by Joel S. Gilbert
Energy providers wonder what their commercial and industrial customers really want. The obvious answer is lower rates, but they’ve had them all along. These customers have had innovative rates that offer significant savings-if they change their energy-use behavior. But these same customers will simply not do the work to take full advantage of the discounts and incentives offered through load management. They say they do, but if you check, they seldom do.
Some might suggest that today’s powerful energy management systems, with their ability to analyze and present hourly load profiles, will certainly change all that. After all, hourly interval meter data has become so easy and inexpensive to attain, these customers have virtually no excuse about load management. Today’s energy management systems can “shadow meter” the energy company’s billing meter and can get rather close to monthly billing determinants. Alerts and alarms can be programmed to avoid high demands, etc. What excuse is there now for not improving load shape?
Plus, the emphasis on “carbon footprints” should certainly bring energy efficiency back into focus and provide even more incentive to take energy efficiency and load management seriously. Surely that will do it.
Or will it? No-not until some really important challenges are met.
They are shorthanded. Just like the energy companies serving them, C&I customers are operating with fewer and fewer people, and the new hires are relatively young and inexperienced compared to those who are retiring. There is an increasingly large opportunity for outside help to come to the rescue.
They are tired of fighting with operations. National account company headquarters often know which stores are the bad apples, but they can seldom pinpoint the root cause. Then, when they attempt to correct the situations, local control often overrides. This is why an increasing number of national accounts are locking all local HVAC control out, forcing these stores to contact headquarters to change any settings.
They are distracted with other priorities.C&I customers have traditionally answered first to production pressures and the need to provide services. Efficiency and even cost control take a back seat. It’s been common for operational management to ignore the energy consequences of these actions if they saw them at all. Translating energy savings into the equivalent of what they sell or provide can dramatically increase the apparent value of saving energy. Sounds simple, but this translation or equivalency is often neither calculated nor communicated.
Energy savings have not been sexy. Fortunately this is changing. Now that carbon accountabilities are on everyone’s mind, energy savings can make a very big difference, not only in operational finances but also in corporate image. Check out some of the recent efforts of retailers such as Wal-Mart and Walgreens to see how important green energy and the fifth fuel, “energy efficiency,” have become. This may be the turnaround factor for many. Energy and carbon savings may emerge as the critical indicator of the survivability of a company.
It will take performance, conformance and communication
Effective energy efficiency and load management must become a routine in day-to-day operational management by enhancing performance, conformance and communication.
Performance: LEDs, daylighting, variable speed drives, high-efficiency HVAC designs, etc., all add up to improvements in building performance. Commissioning-making sure all this technology is really working-new buildings and periodic re-commissioning must be standard practices. Otherwise, much of this technology gets defeated over time due to a lack of maintenance and/or an inability of operational personnel to understand its performance advantage. Tracking energy use over time should point out where degradation has occurred.
Conformance: Are the buildings being operated as they should? Do lights and HVAC equipment go off when buildings are unoccupied? Do outside lights come on and go off at the right times of the day? Are the heating and cooling systems only operating when needed and is the optimal amount of outside air being brought into the building? These are just a few of the bigger conformance issues. Well-designed and well-built buildings can still be energy hogs when operational conformance is neglected.
Communication: Online tools provided by energy companies like American Electric Power and Baltimore Gas & Electric go a long way toward providing building managers with information about how their building’s consumption compares to excellent building perfor-mance standards, and the savings possible by taking certain steps.
The good news is that identifying how well a building is performing is getting easier. The challenge that still remains is how customers can implement a plan to make it a reality. All signs point to the increased use of outsourcing for this work on a performance-based approach where the customer’s agent has a stake in the outcome.
Author
Joel S. Gilbert, P.E., is chief software architect of APOGEE Interactive, Inc. APOGEE develops cost-effective Internet tools to help utilities fulfill their customer service, energy efficiency, load management, marketing, communications, and training goals. Visit www.apogee.net for more information.
