Energy Monitoring

Monitoring energy usage and cost is a key building block for an energy management program. Understanding how much, and what type of energy a facility uses is a requirement to determine where opportunities lie for reductions in energy usage. Additionally, a greater understanding of the cost of energy from a variety of sources is required to determine the financial impact of various energy management strategies as well as potential actions that have the potential to deliver an acceptable return on investment. Over time, monitoring changes in energy usage and cost, and comparing those to a baseline set at the beginning of the program, is invaluable in determining results achieved by an energy management program.

In many cases, electricity rates for industrial customers are based not only on the total amount consumed, but also on when the energy is consumed (peak vs. non-peak ) and the maximum rate (peak demand). Therefore, in order to minimize electricity cost, it can be important to monitor and control electricity usage in near real-time.

Energy monitoring can be done at a facility-wide level by measuring and reporting the data from the main utility meters feeding into the facility. Monitoring can also be deployed on a distributed level within a facility in order to determine energy usage by specific processes, subsystems, etc. Distributed monitoring is often referred to as sub-metering and commonly requires installation of additional meters specifically for this purpose.

Monitoring systems can be set up to monitor consumption of all types of energy including electricity, natural gas, propane, fuel oil, steam, etc. In addition, some companies also monitor water, effluent, and other parameters.

Cascade Products and Services

Cascade Energy provides our customers with a variety of hardware, software, and services to monitor energy usage.

Hardware: Cascade assembles electrical energy monitoring hardware based on industry-leading components. We package our monitoring hardware in NEMA rated enclosures to accommodate a variety of environments. The hardware packages customized for each unique facility. For main utility meters we record pulse outputs directly from the utility meter. For sub-metering applications Cascade can offer an array of solutions depending on existing wiring, budget, and required accuracy and timeliness of data. Energy usage data is recorded and time-stamped by the monitor and then transmitted to an energy management software system via cellular or Ethernet connections.

Software: Cascade employs a powerful suite of software tools for tracking energy use and cost. The software can track an unlimited number of data points per site. Some of these include real time meter monitoring, ambient and wet bulb temperature, utility bills and measures of facility production or throughput. This collection of data is the first step in understanding how and where energy is consumed and how energy use can be optimized.

Cascade's energy monitoring software is typically offered as a hosted service with web-based access. All data remains property of the customer. Data is stored in a Tier 3 facility and backed-up daily. Access to all data and reports is password protected.

One thing that sets Cascade apart from others is the ability to provide customers with "actionable information" rather than just raw data. Cascade Customers can view energy use on an easily customizable "dashboard" that displays only the information specified by a user, without un-needed clutter. Dashboards can be configured with one or more displays such as current energy use, comparisons to previous periods, usage trends over time, etc. In addition to usage, rate schedules can be entered into the software allowing customers to monitor energy cost in real-time and compare with historical data, current budgets, etc. The software also generates a variety of reports to show progress to management, motivate employee behavior, etc. These reports can be based on a standard template or customized to meet specific customer requirements.

Alarms can be set up based on a variety of conditions that indicate equipment issues, excess energy usage, etc. Depending on the severity and frequency of alarm conditions, the software can take actions such as sending e-mail notifications or text messages.

For customers with multiple sites, Cascade's energy monitoring software allows for aggregation of data from multiple facilities to show regional or corporate-wide results. The software also allows for comparison of results between sites. A key feature is the ability to perform normalization calculations that allow for meaningful comparisons of energy efficiency between sites of different sizes, in different climates, with varying levels of utilization, etc. When normalized data is used, facilities can be compared and ranked based on energy efficiency, rates of improvement in energy efficiency, etc. In larger companies, this often results in "friendly competition" to see who can deliver the best results. Normalization is also very important for individual facilities to make valid comparisons of current energy efficiency with historical results when ambient temperatures, facility size, throughput, etc. were not the same.

Services: Cascade offers a variety of services to make it easy for our customers to set-up an energy monitoring system that delivers actionable information rather than just data . Some of these services include:

  • Design of monitoring systems to assure that all required data is captured and accurate
  • Design and installation of sub-metering within a client's facility
  • Software hosting, set-up and trouble-shooting
  • Data entry for historical information, ongoing utility bills, etc.
  • Data analysis services, including baseline modeling to build customer-specific normalization algorithms
  • Set-up of alarms based on a variety of pre-determined conditions
  • Software customization to meet specialized customer needs
  • User training
  • Dashboard customization for system operators, facility managers, and/or corporate management
  • Generation of customized reports on a one-time or recurring basis

Visit our Energy Management and facility Tune-ups sections to learn how energy monitoring can support your energy efficiency strategies.

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