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CASE STUDY
PG&E Tool Lending Library Assists California Companies in Measuring Energy Consumption
Most companies want to decrease their energy consumption, either for financial reasons, or to be active in reducing their carbon footprint, or both—but some of them aren’t sure where to begin. When the only measure of a facility’s energy usage is the bill customers receive at the end of the month, they may feel their facility is more like the proverbial black hole: power goes in, business happens inside, but it’s not clear exactly how much energy is used where and when. Factory owners may want to know where the heavy usage is inside their plant—how much consumption is used to operate compressors, chillers, pumps, lighting, etc. Office building owners may want to break out the energy consumed in their HVAC vs. lighting systems.
Learn how PG&E helps its customer understand their building's performance in order to reduce energy use with the help of the ELITEpro SP. Read the full Case Study here.
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APPLICATION NOTE
Optimizing Performance from Rogowski Coil
CTs
Flexible Rogowski Coils, such as the
DENT Instruments 300A/3000A Flexible Current Transformer, are designed for easy
placement around cable bundles, large bus bars and breaker panels. Read the
following Application Note and learn how to position your Flexible Current
Transformer for peak performance.
View Application
Note.(pdf)
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Utility Products
Magazine
ELITEpro Shows California How to Get the
Biggest Bang for Their Energy Buck
Written by Mary Conley,
October 2006
DENT Instruments became a key tool
in California's public policy when the state decided to encourage utility
customers to invest in alternative energy sources. California instituted the
Self-Generation Incentive Program (SGIP) to encourage business owners – as
well as homeowners – to install solar power, wind turbines,
micro-turbines, engines or fuel cells to ease their demand on the
state’s strained electrical grid. DENT's ELITEpro helped make sure that
the state knew exactly what it was paying for.
The state had given hundreds
of millions of dollars to consumers to help with the installation of on-site
generation systems, but eventually regulators and SGIP administrators
realized they needed to quantify results to make sure they were getting
what they paid for. Because incentives were based on the capacity of the
generators’ rated outputs, continued funding of the program became
dependent upon determining actual performance of real projects versus reliance
on manufacturers’ ratings.
Meanwhile, customer response to
the SGIP and the new $3.3 billion California Solar Initiative was growing
rapidly. In order to maximize the impact of the incentive funds, the
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) realized it needed to make the
programs performance-based instead of capacity-based. But how could they
determine that performance in any real way? DENT's ELITEpro was the
solution.
SGIP administrators came to
Nexant, Inc., a company that consults on energy usage and distributed
generation technologies, who had used DENT's products successfully for
years.
Until DENT Instruments and
Nexant came into the picture, the SGIP program managers had no way to determine
how much energy the alternative sources were actually generating on their own.
Jeff Cox, Nexant Inc.'s Program Manager, knew that the DENT ELITEpro could give
them the answers.
"I've been in the industry 20
years and started using the whole range of DENT products in 1993. I've
tried everybody else's products in the metering business, but nobody else can
do what DENT can do as well as they do it," says Cox. "I'm a fanatic for their
stuff. They save you lots of work at the project site and provide solid data
transfer from remote installations."
Cox pointed to the
dependability and reliability of the ELITEpro as major factors that simplify
his company's work. In a marketplace where distributed energy systems often
involve uncommon electrical distribution configurations – often made in
other countries – the ELITEpro has never failed Nexant's needs. He finds
the software very accessible, easy to use, and produces accurate results
regardless of the system being measured.
"Say you have a wind turbine out in
the desert. You've got 6 hours of drive time just to go out and find the specs
on it. You take those down, drive back 6 hours, order a competitor's unit, wait
a few weeks for it to show up, then drive back to the turbine to install it.
With DENT, you don't have to go through all that. You can order it generically,
drive out there once, and install it right away. You just saved yourself 12
hours of driving and you get a product that works straight out of the box.
What’s most important about DENT,” he adds, “is that when you go
back to get the data – it's always there. Other systems frequently fail to
record or leave you with no data when you need it most.”
With DENT’s range of
CT’s for the ELITEpro, Cox has been able to install it wherever the
Self-Gen program needed measurements – on anything from a small house to a
huge industrial plant. In addition, the ELITEpro helped them report on elements
that the program’s designers hadn’t contemplated when estimating the
impact of solar and wind on the state’s peak power profiles. This is
crucial in a state like California that has suffered from rolling blackouts
during peak periods. The ELITEpro in solar systems helped them realize that
peak power production drops significantly by 3:00 in the afternoon when the
state’s demand for more power is at its highest level. The DENT
units also showed how important location is when considering solar power for
sunny inland installations versus California’s foggy coastal
cities.
Thanks to the functionality
and accuracy of the ELITEpro, California can now better use its energy
incentives to target them where they'll do the most good for consumers and the
environment. And Nexant, Inc., is happy to have been part of making that happen
with the help of DENT products.
