Energy Manager

Thought Leaders on System Optimization Past & Future

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

As the Best Practices Magazines celebrate their twentieth anniversary, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable system efficiency gains achieved since our first issue. We also wanted to give subscribers a peek at what the next decades might bring. To do this, we asked a hand-selected list of original equipment manufacturers, independent compressed air system sales and service companies, manufacturing plants and independent system auditors to share their thoughts, highlighting the changes they’ve seen over the past 20 years, then predicting what the next 20 years will bring.

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Thought Leaders on System Optimization Past & Future

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

As the Best Practices Magazines celebrate their twentieth anniversary, we wanted to take a moment to reflect on the remarkable system efficiency gains achieved since our first issue. We also wanted to give subscribers a peek at what the next decades might bring. To do this, we asked a hand-selected list of original equipment manufacturers, independent compressed air system sales and service companies, manufacturing plants and independent system auditors to share their thoughts, highlighting the changes they’ve seen over the past 20 years, then predicting what the next 20 years will bring.
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Burns & McDonnell’s OnSite Energy & Power Group

By Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

If we're using sustainability as a broader term, there's waste management, water, carbon, renewable power and more. Those are some of the units now part of the equation we're solving for. It sometimes ends up with a different set of solutions than you would typically end up with if you were only looking at dollars.
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Decarbonization Hits Close to Home for Johnson Controls

By Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

Johnson Controls’ most recent decarbonization project has gone right to the heart of its 2040 net-zero commitment – working with its own Norman, Oklahoma, manufacturing facility on a chilled water plant and compressed air system upgrade that is projected to nearly halve its greenhouse gas emissions.
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Sustainability Pillars at Intertape Polymer Group Inc.

By Roderick M. Smith, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

In February 2021, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine interviewed members of the Intertape Polymer Group Inc. (IPG) Sustainability Pillars team to gain an understanding of the work being done to improve energy efficiency. The team members interviewed were Michael Jones (Director of Corporate Energy), Michael Deitering (Senior Project Engineer), Jarrod Knapp (Maintenance Manager) and Mark Secord (Engineering Group Leader).
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The Impact of Water Utility Rates on Chiller Selection

By Judith M. Peters, PE LEED-AP BEMP, Daikin Applied Americas

Do water-cooled chiller plants still deliver lower utility bills? Today, many chiller plant energy analyses carefully account for energy costs, and even energy escalation rates – a factor that projects how fuel costs will increase over time, while ignoring water and wastewater costs associated with cooling towers. While highly effective at transferring heat, cooling towers consume millions of gallons of water each year through the process of evaporation, drift, and blowdown. With the rising cost of water and wastewater, this omission can result in an incomplete picture for the building owner.
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Innovation Drives Sustainability Success at DENSO Manufacturing Tennessee Plant

By Chris Kent, Contributing Editor

Among key initiatives at DENSO’s Maryville, Tennessee, facility is the use of an innovative ice-storage system engineered to provide environmentally friendly comfort cooling to employees at the company’s main production facility. The system also allows Plant 101 to reduce cooling costs per ton by 44%, while providing a payback of less than four years. It also resulted in an annual carbon dioxide (CO2) reduction of 18,000 tons.
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Deschutes Brewery and Holladay Park Plaza Save with the Energy Trust of Oregon

By Rod Smith, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

Since 2002, Energy Trust of Oregon have saved and generated 728 average megawatts of electricity and 52 million annual therms of natural gas. This is enough energy to power Multnomah and Washington counties while heating Deschutes County homes. ETO has saved enough energy equal to the output of a power plant and reduced reliance on fossil fuels. In total, they have invested $1.5 billion to save customers more than $6.9 billion on their energy bills over time.
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ComEd® Incentivizes Chiller & Process Cooling Efficiency

By Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

The ComEd® Energy Efficiency Program offers incentives to help facilities save money by improving the efficiency of their equipment. Industries can receive standard cash incentives for common energy efficiency improvements or custom cash incentives for making improvements not included in the standard program.
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Chiller Plant Optimization Yields $386,000 Utility Rebate

By Mike Flaherty, General Manager, tekWorx

A manufacturing site’s central utility plant (CUP) provides 24/7 cooling for critical R&D laboratories, critical manufacturing processes, data centers and office space. Over a period of several years, campus growth had significantly increased facility energy consumption, raising costs dramatically. Simultaneously, the host state enacted a legislation to deregulate utilities, a move potentially doubling the cost of electricity.
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Chrysler Reduces Annual Cooling Costs by 28% and Earns $200,000 DTE Energy Rebate

By Mike Flaherty, General Manager, tekWorx, LLC

Chrysler’s Technology Center (CTC), located in Auburn Hills, MI, is home to some fourteen thousand employees responsible for keeping the automotive giant in motion. Completed in 1991, the complex is essentially a small city, encompassing 5.3 million square feet situated on over 500 acres. In addition to corporate offices, the facility houses a full laboratory level of various wind tunnels with thermal testing capabilities, a 1.8-mile evaluation road, a noise/vibration facility, an electromagnetic compatibility center, an environmental test center (able to create rain, snow and extreme temperatures), and a pilot production plant.
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Acquiring Energy Incentives for Industrial Chiller Systems

By Chiller & Cooling Best Practices Magazine

Utility companies don’t want to build more power plants — period. But as cities grow, more pressure is placed on the energy infrastructure, forcing utility companies to look for ways to reduce energy consumption. One of the methods utility companies use to reduce energy demands is to incentivize building owners to install higher efficiency machinery. By charging ratepayers a little bit of money every month, the utility company creates a fund that can provide substantial rebates to those that apply.
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Energy Rebates Assist Industrial Sustainability Initiatives

