Large-scale energy users try to conserve

The hot weather of the summer months can put significant strain on the utility grid, as demonstrated by CU’s record-setting Aug. 15. On that date, CU customers used 802 megawatts of electricity, breaking the previous record of 801 megawatts set in July 2006.

CU’s industrial users consume about 18 percent of the utility’s electricity output, according to CU spokesman Joel Alexander, despite having fewer than 300 industrial users.

Cara Shaefer, CU’s director of energy management and conservation, said industrial customers can help lower usage by leveling out their demand throughout the day.

“If they can flatten out their overall load, meaning they don’t have a large peak during the day, it helps keeps the system consistent,” she said. “They can do this by cycling large equipment – air-conditioning air handlers, chillers, any equipment that has a large motor.”

Assessing energy usage

Industrial customers experience energy strain for a variety of reasons.

Dan Chiles, vice president at radiant floor heating manufacturer Watts Radiant, said his company’s large chilling units are running continuously with the recent addition of second and third shifts.

Chiles said his company has attempted to counteract energy peaks by installing more efficient fluorescent lighting.

“They’re motion-sensitive,” Chiles said of the new bulbs. “They turn off until there’s actually motion in the aisles. … They save energy inherently, but they also save energy by having a smarter switch.”

While Watts is not a participant, CU does offer a commercial lighting rebate. Companies can earn up to $5,000 in rebates if they switch from T12 fluorescent fixtures, common in office and industrial environments, to more efficient T8 lamps.

“Lighting is a huge part,” she said. “That’s something that’s on all the time and companies can save on.”

And while CU also offers free energy audits, Chiles said his company is going one step further. Watts Radiant has signed up for the University of Missouri’s Industrial Assessment Center program, which offers engineering-level energy audits and productivity assessments for free to qualifying businesses; the program is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy.

Shaefer said the program is an excellent idea, but she warned that not all companies can participate. The program’s Web site says companies must spend between $100,000 and $2 million a year in total energy costs and have no more than 500 employees, along with other qualifications, to be eligible.

Work around the peaks

Not all facilities, though, have the ability to level out their demand.

CoxHealth is one of the city’s largest electricity users; Rod Schaffer, the health system’s vice president of facility management, said that in May, the hospital used about 4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, twice the average for CU industrial users.

Cox’s Schaffer said the hospital doesn’t have the luxury of shifting demand to different parts of the day.

“Our demand only spikes usually between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., and that’s when we’re seeing more patients and doing more surgeries and procedures,” Schaffer said. “So to shave that peak is very difficult and very expensive.”

Schaffer said Cox has discussed the possibility of cogeneration – using engines and power generators to produce both electricity and usable heat – but that option is extremely expensive and only really useful for facilities that use massive amounts of energy consistently throughout the day.

The key for the hospital is being more efficient. Cox has been working on that goal; Schaffer said that usage in May, the last full month for which data is available, is about the same as it was in 2006, despite this year’s warmer temperatures that month.

Schaffer said newly implemented equipment – more efficient motors on cooling towers and better-designed medical equipment – are using less energy.

“It’s like in your home,” he said. “Refrigerators are more efficient than they were 10 years ago, and there are rebates on more efficient pumps or water heaters. The commercial world is the same way.”[[In-content Ad]]