Plugged into Energy Use
Aug 26 - Building Operating Management
Knowing how facilities use - and plan to use - energy can increase the EFFECTIVENESS OF TECHNOLOGIES designed to help cut power costs
While those tried-and-true methods work, they are only as effective as
building occupants' tolerances for walking in the dark, breaking a sweat in
their cubicles and waiting for a computer to reboot.
Reducing energy costs by merely cutting the amount of kilowatts facilities
consume is a nice start. But really, it's that - a start. Making an effective
dent in energy costs requires a deeper understanding of energy than just how
much electricity facilities use.
Facility executives serious about reducing energy costs - not just energy
consumption - should know how their facilities use electricity, what the
electricity is used for and how they would get by without it.
"We know, and have learned the hard way, that it's not just enough to
have enough widgets - energy-efficient windows, lights and other things,"
says Evan Mills, a scientist with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory. "You have to make sure they're applied
correctly."
Knowing which widgets can best be applied to reduce energy expenses starts
with knowing how much energy use costs the organization, says Mills. To the
surprise of some, that's usually more than just the product of the number of
kilowatt-hours used and the electric rate.
BEYOND KWH
There are a number of charges that electric utilities bill to customers that
have little to do with how much electricity is consumed in each billing cycle.
Those charges include connection charges, fees based on the time of day that
electricity is consumed and the quality of the power measured as it exits the
facility. And for those facility executives who lease space, there could be
additional charges that the building owner collects based on the presumption
that each tenant is responsible for a certain amount of electricity, so-called
common charges.
The key to reducing those charges is to understand how they are determined
and how they can be controlled.
Organizations pay connection charges, also known as customer charges, for
simply having the ability to draw electricity from the utility grid. To a
certain extent, the charge is based on the amount of electricity the facility
expects to use, not how much it actually uses. The fee is set based upon the
facility's rate class. All commercial buildings of a size and type, for example,
would likely pay the same connection charge.
What's important for facility executives to understand about those charges,
says Lindsay Audin, president of the energy consulting firm EnergyWiz, is that
connection charges comprise a larger percentage of the electric bill as energy
use declines. That means a high connection charge will remain so even if energy
usage drops.
An important part in controlling a facility's energy bill has to do with
determining how much electricity is expected to be used monthly. When setting
electric service requirements, facility executives undoubtedly want to allow for
a facility's electricity use to grow as the organization expands.
Sometimes, however, that anticipated growth is never realized because the
organization changes location rather than expanding within its existing
facility. It might also not be realized because the equipment placed in service
to accommodate expansion will be more energy efficient than originally thought.
Replacement lamps, ballasts, cooling technologies and office equipment will be
more efficient than the original equipment.
One of the most important reasons facility executives should get a handle on
anticipated electricity load, Audin says, is because of the relationship between
kilowatts and back-up power demands. And the more important power is to the
organization, the more important it is to figure loads accurately.
A mission-critical facility that uses 4,000 kw, for example, would likely
want 7,000 kw of back-up generation available. The extra capacity is necessary
in case a generator is offline for maintenance or fails to start when needed.
"If you're only using 1,000 kw instead of the 4,000 kw you thought you
were going to use, you've got a lot invested in equipment that's not ever going
to be used," Audin says.
Cyrus Izzo, senior vice president of online environments for the Syska
Hennessy Group, an engineering firm, suggests facility executives develop a
five-year plan to determine how much energy their facilities will need. He cites
one firm, a data center based in North Carolina, that looked at how much energy
the company used at each of its various facilities located around the country.
From there, it used historical data to determine the likelihood of expansion
within five years and then determined how large the expansion would be.
What resulted, Izzo says, was a plan that will allow the company to expand
with minimal disruption to its business, while in the meantime avoiding
unnecessary costs.
"A company might think it needs 125 watts per square foot," Izzo
says. "That might be true, but it might not need it for another 10 years.
To have that capability in place means it's going to pay for it now even though
it doesn't need it."
IN LIGHT OF DEREGULATION
In addition to deciding how much energy a facility needs to operate, facility
executives should give thought to how they plan to meet the energy demand.
Deregulation of electric utilities created changes to electricity pricing that
influence how facility executives meet peak-load demand.
