EnergyVIEW - Energy Management Software Case Study – Western Racine County Sanitary District
SUMMARY
Visualization along with trending and reporting of Real-time and historical energy use data provides a power decision support system for managing energy use. EnergyVIEW is a proven visualization solution that has helped facility managers audit utility bills and change standard operating procedures to lower energy cost.
Jeff Bratz Superintendent of the Western Racine Sanitary District, took action to control energy costs at the wastewater treatment facility. He was able to realize significant energy cost savings when taking only the first few steps in an energy management plan recommended by Focus on Energy. Jeff commented, "I kind of knew which processes were using the most electricity, but it's easier to convince the sewer commission to take action when they can see it on paper".
The first step, a facility energy usage assessment, consisted of reviewing the energy billings for the past two years. The second step, real-time monitoring and reporting, was added to an existing plant SCADA system. The system provided an energy monitoring dashboard for the operator to see and record how much energy is being used at any time of the day and an approximation of the hourly cost. Each process area was also independently tracked.
Visualization of real-time and historical electrical energy charges quickly resulted in changes to plant standard operating procedures which could reduce power costs by shifting some operation to off peak hours.
Analysis of the electric utility charges showed a differential between Peak and Non-Peak demand charges of $9.59/KW. The Peak charge on a monthly bill is for the highest demand over the past 11 months. Consequently the seasonal use of sludge mixing equipment during peak demand hours was resulting in significant demand charges year round. Jeff made an adjustment to the standard operating procedure at the plant such that the sludge mixing equipment is only operated during non-peak rate hours. The resultant cost saving in demand charges only can be calculated as follows:
$9.59/KW x 150KW = $1,438.50/month
$1,438.50/Month x 12 = $17,262.00/Year Savings
With detailed real-time and historical energy use and cost information at the Western Racine County Wastewater Facility, Jeff is finding many other areas and procedures that can help to reduce energy costs. He is well on his way to reaching his goal of reducing energy cost by 20 to 25 percent.
In recent years the annual electrical power cost had been approaching $140,000 per year for the Western Racine Facility. Electrical power rates have been increasing at an average of about 6% per year for the past decade. With the current savings and saving for additional planned process efficiency changes Jeff expressed confidence that he will be able to maintain operations with lower energy costs for years to come.