Intelligent Energy Management article, Distributed Energy magazine, by Don Talend

1. EMS • Renewables • HVAC
November/December 2010
www.distributedenergy.com
EFFICIENCY
State of
Mind

2. 42 • www.distributedenergy.com
Companies increase energy efficiency with intelligent energy management systems.
BY DON TALEND
F
resh produce at the grocery store is something
that consumers commonly take for granted. When
one thinks of the amount of energy consumption
required to bring these commodities to market,
transportation is the focus. What it takes to main-
tain an environment that ensures freshness at the point of sale
probably is not the first thing that comes to mind.
The management at Mission Produce, Oxnard, CA, knows
well what it takes to get produce into ready-to-eat condition
for the grocery store. The global packer, importer, processor,
and distributor of avocados and asparagus operates seven
regional US ripening and distri-
bution centers that allow just-in-
time delivery. Using this network,
Mission Produce—which also has
operations in Mexico, Peru, Chile,
and New Zealand—innovated the
practice of supplying ripe avoca-
dos to retail, wholesale, and food
service customers throughout the
United States.
“It was probably seven years
ago that ripening facilities started
to pop up and helped increase
per-capita consumption,” says
Jake Nixon, process improve-
ment project manager for Mission
Produce.“When the person at the
store picks up a rock-hard avocado, they might put it back be-
cause it’s not ready to eat that night. When stores were able to
provide ready-to-eat product, the consumption went up. The
business model changed slightly where, at the source, we try to
maintain a really solid cold chain and keep as much shelf life
as we can on that product, and then we try to ship it out to the
distribution centers. They keep it in that suspended state of
animation, and then, when it’s ready for an order, they ripen it
to order—that’s how the business model changed.”
These capabilities come at a cost, though. Several years
ago, management became increasingly aware that energy costs
were among the company’s highest. To keep up with dynamic
cooling requirements at its Oxnard and Uruapan, Mexico,
facilities, the company incorporated a Powerit Solutions Spara
energy management system (EMS). Mission Produce’s experi-
ence is one example of how organizations are reducing energy
consumption and improving their profitability through the
use of intelligent, scalable EMS.
Nixon explains that the varying temperature of fruit that
enters the Oxnard facility necessitates dynamic cooling envi-
ronments in each of its 11 ripening rooms. The facility receives
fruit from as far south as Temecula near San Diego, as well as
from areas such as Oxnard, Ven-
tura, and San Luis Obispo along the
California coast. Nixon explains that
incoming product can have widely
varying temperatures, and some
needs to be cooled more rapidly to
sustain freshness.
“The demand changes so much;
we might have hot product com-
ing in from the field that we might
need to cool it really quickly, which
takes a lot of energy, but then storage
might not take so much,” says Nixon.
“So we have to have a system that’s
capable of ripening and then cooling
it back down so that we can store
product. We had to design a system
for worst-case scenarios because we can’t afford to have the
product to go bad, but then we don’t want to use the full capa-
bility all the time.” Nixon explains that the ripening rooms act
like forced-air coolers that rapidly cool product, in contrast to
more energy-intensive refrigerated rooms.
When the time came to act on the high energy costs, Mis-
sion Produce approached the Oxnard facility’s power provider,
Southern California Edison (SCE), about participating in a
demand-response program. But implementation proved dif-
ficult without an EMS tying together the company’s numerous
disparate systems, according to Nixon. When the company was
Operations
Optimized
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3. November/December 2010 • 43
alerted to a demand-response event, trying to manually shut
down system components took too long to be effective and
the staff lacked the ability to fine-tune the entire system for
ramp-up.
The company’s SCE representative recommended that
SCE conduct an energy audit, and a representative from an
energy management solutions company, EnerNOC, explained
the benefits of automating demand responses. Ultimately, the
Spara system was recommended as the intelligence in Mission
Produce’s demand-response system, and it was implemented
in Oxnard at the end of 2008 and at Uruapan in late 2009.
Spara is a Web-based EMS characterized by a graphical
user interface (GUI) with industry-specific icons. The GUI is
designed to enhance a facility’s existing HVAC decision-mak-
ing system, i.e., its programmable logic controllers. The EMS
is configured—initially by the vendor’s staff, subsequently by
the customer’s staff—with decision thresholds such as outside
temperature and relative humidity. When the preprogrammed
thresholds are exceeded, the customer is alerted to adjust the
operation of HVAC components such as compressors and
condensers. In some situations,
according to the manufacturer,
some rules actually prevent
some adjustments to be made.