To view this
article in Utility Products magazine,
click here.
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DENT Helps University Claim
$6.5 Million Rebate
Written by
Kyla Merwin Cheney, April 2005
Featured in
American School & University magazine,
May
2005
When the
local electric company said, “turn off your lights,” the University
of Washington listened. Seattle City Light recently required the major
university to reduce its overall energy consumption, and it offered big rewards
for doing so.
The
problem: UW staff had to implement an energy conservation program,
and be able to demonstrate their accomplishments in reducing their use
of electricity.
John Leaden,
maintenance coordinator for the UW, came out of retirement to support the
university’s new program. “We implemented several projects to meet
Seattle City Light’s requirements to reduce energy consumption,” said
Leaden. Renovation projects included replacing T-12 fluorescent lamps and
magnetic ballasts with T-8 lamps and energy efficient electronic ballasts. They
also installed adjustable speed drives on pumps and motors in major ventilation
systems, as well as making HVAC control upgrades.
The
university then had to verify that they had installed the projects
they’d committed to, and more importantly, that they had saved the
electricity they’d predicted. “We used almost everything in DENT
Instruments’ product line to verify savings in lighting
applications,” said Leaden. The ElitePro™ energy logger, for example,
interfaced directly with lighting systems in targeted campus buildings. The
university continues to use DENT’s ElitePro™ to monitor electrical
consumption of various lighting and motor applications.
“What
DENT provides is a very easy-to-use recording medium,” explained Leaden.
“All we have to do is download the data into an Excel spreadsheet to see
the consumption profile.” That profile allows Leaden to compare actual
consumption with operating schedules to detect variations and recommend changes
to control programs or upgrades of equipment or maintenance
procedures.
The pay
off: The university’s ongoing electric use had been dramatically
reduced, along with the associated energy costs. And, as an added bonus,
Seattle City Light rebated $6.5 million to the University for their
conservation projects.
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Students Bridge
Needs Between Government & Business:
Federal program trains students, advises manufacturers, conserves energy, and
boosts revenues
Written by Michael
Chimack,
October 2004
What does a University of Illinois undergrad, a printing company, and a
malfunctioning air compressor all have in common? In most cases, nothing. If,
however, they’re involved in one of 26 Industrial Assessment Centers being
funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, the answer is: plenty. These
Centers are designed to provide graduate and undergraduate students with paid
internships in practical energy conservation. In turn, qualified industrial
manufacturers receive free energy management expertise targeted on two
objectives: reducing energy consumption/waste/pollution and saving
money.
The federal government also has a keen interest in reducing our dependence on
foreign oil. As economic forecasts are pointing to dramatic increases in energy
costs, manufacturers are seeking more aggressive
cost-cutting strategies. Through these designated Industrial Assessment Centers
(IACs), students serve as a bridge between the objectives of business and
government.
At the
University of Illinois, for example, nine students – under the
supervision of Dr. William Worek, Center Director – conduct 30 energy
assessments a year for small and medium sized manufacturing plants in Illinois
and northwest Indiana. “We help industrial plant managers achieve a better
understanding of the required energy use to manufacture their products,”
said Worek in a recent interview. “We supply them with recommendations on
how to operate their equipment at peak efficiency and, in turn, boost their
bottom line.”
Industrial Assessment Centers have been in place
since 1976, when the federal government launched four Centers as a component of
the National Energy Strategy. According to the Department of Energy’s web
site, these Centers have been highly successful. In addition to the obvious
benefits to the manufacturers in increased productivity and cost savings, this
program trains, motivates and helps prepare students for careers in energy
management. It also helps reduce industrial energy waste and pollution, and
offers university faculty new insights to apply to their engineering
curriculum. The assessments also provide valuable data and energy trends to the
Department of Energy (currently available through the Center for Advanced
Energy Systems at Rutgers University).
Recommendations from the
industrial assessments have averaged about $55,000 in potential annual savings
for each manufacturer, according to the Department of Energy.
To
conduct energy audits and assessments, the University of Illinois relies on
energy meters provided by DENT Instruments. “In the course of our
assessments – of lighting systems, production equipment, electric chillers
and compressed air systems – we have to determine peak electric demand and
total energy used,” said Worek. “We use DENT energy meters to help us
understand how those pieces of equipment operate within a typical production
day. Once we understand how they operate we can recommend changes that result
in energy savings.”
The IAC team determines how energy is being
used throughout manufacturing plants. “DENT’s meters allow us to
track how air compressors cycle, or if lights are ON when they should be OFF,
for example,” said Worek. “If lighting systems are not functioning
properly, that’s a huge opportunity for savings. This intervention can
save plants from hundreds to thousands of dollars a year, depending on the size
of the plant.”
