1 (800) 971-1124
Error
  • JLIB_APPLICATION_ERROR_COMPONENT_NOT_LOADING
  • JLIB_APPLICATION_ERROR_COMPONENT_NOT_LOADING

Carlisle Public School Develops Usage Baselines in Preparation for Demand Charge Increases

The Problem

The Town of Carlisle, like many towns in MA, has several facilities on utility rate schedules where 70% or more of the bill is composed of “demand charges” that are based on the highest demand used by the customer in the billing period. In the case of the Carlisle Public School, each kW of peak demand in the period costs $19.19 and with typical peaks exceeding 250kW, a 10% reduction is worth over $480/month. If rumored increases in demand charges come true in 2016 and beyond, the risk of doing nothing could cost an extra $5,000 to $15,000 per year at the school alone. Carlisle, like many towns, is driven to efficiency by an Energy Task Force composed of top-flight “professional volunteers”, and there is general agreement that a data-driven approach to understanding the current usage profiles is key to determining the next best conservation measures they might employ.

Solutions & Opportunities

With funding from the MA Green Communities Grant Program, AEI continues to develop a baseline of utility usage for the Town of Carlisle.

In 2015, the Carlisle Public School complex had an average electric demand of 52.3kW, yet regularly had peak demands five times that. In the worst-case month of September, the school hit its peak on the first day of school when all of the buildings were at full tilt, with outside air at 91°F. The peak demand for that month was 349.8kW, nearly 7 times the average month. That first day of school cost the Town $2,000 in demand charges compared to an “average” month when the peak demand is around 250kW.

AEI is proposing to Carlisle that we engage targeted low-cost sub-metering at key panels in the facility to learn the best opportunities for peak demand mitigation when weather and occupancy indicate that a peak for the billing period is imminent. In light of rumored increases in demand charges, a sub-metered approach to understanding the load profiles is also a low-cost insurance policy for the future. Reducing peaks also has the nice side-effect of reducing overall demand. In the case of CPS, a 10% kWh reduction is worth about $1,200/yr.

New AEI Energy Maps Just Released

We've just released public versions of our AEI Energy Maps for Los Angeles, San Francisco, New Orleans and others built in partnership with the U.S. DOE Better Communities Alliance.

Visit the AEI Energy Maps page

AEI Featured on Energy Matters 2U Podcast

AEI was recently featured along with Leidos on an Energy Matters 2U Podcast. During the 20 minute conversation, Carl Popolo of AEI and Ron Gillooly, Leidos' Industrial Energy Program Director, discussed how a building's energy data profile combines with a physical audit to target efficiency measures that have specific and verifiable results.

Listen to the Podcast

AEI To Provide Energy Maps to U.S. DOE Better Communities Alliance

AEI is pleased to have been selected as an Affiliate to the U.S. Department of Energy Better Communities® Alliance. AEI is committed to provide its Energy Map solutions to selected partners from a list of 40 noteworthy cities such as Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Miami, New York and San Francisco.

Read More

AEI Selected as MHEC Supplier

June 29, 2017 -- Carlisle, MA -- AEI has been selected as a Massachusetts Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) supplier to provide Facility Maintenance and Energy Assessment Software to MHEC members through June 2020. The letter from MHEC reads: "Your bid response was evaluated and determined to be the most responsible and responsive bid that offered best value to MHEC members".

Read More

Whole-Portfolio Real-Time Main Metering

AEI brings to market a whole-portfolio real-time main meter view of cities, towns and campuses by combining our AEI Soft Start Real-Time technology with our proven Energy Map visualization platform.

For the energy manager who needs to see energy use across the entire building stock in real-time, this affordable solution shadows the utility main meter, requires no BAS integration, feeds upstream applications such as kiosks, and gives the manager real-time insight into demand response opportunities on their own terms. With 1-minute resolution, rolling profiles and SMS and E-Mail alerts, this integrated solution can also help control billing-period peak usage. It's completely incorporated into our Energy Map platform for exploring historical usage, and that means one-stop-shopping for your energy team to study utility trends, track sustainability goals, and to know your real-time position for social awareness and real-time response.

Explore the Demo

The Bigger Apple: City of New York Energy Map

Building on our work last year to deliver an Energy Map of the City of Boston, we figured we should demonstrate a little scalability and bite on something bigger. The result is our City of New York Energy Map that combines data from the PLUTO and LL84 disclosure reporting datasets and shows electricity, natural gas, oil, steam and water consumption for over 13,000 properties with a combined GSF of over 1.8 billion ft2. The data includes GHG emissions, and for most properties we're able to show trends since 2011.

Read More in News

AEI on Twitter

AEI Commissioning

Are your buildings running efficiently? Let's look at the data and prove it to the managers who pay the utility bills. Efficiency problems? Download the AEI Commissioning Services brochure to see how we can help.