Circuit Level Monitoring & Plug Load Research

Researching plug and process loads to help generate energy cost-savings

Until recently in the conversation of a healthcare facility’s energy consumption, plug and process loads were not commonly included. Prior to 2013, the industry lacked sufficient data to justify potentially smaller power systems, thus, less energy consumption.

Mazzetti partnered with Panoramic Power as part of a collaboration supported by the Israel-US Bi-national Industrial Research and Development (BIRD) Foundation. This partnership focused on developing and testing a low-cost, nonintrusive, real-time circuit level monitoring (CLM) platform for the Healthcare sector.

STUDY HIGHLIGHTS

Results from this study indicate that power systems for plug and process loads in MOBs are typically over-designed. These results were expected as design guidelines have lacked significant quantitative research until this study. At a building level, IEEE peak design W/SF values were 175% higher than measured values, and IEEE average design values were 260% higher. At a room level, typical industry design values were found to be an average of 160% higher than measured peak loads.

Several low to no cost changes in building operations could reduce the plug and process base load. All computers monitored in the study did not enter a sleep mode or power down during weeknights or weekends, and the computers operated at a constant standby power around 40 watts. Simply modifying computer power management settings to power off during unoccupied hours (assuming 60-hour work weeks), annual electricity savings would be about 225 kWh or $30 per computer. The savings would be significant as computers are found in a majority of exam rooms, offices, nurse stations, and reception areas.

While continued research may be needed to change IEEE standards, the results from this study can be used in energy models and design rules of thumb.

BENEFITS

The analyzed benefits included:

• Three-year discounted payback on the proposed measures from energy savings, even when including the cost of the monitoring system.
• Ability to identify actual energy usage as opposed to those simulated via an energy model.
• Ability to see huge opportunity in plug load management, reducing otherwise, wasted energy usage.
• Ability to monitor equipment such as motors for fans/pumps/and compressors and scheduling preventative maintenance. This demonstrated that the monitoring system could potentially pay for itself in one year by identifying potential equipment failures before they occur.
• Technology can be used to offer continuous or monitoring-based commissioning (MBCx).
• Technology can be used to better inform facility and performance statistics & improve overall operational efficiency.