Your mobile phone buzzes at your desk and you glance away from your emails to see the notification holds great news, “Your order has shipped!” A big relief -with that special-ordered part on its way, there is still a chance the unit will be repaired in time for Open House.
Back to the emails.
Now it’s time to head over to the new convention center for the ribbon cutting. Final walk-throughs and inspections consumed most of yesterday, but you’re still banking on this afternoon for a chance to catch up on some of your planned-facility reviews. Budgets will be due soon, and you want to make sure everything is operating efficiently to keep costs manageable.
In the lives of facility owners and operators: schedules are tight, demands are great, and resources are limited. Finding a way to “accomplish it all” is the objective. Each facility contains thousands of working parts that are necessary to maintain the desired environment. Add different space needs to heating/cooling season changes; then, multiply by the number of facilities in your portfolio. The pressure for optimal building performance and the resources to accomplish this feat, is immense.
Budget time rolls around. While you’re happy with some of the gains made in different areas, you’re perplexed as to why one of your newest facilities is the most expensive to operate. You recall a former colleague worked in the energy-efficiency industry before retiring. Your friend stumps you with a question: “What does your weekend energy consumption look like?” Seems like a strange question given that staff and production occur during weekday hours only. Nonetheless, a weekend audit is the next logical step. Your walk-through reveals some opportunities for savings such as a few fans and lights that were left on, but nothing as substantial as you were hoping.
On the drive home, it hits you: “We need to be measuring and tracking at a granular level. We need building metering!”
Sure enough, just days after installing the metering, it’s evident that a large energy draw is occurring each evening. Knowing the magnitude and types of equipment in the building, you are quickly able to determine that spike in consumption is tied to the central chiller that provides cooling throughout the building. The best part is that it’s only an issue with the schedule and can therefore be resolved quickly.
At the end of the next month, the energy bill has reduced significantly.
Installing interval metering on electricity provides you the ability to quickly determine which facilities are deviating from expected consumption before the bill arrives at the end of the month. When paired with an analytics platform, a large portfolio of facilities and equipment can efficiently be reviewed. Facility walk-throughs are helpful, but first identifying a targeted set of buildings/equipment to investigate, cuts down on time and effort. Additionally, the issues leading to energy waste are generally occurring at inconvenient times of the day when your facility is vacant.
When it comes to the dilemma of, “Schedules are tight, demands are great, and resources are limited,” accomplish it all by leveraging the power of data to make the most of your time and resources. It’s impossible to know what all equipment is doing at all hours of the day without technologies such as metering and facility analytics.
While in a meeting the next month, that question that used to cause you great anxiety comes into your mind: “Is that chiller running again, and driving my budgets out of balance?” Now, in just a few clicks of the mouse, you access your metering and facility analytics to answer that question before moving on to the next task at hand.
Objective met.
About the author – Zack Flageolle is Navitas’ Director of Optimization Services. His experience in planning, design, and construction has allowed him to gain a greater understanding of what makes a successful project. He provides leadership of our Optimization Services activities for our clients and is instrumental in ensuring the program is successful. He can be reached at zflageolle@navitas.us.com.