Under this scenario, alerts are
sent indicating the need to ad-
just the rules. It is also possible
to store system operating data
in a database for future access
and adjustment of the rules.
For Mission Produce, the
system is configured to take
advantage of energy efficiency,
peak demand control, and
demand response. Compressor
staging and sequencing were
implemented at the Oxnard
facility and variable frequency
drives (VFDs) were installed on condensers and evaporators.
Additional temperature sensors were also installed on the walls
opposite evaporators in the ripening rooms so that the system
can more accurately gauge temperature throughout the rooms.
For demand control, the EMS facilitates the Mission
Produce staff’s process of understanding where and when
energy spikes occur and taking precisely timed measures to
reduce them or shift them to nonpeak-rate hours. The EMS
technology rapidly tracks dynamic operating conditions and
adjusts power loads, sometimes for just minutes. This capabil-
ity allows companies to participate in real-time pricing ar-
rangements offered by some utilities that change their energy
rates frequently, based on the market price of electricity. For
demand response, Mission Produce is paid to reduce electric-
ity consumption upon demand at times to be determined in
the future. The Mission Produce staff occasionally receives a
message of a demand-response event, such as an unusually hot
day, and power usage must be reduced according to the terms
of a contract with SCE.
The EMS at Mission Produce’s facility allows peak shav-
ing, i.e., minimizing peak demand charges every month,
according to Bob Zak, general manager and president of
Powerit Solutions North America. Rules are established for
the HVAC system, such as ensuring that defrosting occurs
when rates are high and that the system is coming off of a
defrost when rates are low. The key to successful peak shaving,
Zak says, is blending and balancing controls capabilities with
energy management curtailments.
The EMS’ ability to store historical data has led Mission
Produce to adjust rules using the data.“Just having the system
brings a whole new level of visibility within the operation,”
says Nixon.“With that visibility comes the ability to get to
know your equipment better and your process. So over the
time that we’ve gotten to know that stuff better, we’ve been
able to make minor changes.” A phase-two upgrade is planned
for the facility that is intended to optimize some HVAC system
components.
Most importantly, Nixon and Mission Produce have been
able to quantify energy and financial savings through the
use of the EMS. Since system implementation, the company
has reduced its peak-load energy use by and monthly energy
bills by about one-third. The
average billed kilowatts have
been reduced by 279 kilo-
watts (kW) and use has been
reduced by an average of
141,112 kW. The EMS was
said to pay for itself in 20
months, which is typical.
“I look at [return on
investment] a little differently
with this system because we
got rebates [a $177,750 SCE
rebate that paid for 52% of
the system] and financed the
balance,” says Nixon.“We put
very little money down, and
we’re paying approximately
$4,000 to $5,000 on our fi-
nancing and saving approximately $10,000 a month on energy.
So from day one we were saving money. We went through the
process in Oxnard and, we were happy enough with the results
that we decided that we were going to do this with our facility
in Mexico. Also, we’re currently looking at doing this with our
other US operations.”
Dairy Producer Goes Enterprise-Wide
Gaining HVAC system performance visibility was how a lead-
ing US dairy producer set out to achieve a goal of reducing
carbon emissions—and thus energy consumption—by 20%
in five years starting in 2008 with the help of energy manage-
ment solutions provider EPS Corp. Simply tracking monthly
utility bills would not be enough. So the company and EPS
implemented a four-plant pilot program using EPS’ xChange
Point EMS, and the impact of increasing HVAC intelligence
was immediate.
The system began to collect “near-time” electric, water,
fuel, and weather data at each site and provided insight into
the performance of subsystems such as refrigeration, com-
pressed air, wastewater, and steam boilers within 90 days.
Mission Produce’s EMS allows the operations staff to continually track
total power consumption.
Powerit
Solutions

4. 44 • www.distributedenergy.com
Buried in the data were several remedies for optimizing system
performance. For example, it was determined that boiler over-
utilization on weekends was leading to gas overconsumption.
Correlating natural gas use with boiler feed water use helped
save 20% on natural gas. Also, by shutting down noncritical
loads, the system helped identify 200–300 kW in electrical sav-
ings, yielding savings of $3,000 per month at one facility.
