'Smart buildings' Necessary to Reduce Energy, Costs
Energy costs are typically accepted as-is by most business owners. Yet when those unseen charges are brought to the forefront, most business and building owners quickly realize just how much money they are losing through antiquated energy management practices.
This is where Shorewood-based Hawkeye Energy Solutions steps in.
Hawkeye is focused on reducing utility costs by providing "Smart Building" solutions for industrial, commercial and institutional facilities. Through the "Hawkeye System" customers can see, manage and reduce expensive utility costs.
"The concept has been to develop smart buildings. To monitor gas, water, steam, power, anything that flows in a building," said Gary Powers, president of Hawkeye. "We then use that technology to establish real-time utility management plans."
The Hawkeye System, a Honeywell WEBs-AX web-based independent network architecture, supports multiple communication protocols, so almost anything that consumes power, gas, oil, water or steam can be metered, monitored and controlled.
The process begins by identifying "bad lots" of energy demand peaks, which happen all the time for all kinds of reasons. Hawkeye records bad lots of utility and energy usage in order to reduce those costs. Those demand peaks are wasted energy and wasted dollars, and can account for up to 50 percent of the total energy bill for industrial and commercial users.
"We grab data from energy meters," said Aaron Mason, director of operations. "If they don't have an energy meter to connect to, we install one for the main service, or a meter for gas. These get wired back to our main system and then our system reads those values and stores them and analyzes them.
"It's a Web-based system you can get to from the Internet. You don't need some heavy front-end software. It's all included in the system."
The Hawkeye System tracks peak demand loads in real time. If demand loads rise past a critical point, the system can automatically e-mail key personnel or it can be customized to automatically shed loads. Additionally, a monthly report package helps customers identify demand loads, set up load-shedding schedules and reduce demand-load charges.
"Essentially what we're doing is, for example, you have a ball and it's filled with air and it floats. You're trying to push it down in the water. That is your energy usage. It's as high in the water as it can be. That's what we try to do. We force that energy usage down and attempt to hold it there," Powers said. "That is what an hour-by-hour analysis of energy usage and utility usage really is."
The Hawkeye System connects to building equipment and systems collecting data every 15 minutes. The data is stored at the customers' facility where it is also trended and charted. This real time data opens up endless opportunities for saving money and improving the bottom line.
"The 'smart grid' up and down the I-290 corridor, the homes are getting the smart meters that connect to your washer, dryer, etc., where you can go online and watch those utilities," said Powers. "Just by you watching your energy, there is a significant energy savings to your own pocketbook. These companies have seen it time and time again. You can see it. You can't manage what you can't see. This same thing is happening in business.
"As gas and utility prices go up, we provide the technology to connect to the grid so you can take advantage of the rate structure so you can really hold that ball down. You can do it in real time."
Monitoring energy is great for company image and it is a win-win situation for employers and employees alike, Hawkeye's Web site explains. Studies have shown that facilities can save up to 5 percent of energy costs by simply making employees and departments accountable for energy usage.
When employees become aware of energy usage, it becomes a game to exceed energy saving goals. Employees feel more involved, the work place is greener and the bottom line is improved.
"For example, Peerless Manufacturing, they moved from Melrose Park to Aurora. They make brackets for TVs," Powers said. "They could easily produce these brackets much cheaper in China. They moved; they compartmentalized. We are managing the energy for them to stay competitive and stay in the area.
"They are doing the right thing. They are forward thinking about how they are going to attack the significant cost of their utilities. That's it in as nutshell."