Jim D'Orazio, director and senior vice president of operations and
engineering for Jones Lang LaSalle, says the ability to purchase power in bulk
in deregulated markets should prompt review of procedures facility executives
have in place to meet peak demands. In regulated environments, it often made
financial sense to generate power on site because it was less expensive than
purchasing it from the utility during peak times. Depending on the contracted
price for electricity, however, it could cost more to operate generators than it
does to buy power from the utility.
"There has to be a review of the practices and procedures that force the
generators to start," D'Orazio says.
The Manhattan Veteran Affairs Medical Center undertook such a review four
years ago and has been netting the benefits ever since. The hospital once ran
its three diesel-fuel generators only to meet requirements that the hospital
ensure the generators work. Those tests, which Manhattan VA conducted from 6 to
6:30 a.m. on the first Friday of every month, have since given way to the
medical center's participation in the New York Independent System Operator's
(ISO) peak-load reduction program.
In partnership with an energy services company, the 1.2 million- square-foot
medical complex receives day-ahead signals from the utility indicating a need
for power. From there, says James Walsh, Manhattan VA's chief of engineering
services, the hospital prepares to start its generators, shaving as much as 1.5
megawatts of power off its utility power demand.
Manhattan VA is paid not only for its participation in the program, but also
based on the amount of power it shaves from its utility demand. Depending on the
year and the ISO's need for power, the hospital can net about $100,000 annually
after it pays for the expense of operating its own generators, Walsh says.
In addition, participation in the program has improved the skills of the
facility staff to operate the generators, giving the medical center more
confidence that systems will operate as expected should power fail, Walsh says.
During last year's power outage, the generators ran for 27 consecutive hours,
supplying critical loads with electricity.
"From an engineering point of view, participation in the program allows
us to run the generators," Walsh says. "It really gives us a good
sense of how they are going to run under loads when it's essential."
GETTING STARTED
A number of technology options exists to allow facility executives not only
to gather energy data, but also to convert it to information on which to take
action. While technology options are numerous enough to bog down even the most
nimble facility executive, there are a few basics to consider.
The first, says Audin, is an interval meter with the ability to read pulse
outputs. Such a meter will allow facility executives to measure how much energy
their buildings use within certain time periods. Having that data will then
allow energy use to be adjusted - shifted to different times of day, if possible
- to take advantage of off-peak energy price periods.
A second important piece of equipment is a power factor meter that measures
the quality of the power leaving the facility. Facility executives will know if
their buildings are paying power factor charges if they are billed for
kilovoltamps on electric bills. Although the utility calculates the charges,
Audin says, having a meter in the facility will verify the charges are correct.
One of the most important pieces of equipment is a submeter that allows
facility executives to determine what specific pieces of equipment or processes
within a facility are using energy. Knowing that information will enable
facility executives to focus energy- reduction efforts in specific areas. In som\e
cases, it also influences what equipment can and can't be adjusted in an attempt
to reduce energy costs.
Organizations with energy-intensive operations and processes, such as data
centers and certain manufacturing plants, often look with disdain on attempts to
reduce the energy use of critical equipment. Servers in a data center, for
example, are typically off limits to energy-reduction efforts because of the
impact server failure has on the revenue-producing capability of the business.
But that doesn't mean that energy used by cooling technologies, lights or
other systems can't be touched. To get an accurate read on how much energy use
could potentially be eliminated, facility executives should consider submetering
systems unrelated to the revenue-producing operation of the business.
Audin remembers working at one printing facility in which he could look at
switching or adjusting any system or piece of equipment except for the printing
press motors. What he discovered was that warehouse lights where paper was
stored were left on even though the only activity in that area was robots
carrying paper to the printing presses. The robots didn't need lights to see.
They were guided by laser tracks mounted in the floors and ceilings.
"If you don't have people in a space, use that to your advantage,"
Audin says.
Izzo, too, recommends submetering. Knowing how much energy certain systems
use is an important piece of information, particularly for facility executives
whose organizations lease space. Building owners will often charge tenants
certain common charges, including those for HVAC cooling expenses.
Izzo says that unless a tenant can demonstrate otherwise, common charges to
tenants will be based on the buildings owner's prior experience with similar
types of operations or on the perception of how much energy a tenant's business
requires. Most common, however, is merely to allocate cooling costs depending
upon the amount of space a tenant occupies.
