Energy Conservation and
Energy Information Systems

Energy conservation is the wise use of energy plus the right time of usage.

As energy becomes more expensive and humans need more, most building owners have adapted some form of energy management. The systems are becoming more complex and able to use more data to make choices, thus enabling more energy savings. Internet capable Energy Management Systems (EMS) are available that can operate lighting, HVAC, and other systems by thermostat, occupancy, and other sensors. Until recently EMS's were only able to gather data from inside the building and probe outside with sensors; fortunately, many have added internet capacity. Several comprehensive Energy Information Systems (EIS) are now available that can monitor local weather, weather forecasts, building energy meters, and utility prices. They are capable of receiving demand response communications; load shed commands; and here in California, the Independent System Operator (ISO) could signal in case of a power plant failure, brownout or planned blackout.

With real time and forecast data, new systems are capable of saving as never before. An EMS would start the chiller even if the store was about to close or it was going to rain in 30 minutes where cool fresh air would have been available, but now the EIS just closes the outside dampers for 30 minutes. Another example, at a high rise building, the stationary engineer now turns off the air conditioning at 4 o'clock PM and prays he gets no calls till the building closes at 5 o'clock. But with EIS, the utility has available power at 1:30 AM and the building is still warm, the HVAC system starts, subcools the space as the EIS reads the weather forecast and knows it is going to get hot later in the day. After the A/C and cool makeup air have cooled the space the best way - in the sweet spot, the cooling tower stays running to subcool the condenser loop water which is stored for late afternoon operation when the cooling tower is strained. As the sun comes up, the plat and frame uses the cool tower water to keep the building comfortable until about 9 o'clock when the chilled water loop has built up more heat than the tower can reject so the chiller starts.

However, only a small fraction of organizations with EMS are capable of implementing a comprehensive EIS. Older EMS's are not capable of networking and most EMS's need to be upgraded before venturing into EIS. Many hesitate due to the high up-front costs; others look at the long-term commitments as an obstacle.

Even more challenging, the National Weather Service has not made local weather information available in EIS format; most utilities are not EIS ready; and most ISO's are not capable of signaling a power problem.

We have to just turn it off to conserve energy and wait for the technology to catch up.

Energy efficiency is putting in the right equipment that uses the least amount of energy. It is like buying a car that gets 60 miles per gallon. But we still have to plan our trips and time of usage to conserve energy. Compact fluorescent lights are a good example, so is a new highly efficient chiller.

EIS is a new step toward combining energy efficiency and energy conservation that brings energy out of the fuel and commodity age and into the technical energy service age. We must have the right regulations from good standards with excellent finance that advances new business associations with tax incentives and utility incentives including paying people for their intellectual property; moreover, we have the time to get this right, what we do not have is time to do it again. We must plan where we are going and go where we plan.