Compressed air systems are another area audited by
IAC team. “One of the most complicated systems to understand is air
compressor systems,” said Worek. “We monitor compressed air equipment
with DENT power meters to determine how a compressor is operating. A meter will
tell us, for instance, how the ‘trim’ compressor is loading in a
multiple compressor system. The goals are to: A) understand how the system is
controlled so we can understand annual operating cost of the compressed air
system, B) address air system demand issues such as repairing leaks, insuring
proper use of compressed air plant-wide, and C) determine the cost associated
with those end uses. The ultimate goal is to shut off a compressor if possible.
It’s always the same endgame: conserve electricity, save money, and raise
bottom line of the company.”
The IAC team chooses DENT
Instruments because they’re extremely easy to use. They’re compact,
so we can bring a lot into the field without having to rent a truck to carry
them. The software is also very user-friendly. The meters are robust in that
they can measure electric demand directly, as well as power factor, volts and
amps. We exclusively use the ElitePro™ with high memory option and have
converted most of our older loggers to high memory. We don’t know what
we’ll need until we’re in the field. Without the high memory option,
we’d have to send manpower back into the field to download data, or risk
losing data.
Recent energy audits at a manufacturing plant saved that
particular company nearly $50,000 in the first year our recommendations were
implemented. The problem: the plant had a decentralized air
compressor system – with multiple compressors of different horsepower
located in various areas of the plant – feeding a common header. We
monitored those systems to discover how the compressors were being controlled.
What we ultimately discovered was that several compressors were fighting each
other – cycling on and off frequently. That was causing two problems: 1)
the cycling compressors were using energy but not necessarily supplying any
air, and 2) that cycling frequency could affect the longevity of the
compressors.
The solution: once we used DENT’s
energy meters to understand the generation side of the compressed air system,
we were able to understand which compressors were not contributing to the
system as designed. Then we went into the plant and assessed the distribution
side of the air system.
The recommendations: we
recommended that they repair leaks and shut off local compressed air supplies
to equipment that were either not being used or in SETUP mode. We also
recommended that they replace compressed air use with high-volume, low-pressure
blowers where applicable. The end result was a lower volume of required
compressed air, thereby allowing for shutting off two compressors (150 HP
total), which demonstrated savings of 750,000 kilowatt-hours, and nearly
$50,000 dollars in less than one year.
New and
emerging technology offers manufacturers– and the national IACs
– tools with which to analyze energy consumption. With reliable
data, literally “in hand,” these meters and the accompanying software
can add significantly to the bottom line of manufacturing companies, schools
and universities, health facilities and corporations.
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Jefferson County School District (Denver, CO) Has High Praise for the
ELITE
Written by
Kyla Merwin Cheney, February 2004
Featured in
Utility Products Showcase magazine, April 2004
In the chilly
hills of Lakewood, Colorado, near Denver, Jeffco Public School District had a
problem. They were spending too much money on energy bills. Combined with that,
they didn’t have the additional budget to hire an energy management staff.
In response, Jeffco senior management devised an innovative solution. They took
four teachers out the classroom and, with the appropriate training, made them
Certified Energy Managers.
This team of four was promptly charged with the mission of reducing energy
costs at the school district. Realizing that they couldn’t manage what
they hadn’t measured, they turned to DENT Instruments, headquartered in
Bend, Oregon. With the simplicity and low cost of DENT’s ELITE™
energy data logger and accompanying software, they were able to data-trend
precise energy use, right down to ‘when’ and ‘where’. In
addition to providing critical data, DENT’s ELOG ™ software provided
management with practical analysis tools in the form of charts and
graphs.
Marv Roemer,
Supervisor of Maintenance for Jeffco Public Schools, said the energy management
program has been a tremendous success, though it was met with initial
skepticism, both from principals and HVAC technicians. “They were a little
paranoid about changing the status quo; about teachers coming in and telling
[the technicians] how to run their equipment,” Roemer reported. “They
definitely changed their attitude. It’s become the way we do business with
energy maintenance.” Further, it has inspired new programs.
“People are looking at other ways of saving energy, bringing other ideas
forward.”
The energy management team has also served a vital role in educating school
staff on ways to save energy. “They are as much educators and
managers,” said Roemer. “They reinforce the fact that you can’t
have units running all night long.”
DENT’s ELITE ™ data logger has enabled Jeffco to check accuracy of
utility billing, measure electrical consumption of kitchen equipment, verify
electrical savings of lighting upgrades, measure total loads of HVAC equipment,
and track electrical panels for power interruptions. This data helped the
management team reduce waste, streamline operations, and track ongoing
improvements, resulting in lower out-of-pocket expenses.
