Energy Management

Cascade provides Energy Management Services to a variety of customers ranging from single site operations to large corporations with 100 or more sites. Cascade works closely with our clients to determine realistic, but challenging, goals for reduction in energy usage. We then work with the customer's operations personnel to identify the sources of energy consumption, determine alternatives to reduce consumption, and implement changes to deliver the desired savings while making sure that there is no negative impact on operations.

 

Key Elements of an Energy Management Program

Cascade Energy management programs are customized to meet specific customer needs, but usually include 3 key elements:

1. Energy Monitoring:
Cascade provides energy monitoring hardware and a powerful web-based software package to determine baseline performance and measure improvement over time. This data is available to our customers on a near real-time basis with "dashboards" and graphs that can be easily customized to individual preferences. We also perform sophisticated analysis to normalize data for variables such as outside temperature, facility size, type of operation, and throughput. This allows for fair comparisons of energy efficiency over time and also between sites of varying sizes, types, locations, and activity.

2. Facility Tune-Ups:
Similar to an automobile, Industrial facilities require periodic maintenance and adjustments to maintain optimum operating efficiency. Cascade performs facility "tune-ups" with an experienced Energy Efficiency Engineer and Technician at a customer site working closely with facility operations and maintenance personnel. Tune-ups typically take from two to five intensive days of effort and result in some immediate efficiency improvements and a list of low-cost/no-cost actions that can be implemented over 6-12 months.

3. Ongoing Support to Facilitate Continuous Improvement:
Cascade has found that an ongoing dialogue between an energy efficiency engineer and customer operations personnel yields great benefits in terms of facilitating continuous improvement, addressing issues, and providing continuing training and education. We generally plan for 1-3 hours/month per customer site for ongoing support over the life of the program.

Return on Investment

Energy Management is typically a multi-year program aimed at continuous improvement. In the initial 3-year phase, Cascade's customers typically see reductions of 10 to 20% in total energy usage, and sometimes significantly more. Payback on an energy management program based on reduced energy expense is typically one to two years and can be less if there are incentives available from utility providers or government agencies. In addition to the simple financial payback on reduced energy expenditures, there are additional benefits that are more difficult to quantify, but may be of even more value. Some of these include:

• Ability to compete successfully for additional business with cost-sensitive clients: If energy is a significant portion of your company's operating expenses, a reduction in energy costs can have a material impact on operating expenses. This may allow your firm to compete for additional business with cost-sensitive clients that would not have been feasible with a higher cost structure. Since large clients are often the ones who are most sensitive to costs, this could result in a very large amount of new business.
• Position your company as environmentally responsible: Many companies are seeing increasing interest (and sometimes pressure) from shareholders, customers, and various other groups, to lessen their impact on the environment. An energy management program is an excellent way to demonstrate environmental responsibility and show measurable results. In addition, this may become a competitive advantage when pursuing new business as many of your potential customers may be interested in assuring that their supply chain is made up environmentally responsible vendors.
• Improve reliability, and reduce maintenance, of factory equipment: A key element of an energy management program is to assure that equipment is well maintained and operating properly. Since increased energy consumption is one of the early warning signs for equipment in need of maintenance, energy monitoring can identify potential problems and allow for appropriate maintenance procedures before serious damage is done. Also, an important part of energy management is to modify set-points and operating procedures to assure that equipment isn't working any harder than necessary. In addition to reducing energy consumption, this typically results in reduced wear and tear and can significantly extend equipment life.

For additional detail on elements of an Energy Management program read about our facility Tune-ups.

To learn how your company can benefit from Cascade's Energy Management Services, please contact Cascade