Summer Peak Electricity Load Reduction

As I wrote last month, summer is not too far away. One of the big electricity “killers” that hurts building owners and tenants in the summer is the extra fees you must pay for high peak load. Utilities encourage facilities to reduce their peak demand and punish those which are high in order to be able to continue to provide electricity reliably to all facilities without having to expand their infrastructure, obtain more electricity, etc. These can be big costs, so the financial incentives and “punishments” can be severe. Now is the time to plan a “Demand Response” program to reduce your peak summer electricity demand, saving you both the kwh and that extra peak charge.

Here are some low cost and even no cost Demand Response strategies that have been successfully used by commercial buildings during the peak summer season:

• Shut off non-emergency lights during the day, such as exterior, garages, lobbies.

• Electricity coasting. Turn off the building’s or a section’s AC system, say, 30 minutes before the close of business for a couple of days in a row. Make sure that the office and return air’s temperature and humidity are recorded and ensure that workers are still comfortable. Then try 45 minutes before close, then 60, etc., until the longest time that the conditions are found to be acceptable is found. Tenant and landlord can work together for mutual savings benefit. Can the AC be turned on or the setpoint adjusted later every morning?

• Shut off or adjust setpoints of electric hot water heaters.

• Raise chilled water and/or return air setpoints on AC systems. Replace a chiller’s constant speed compressor with a variable speed compressor and control speed.

• Replace the constant speed drive on the supply and return fans with a variable speed drive (VFD). Consider shutting off exhaust fans to areas not used regularly (i.e., storage space, garage).

These strategies not only have been shown to work in actual commercial buildings in reducing peak load and peak load charges, but these are also no or low cost to utilize and maintain. Therefore, April and May are the times to work with your tenants and landlord and establish acceptable parameters that can save everybody money and energy during the peak hot summer season.

CCES has the expertise and experience to help you in your energy optimization endeavors, whether cooling or heating. We can perform an entire review of your buildings’ energy systems to save you energy costs. Give us a call today.