Heavy on the
minds of the energy management team was the responsibility to use the
taxpayers’ money wisely, and to gain credibility in their community. Said
Jim Faes, Energy Manager at Jeffco, “We have proved ourselves to be good
stewards with the tax dollars we spend on utilities.” Said Roemer,
“These four guys have saved this district so much money that it’s
hard to fathom what would happen without them.”
DENT Instruments, a world recognized leader of
instrumentation for data collection, has continued to refine and advance their
ELITE™ product line. The ELITEpro™, for example, makes
energy measurement, data trending and sub-metering easy. This instrument,
and accompanying software, helps pinpoint electric usage and quantify
consumption by measuring, storing, and analyzing Volts, Amps, Watts, Volt-Amps
(VA), Volt-Amps reactive (VAR), Kilowatts (kW), Kilowatt Hours (kWh), Power
Factor and harmonics, encompassing a total of 144 different measurement
parameters.
The
ELITEpro™ can monitor up to four single-phase loads or two
three-phase Delta loads, or one three-phase Wye load. It includes
four channels of current (0-6,000 amps), and three channels of voltage (0-600V
ac or dc). The ELITEpro™ also offers some power quality
features such as the ability to view voltage, current, and power
waveforms. It will calculate harmonics from DC through the 63rd then report total
harmonic distortion (THD), crest factor and peak voltage &
current.
The
ELITEpro™ can be mounted anywhere and with its wide range of
recording intervals and a storage capacity of up to 100,000 records, is ideal
for both short-term projects or long-term studies. Easy to use,
Windows™ based software graphically displays recorded data, performs
analyses and allows automatic, remote data collection via Internet, wired or
wireless LAN systems, or telephone modems. Data is easily exported to
popular spreadsheets and databases for special analyses. The
ELITEpro™ has been an instrument of choice utilized by most
electric utilities across the country for a number of years.
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Analysts
Rely on Vendor Flexibility, Reliability and Cost Savings in Meeting Their
Clients’ Needs
Written by
Kyla Merwin Cheney, February 2004
Electricity
is not getting cheaper, anywhere. Regional utilities across the country are
collecting data to help them understand their customers better and to forecast
future energy needs. Researchers, analysts and consultants are finding that the
energy measurement tools they choose contribute significantly not only to the
accuracy of their projects, but also to the cost savings they can
achieve.
The
consulting firm of KEMA-Xenergy, of Oakland, California, helps utilities
collect, monitor and evaluate data on energy usage. The state of California
recently hired KEMA-Xenergy to conduct their Residential Appliance Saturation
Survey, a research project measuring the energy consumption of appliances in
households across the state. To assist them, KEMA-Xenergy turned to DENT
Instruments of Bend, Oregon.
Erik Dyrr,
Senior Engineer at Kema-Xenergy, said that DENT Instruments customized their
DATApro for this project, where loggers were installed in 200 residences
across the state of California. The instruments are being used to measure whole
house and air conditioning energy consumption. “There’s a substantial
cost for us to install loggers at each site,” said Dyrr. “It’s
not worth it for us to purchase equipment that is unreliable. It’s too
expensive to go back in three-to-twelve months and not have recorded accurate
data. DENT’s loggers have been very reliable. That’s one of the many
reasons I continue to use them.”
Dyrr also
reported that the level of customer support DENT
offers its customers is far superior to other instrumentation companies he has
worked with. “They’re a relatively small company, and more responsive
to my needs,” said Dyrr. “In larger companies, I’m thrown to
their system. With DENT, I call up and talk to the same person who understands
their products and who understands our company.”
The instruments that DENT manufactures have also offered KEMA-Xenergy the
flexibility they require in responding to the various needs of their different
customers. “DENT has a whole line of products for research and
evaluation,” said Dyrr, “and we’ve used them all. We count on
DENT Instruments for a wide range of products, flexibility, and the willingness
to customize their products for our specific requirements. It allows us to
respond better to our clients.”
Hawaii
Electric Company, for example, hired KEMA-Xenergy to evaluate their energy
efficiency programs. “Since 1996, we’ve used various DENT loggers to
monitor and evaluate energy savings at over 1,500 sites,” explained Dyrr.
“You can’t beat the reliability and ease-of-use for the
money.”
KEMA-Xenergy
has also used DENT’s time-of-use
SMARTloggers to monitor over 700 solar and electric water heaters
in evaluating the savings achieved with residential solar water heating.
They’ve used DENT’s Elitepro loggers to monitor everything
from chillers and variable-speed drives, to heat pumps to water heaters.
“It was great when they rolled this product out,” said Dyrr,
“because the Elitepro provides the same functionality, but beats
all others loggers significantly in price.”
One of the
challenges facing all of KEMA-Xenergy’s customers – and utilities
across the globe – is meeting their budget. With their unique combination
of reliability, flexibility, ease-of-use, and the most competitive pricing in
the industry, DENT Instruments helps consultants and utilities meet their
research and budget goals.
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