By Rod Smith, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices

The CFO asks the Corporate Energy Manager, “The numbers for this energy efficiency project look too good to be true - $334,000 in annual energy savings requiring a $89,000 investment (after the energy rebate) with a simple ROI of just 3 months?” “How do we know the reduction in kWh useage, which the energy auditor has promised, will actually happen?” “Why don’t we just deploy this same capital into a production project where we have more experience and confidence in the expected ROI?”   The recently hired Corporate Energy Engineer answers, “Those are the right questions to ask - we strongly believe in this opportunity for the following reasons.”
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Establishing the Energy Incentive Benchmark - The Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy® Program

By Rod Smith, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices

Chiller & Cooling Best Practices interviewed Keith Martin (Director Energy Efficiency) and Cheryl Miller (Energy Efficiency Advisor) from Ameren Illinois and Robert Baumgartner (Business Program Manager) from Leidos Engineering. Seven years ago, a team of three of us at Ameren Illinois made the commitment to create and deliver a program that would make a difference. Today, the Ameren Illinois ActOnEnergy program is an award-winning energy efficiency program covering southern and central Illinois. After six program years, we are thrilled to report our business customers are saving over $132 million in annual energy costs due to energy efficiency measures they implemented with financial incentive assistance from ActOnEnergy.
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Energy Management at Intertape Polymer Group

By Rod Smith, Chiller & Cooling Best Practices

Chiller & Cooling Best Practices interviewed Michael Jones, Corporate Energy Team Leader, from Intertape Polymer Group (IPG).   Intertape Polymer Group (IPG) is a manufacturer of tapes, films, woven fabrics, and complementary packaging systems for industrial and consumer use. The company operates 10 production plants and employs approximately 1,800 people. IPG has developed a robust energy management program by using ENERGY STAR energy management tools and actively participating in the ENERGY STAR partnership. IPG is receiving ENERGY STAR recognition for the growth of its energy program and leadership as a medium-sized manufacturer.
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Global Energy Management at Corning

Chiller & Cooling Best Practices® interviewed Patrick Jackson, Director of Global Energy Management.

This is our first time receiving the award. We were hopeful we would receive it because we thought we achieved 23 out of the 23 attributes defined by the guidelines. Additionally, since the program was launched, GEM’s management practices have saved Corning more than $328 million in cumulative energy costs.  
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EPA ENERGY STAR Releases Energy Treasure Hunt Guide Book

The US Environmental Protection Agency’s ENERGY STAR program is providing a new energy management resource, Energy Treasure Hunts: Simple Steps to Finding Energy Savings. This new guide book draws upon the best practices of ENERGY STAR partner organizations that use energy treasure hunts to engage employees in finding low cost energy saving opportunities from behavioral, operational, and maintenance oriented actions.
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EMS Systems for Energy Demand Control and Response

By Bob Zak, Powerit Solutions

You may be wise to watching the demand meter or shifting heavy loads to off-peak hours, but those are not your only options. With advanced energy management technology, you can automate control of energy from refrigeration compressors, pumps, and other equipment so that your facility runs at optimal efficiency, you pay the lowest possible rates, and you can participate in incentive programs that pay you for unused kilowatts.
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Energy Management at Visteon

Chillers & Cooling Best Practices interviewed Jennifer Meier, Global Energy & Engineering Manager, at Visteon Corporation.

There are three main segments in Visteon's climate group are climate systems, powertrain cooling and engine induction. Climate systems include refrigeration compressors, fluid transport, heat exchangers, battery cooling modules, climate controls, auto defog/demist systems, and multi-zone HVAC systems. Powertrain cooling systems include heat exchangers (radiators, condensers, charge-air, exhaust-gas), airflow management, and diesel and hybrid thermal management. Engine induction includes air induction systems and intake manifolds.
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PG&E’s Third-Party Energy Incentive Programs

Chiller & Cooling Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Justin Kjeldsen, Mr. Jeff Kohn, and Mr. Sam Zimmerman, Senior Program Managers for Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

PG&E runs energy incentive programs through two channels. We have our core channel representing the majority of our energy incentive offerings, and we offer energy incentives through third-party channels. Our Third-Party programs account for approximately twenty percent (20%) of the energy incentive dollars. PG&E has contracted with thirty-four (34) third-party companies, or implementers, to run fifty (50) contracts.
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Energy Trust of Oregon's Production Efficiency Incentive Program

Cooling and Chiller Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Ray Hawksley (Industrial Technical Manager) of the Energy Trust of Oregon Inc.

Energy Trust of Oregon is an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to helping utility customers benefit from saving energy and tapping renewable resources. Our services, cash incentives and energy solutions have helped participating customers of Portland General Electric, Pacific Power, NW Natural and Cascade Natural Gas save nearly $600 million on energy bills.
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Energy Incentives from Great River Energy

Chiller & Cooling Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Jake Selseth (Energy Incentive Program Administrator) of Great River Energy (GRE).

GRE administers a $9.5 million dollar energy rebate incentive budget in 2010 for our 28 co-ops. Fifty percent of the budget is designated for Residential and fifty percent targets Commercial, Industrial, Agricultural. This is the same budget we had in 2009 and in 2008, our budget was $6.5 million.
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Electric Demand Management Strategy

By Thomas Mort CEM

This paper presents a discussion on the topic of Electric Demand Management as it relates to electric tariff rates, new power generation, and incentives to curtail peak usage.
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