifying optimizations in equipment schedules, setting points, and flow rates for better energy efficiency.
• Calculating return on investment (ROI). Calculating the units of energy saved, similarly to units of energy delivered.
• Executing energy optimization solutions.
• Repeat step two to continue optimizing energy efficiency.

Importance of Energy Management

Energy management plays a crucial role in improving the corporate social responsibility of a business while helping optimize costs and energy. The lack of automated energy management solutions and a dedicated energy manager might hinder the brand reputation of any company. Here are a few other benefits of an efficient energy management system.

Cost reduction – Reduced costs through competitive procurement and decreasing energy consumption.

Reduce carbon footprint - Through efficient energy management systems, businesses can achieve net zero emissions and stay compliant with regulations with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.

Reduce risk – Overconsumption of energy resources increases the risk of a spike in energy prices or supply shortages affecting the profitability of the organization. With energy management solutions, one can reduce this risk by reducing the demand for energy and control so as to make it more predictable.

Industry Best Practices: What Energy Management Techniques Exist?

Corporate sustainability has been in the limelight lately, and most companies are making a shift toward integrating it into their business operations. However, achieving similar results as a seasoned sustainable company can be challenging. Here are a few techniques for implementing an efficient energy management system.

1. Identify the sources of energy consumption
The primary step towards creating an efficient energy management system is identifying what energy sources your company utilizes the most. Doing so helps you create an efficient framework for managing and reducing energy consumption in specific areas of your business. That way, reducing the costs and carbon footprint becomes simplified.

2. Collect Utility Bill Data
Once you have identified the energy sources your company has been using the most, it's time to collect data from the utility bills. Doing so can be simple with the help of utility data service companies. It is crucial to assess the data from utility bills belonging to multiple accounts of the company.

3. Analyze the meter data
Once the data is collected from the utility bills, companies must identify which buildings or divisions are consuming the most and least energy. Assessing interval data also helps as it identifies the energy utilization at the peak and lowest points. So, companies can know when and where most of the energy is being consumed within their organization.

4. Identifying the timelines and reasons
Identifying the times when energy consumption is at its peak and the reasons behind it play a crucial role in energy management. Whether it's due to faulty machinery or any equipment running during off hours, identifying the cause and fixing the issue becomes simplified.

5. Tracking progress
Once all the necessary steps mentioned above are taken, the next step is to track the progress. If the data remains the same after implementing energy consumption measures, it's time to switch to other energy conservation measures. Tracking the progress allows you to analyze whether your energy management measures are effective or not.

Case Study

LARAMAR GROUP - Where “Enertiv” supported in terms of Technology and Services for Energy Management

Challenge:
Over the last 30 years, Laramar has grown from a small real estate investment company to a vertically integrated, multi-billion-dollar portfolio. This growth has been fueled by meticulous attention to detail and unwavering maintenance standards for their assets. However, despite the best efforts of the managers and on-site staff, equipment issues would go undetected, resulting in unnecessary damage to equipment and an increase in costs due to earlier-than-expected replacements. As importantly, because operators were largely reactive to tenant discomfort, Laramar’s team was concerned that the friction could increase the chance of vacancies.

Solution:
Laramar selected two buildings in the Chatsworth Business Park, a 230,000-square-foot office complex in Southern California, as the site for the first phase of deploying Enertiv’s technology. Enertiv installed sensors to track the performance of 43 pieces of critical equipment. As part of the standard process, the Enertiv client success team onboarded Laramar’s operations team on how to use the platform with a focus on their specific goals. Within weeks, the Enertiv Platform began firing automated notifications to the on-site staff alerting them to malfunctioning equipment.

In addition to notifying operators that an HVAC unit was short cycling and another was not turning on at the right time, Enertiv’s client success team took a deep dive into the data in preparation for the first quarterly review. The insight review uncovered a number of optimizations that have been verified to reduce maintenance and repair costs in Enertiv’s other client portfolios. One example is the recommendation to distribute the runtime hours of condenser water pumps by alternating which pumps operate every two to three weeks instead of running one continuously for several months. The client success team also identified that the temperature set point for an HVAC system was too low, accelerating wear and tear on the system by causing it to cycle on and off rapidly. The maintenance insights were coupled with a series of energy-saving optimizations that combined to $75,000 in annual savings, a potential 440% return on the first year’s cost of ownership.