In a January 2010 “Analyst
Insight” white paper titled
“Energy Intelligence: Creating
Data Driven Efficiency,” EPS
identified two main Key Per-
formance Indicators (KPIs).
Real Change in Energy Use
means year-over-year change
in energy consumption. Oper-
ating Margin versus Corporate
Plan provides a more strategic
operating context for energy
consumption. EPS surveyed
companies to determine which
were reducing energy con-
sumption the most, and why.
The survey identified
three groups of companies.
Best in Class (top 20% of the
industry) achieved 15% real
reduction in energy use and a
14% higher operating margin
than planned. The Average
group (50% of industry) saw
gains of 7% and 2%, respec-
tively, and Laggards (bottom
30%), experienced changes
of 6% and -9%, respectively.
Then, two major strategies
were identified among the
Best in Class companies.
Under optimization, these
companies improve system
performance and, thus, energy
efficiency. They also establish visibility into energy efficiency
across the enterprise.
The provider’s xChange Point EMS is designed to provide a
real-time energy management by taking enterprise-wide energy
usage data and converting it into targeted, actionable informa-
tion for managers and employees. The system tracks energy
usage of subsystems by unit of production at plants across an
entire enterprise. EPS also continually monitors a customer’s
facilities and report conclusions and recommendations.
According to Julie Moran, executive vice president for
xChange Point, the most energy-intensive subsystems at the
dairy company were steam boilers, refrigeration, and com-
pressed air. Some of the more common opportunities for
improvement in these three subsystems are setting the right
discharge pressure in steam boilers, discharge pressure for
refrigeration, and overall pressure settings in the compressed
air system. Often, it is not abnormal to find that setpoints are
higher than what’s needed for optimal production, she adds.
As a general rule of thumb, just by optimizing those set points,
companies can cut overall energy consumption by 2% to 3%,
according to Moran. Other areas for improvement in this type
of facility typically include normalizing for weather, reduc-
ing overall water volume used in processes and for cleaning
pipes—which reduces steam usage—and identifying and fix-
ing water and compressed air leaks.
Once a baseline is estab-
lished for a standard produc-
tion cycle, e.g., over a week,
minimum and maximum
rules are set up. An e-mail
message is sent directly to a
manager alerting him when
operating data fall outside
of these parameters. Moran
reports that, within the first
month of monitoring, a cus-
tomer achieves a 3% energy-
consumption reduction using
no-cost or low-cost measures.
For an entire typical project,
she adds, the improvement is
commonly more than 20%. In
some cases, achieving the 20%
savings requires some capital
investment, Moran notes.
Access to real-time HVAC
operating data can com-
pletely transform the way that
management views energy
consumption, Moran argues.
“A change in behavior comes
from knowing that someone
can actually monitor whether
the staff did what it was sup-
posed to do, whether or not
they’re actually applying the
best practices or the standard
operating procedures,” she
says.“The other thing we’re
finding is that companies are integrating this information
into their continuous improvement processes so that the daily
tracking and daily measurement is more automated. Today, a
lot of this information is captured manually—it’s slow or way
after the fact that they have the information. The third benefit
is the ability to prioritize capital spending more effectively as it
relates to carbon emissions.
“One of the things we’ve incorporated is tracking of all
the savings opportunities that have been identified that may
require capital investment,” continues Moran.“Those are all
measured consistently; in other words, the energy savings cal-
culations are done consistently whereas, typically, if you don’t
have this type of system in place, you may be getting those
calculations from manufacturers or from other sources; they
may not help you as far as measuring capital requirements.”
It is also possible for a customer with multiple facilities to
actually create a sense of competition among the plants using
a Web-based information-sharing system that allows manage-
Using an industry-specific graphical user interface, Mission Produce’s
EMS indicates to operations staff how HVAC system components such as
compressors are performing versus preprogrammed rules.
Powerit
Solutions

5. November/December 2010 • 45
ment to view dollar savings or emissions reduction across the
enterprise, Moran adds.