That's not necessarily a fair way to divide energy costs, particularly if a
tenant uses most of its power on off-peak times or if it shares the building
with energy-intensive organizations. Even shaving some of the expense from
common charges - Izzo says he has seen some common charges for HVAC cooling
expenses cost several thousand dollars per ton - can make a difference.
"What's important to remember is that it doesn't matter whether it's
$100 a ton or $5,000 a ton, but that everything is negotiable," Izzo says.
Owners of leased facilities might want to consider submetering as well.
D'Orazio of Jones Lang LaSalle says owners might acquire a building without
knowing the condition of equipment in the building. Only through submetering can
an owner know whether a chiller, for example, is using far more energy than it
should.
"Without submetering, you don't know where the equipment is operating on
its efficiency curve," he says.
D'Orazio suggests matching submetering data with maintenance records to find
out what changes have been made to a system through the years. Sometimes, there
have been adjustments to HVAC units that cause them to run inefficiently.
When facility executives inherit equipment, it's impossible to know what
adjustments have been made to it without looking at maintenance and operation
logs. Simply by recommissioning the equipment so it's configured as it was
originally intended, D'Orazio says, it's possible to cut the energy consumed by
that equipment by 50 percent.
"That's not an unreasonable number," he says.
GAINING SUPPORT
One challenge facility executives might face in gathering the information
necessary to reduce energy use is getting their organizations to see the value
of such efforts. For financial officers at some organizations, energy is an
expense that has to be paid, not one that can be controlled. That is, at least,
until the relationship is established between energy expenses, business revenues
and an organization's competitive standing.
Mills of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory says facility executives
should operate in both the economic culture in which financial officers work and
the engineering arena in which most facility departments operate. Bridging the
two is the challenge for facility executives.
One way to accomplish that, he says, is to gather information that shows
energy expense in financial terms. In a restaurant, for example, show the cost
of energy to produce one meal. If operating retail stores, report benchmarks
showing the average energy expenditures of similar operations, some which would
be competitors.
Mills says seeing that a competitor might be spending 2 to 3 three times less
on energy can inspire change among top management to get energy costs under
control.
"If those initiatives are owner driven, they're usually more
effective," he says.
E-mail comments and questions to mike, lobash@tradepress.com
.
SOFTWARE HELPS KEEP ENERGY-EFFICIENT DESIGNS ON TRACK
Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory developed a design tool
aimed at keeping facility executives abreast of how their buildings are meeting
energy performance goals.
Evan Mills, a scientist at the lab, and others created the Design Intent
Tool, available for download at http://ateam.lbl.gov/Designlntent/home.html
.
The tool allows facility executives to document the design intent of
facilities and then helps track metrics to determine the effectiveness of the
design.
For example, Mills says, a facility executive using the tool might establish
a daylit building as a goal, and then further identify the use of lightshelves
as a technology to help achieve that goal. Then, to keep the project design
intent on track, a facility executive would select a metric, such as 1 watt of
electric lighting per square foot.
Although the program doesn't help facility executives look at the advantages
of different technologies - a number of programs already exist to show the
benefits of, say, low-e glazing over conventional glazing - it serves as an
information repository for a design team. The availability of such information
should help keep all members involved in a project on the same track, Mills
says.
The tool is simple enough to use, Mills says, so owners don't get lost or
frustrated by the design process.
"Buildings are so complex that it's easy for the owner to get left in
the dust," he says.
Although a user of the tool is allowed to set specific goals, technologies
and metrics for any given building, the program does have templates available
for certain building types, including sustainable buildings and research
laboratories. Mills says templates are added as they are developed.
- Mike Lobash, executive editor
Cutting energy costs means knowing more than just HOW MUCH electricity is
used. The WHEN, WHY and WHERE matter, too
Overestimating a facility's energy use could result in HIGHER- THAN-NECESSARY
FEES charged by utilities. Underestimating use can hinder organizational
performance
Changes in energy markets should prompt FACILITY EXECUTIVES TO REVIEW
POLICIES and procedures that are in place to help decide when on-site generation
makes sense
BY MIKE LOBASH, EXECUTIVE EDITOR
Copyright Trade Press Publishing Company Aug 2004