“Industrial operations are definitely a ‘show-me’ environ-
ment, and the ability to visualize the data—actually see it in
front of you, actually log on
and watch it in real time—
has an impact on people’s
beliefs,” says Moran.“Also, the
more facilities with similar
operations that you moni-
tor, the faster it is for us to
establish the best practices
and the baselines to immedi-
ately identify the key vari-
ables. I would say that speed
is really key. In the past, this
would have been done with
computer models or projections, and this all would have been
theoretical.” Based on the success of the pilot program, the
system was eventually implemented at 50 of the firm’s largest
plants in 2009.
Mall Prepares for Demand Response
A good candidate for participating in a demand-response
program is a regional shopping mall such as The Mall at
Robinson, a two-level, 880,000-square-foot enclosed regional
shopping center with more than 120 specialty shops and
eateries located in Pittsburgh, PA. Dave McGaffin, opera-
tions manager, explains why. “Peak demand is normally from
four to eight o’clock [p.m.], when people are getting home
from work, which is typically a slower time for us,” he says.
“So demand response is a really good fit for us. We might be
able to compromise our lighting or temperature at that time
because our occupancy is low.”
With this in mind, the mall signed up for the PJM ILR
Summer Capacity Program offered by demand-response solu-
tions provider North American Power Partners LLC in 2009.
As of late summer 2010, the mall had not had the opportunity
to participate in two years, but the capability is there. The mall
already had an Andover EMS set up when it opened in 2001;
the Andover system has since been acquired by Schneider Elec-
tric. When demand response is activated on the EMS, elec-
tricity would be cut to individual heating and cooling system
components and some lighting circuits. McGaffin reports
that automatic demand response was recently incorporated to
manage peak loads; since enrolling in the program, the mall
has been able to stay within 10% of its automatic demand-
response targets. The system does have temperature sensors to
override response measures if necessary, to keep the tempera-
ture at a comfortable level, although it does not adjust to the
environment outside of the mall to any appreciable degree,
according to McGaffin.
McGaffin says that the mall staff would also shut down
many components and circuits manually. After the decision
was made to get involved in demand response, the staff went
through the facility’s electric distribution rooms and put pink
demand-response stickers on the outside of the panels that
have equipment that has to be manually disconnected. Some
circuits inside the panels are also marked with pink stickers,
according to McGaffin.“The stuff that’s under our control, like
our HVAC units or ventilation fans or lighting, we’re control-
ling through the EMS,” says McGaffin.“But we’ve also found
that, for example, we have a dishwasher in our food court that
draws a 50-amp load
at 480 volts, and we
would manually shut
that down so it’s not
used. Sometimes we
would shut down a
couple of our service
elevators, too.”
Beth Edwards,
the mall’s general
manager, explains that
The Mall at Robin-
son’s involvement in
the demand-response program is a pilot for other properties
in owner Forest City Enterprises, Inc.’s portfolio of proper-
ties. The mall also signed up for another program with North
American Power Partners. Under the voluntary Energy pro-
gram, the PJM regional transmission network asks aggregators
such as North American Power Partners to have companies
either generate power for the grid or request that they curtail
use, if possible. In contrast to the PJM ILR Summer Capacity
Program, which involves mandatory participation in demand-
response events, companies can determine how long to curtail
energy use under the Energy Program. Participants can earn
financial incentives under both programs.
A recent development in EMS for lighting is Schneider
Electric’s release of the Powerlink EM system, an addition to
the Powerlink G3 intelligent lighting control portfolio. The
Powerlink G3 systems automatically switch loads off dur-
ing non-occupied periods and are often used to reduce peak
demand by switching unnecessary lights off, in response to an
automated demand response signal or when high time-of-day
energy tariffs occur. The Powerlink EM system is configured
with individual branch circuit remote control and metering
functions in a lighting panelboard enclosure. The enclosure
is designed to allow users to monitor the performance of the
control system by energy savings by circuit, zone, space, panel,
or entire lighting system. The system captures historical trend
data that can be used to determine additional energy savings
and generates reports on actual energy used. It has an integral
scheduling functionality for operating individual brand circuit
according to a daily schedule, connectivity to building auto-
mation systems via BACnet and Modbus communications,
and an embedded Web server that allows access to the sys-
tem operation and configuration. The system can be used in
conjunction with the PowerLogic Branch Circuit Power Meter,
a multi-branch circuit power meter designed for low-current
monitoring. DE
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“Industrial operations
are definitely a ‘show-me’
environment and the ability to
visualize the data . . . has an
impact on people’s beliefs.”