HVAC Efficiency Controls Could Mean Significant Savings

From DOE blog:

HVAC Efficiency Controls Could Mean Significant Savings

April 27, 2012

April Saylor

New Media Specialist, Office of Public Affairs

What does this mean for me?

• Commercial building owners could save an average 38% on their heating & cooling bills just by installing a few new controls onto their HVAC systems.

According to a new report from Pacific Northwest National Lab, commercial building owners could save an average 38 percent on their heating and cooling bills just by installing a few new controls onto their HVAC systems.

These findings mean significant potential savings for building owners who use commercial rooftop systems – but there’s just one problem: the controls aren’t currently commercially available.

Srinivas Katipamula, the PNNL engineer leading the study, says the report makes “a convincing case for manufacturers to produce more advanced HVAC controllers and for building owners to adopt these energy-saving methods.” The PNNL team hopes the report will encourage manufacturers to begin producing the four different control methods. Three companies currently manufacture HVAC controllers, but only one company offers a product with all the control options that resemble the team’s simulations. To help the manufacturer's better understand their market, PNNL's report examines potential pricing options for the controllers and how long it would take for building owners to recoup that cost. Since packaged HVACs regulate more than 60 percent of the commercial building floor space in the United States, the potential savings from retrofitting advanced controls on these systems is enormous.

The following four different control methods were considered by Katipamula and his PNNL colleagues:

• Air-side economizers cool outside air to chill the building instead of creating cool air with the HVAC compressor.
• Supply fan speed controls slow or speed up the ventilation fan that circulates the building’s air based on whether or not a desired temperature or amount of fresh air has been reached instead of continually running the fan at full speed.
• Cooling capacity controls run the HVAC compressor at different speeds based on need.
• Demand-controlled ventilation slows or speeds up fans and air intake based on carbon dioxide levels inside the building instead of running ventilation fans at a constant rate.

In general, the researchers found that installing a multi-speed fan control had the greatest impact on energy savings in hotter cities (think Miami), and demand-controlled ventilation created the best possible energy savings in colder cities like Chicago or Seattle.

For more information about the study, read the full report.

USAF Taps IBM for Smarter Buildings

U.S. Air Force Taps IBM for Mission to Improve Building Performance

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Las Vegas, NV, USA - 05 Mar 2012: IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has selected IBM smarter buildings software to help its civil engineers maximize energy efficiency and automate the management of its physical infrastructure portfolio—from buildings, vehicles, runways and other infrastructure across 170 locations worldwide. This portfolio includes more than 626 million square feet of real estate, over 100 million square yards of airfield pavement and 10 million acres of land used by Active Duty, Reserve and Air National Guard personnel.

Presidential Executive Orders require executive branch departments and agencies to establish asset management plans, install performance measures and ensure the effective management of Federal real property assets through their entire lifecycle.  Additional orders require agencies to improve energy efficiency, reduce natural resource consumption and decrease waste production to reduce carbon emissions.

To meet this order, the Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer, whose mission is to provide, operate, maintain, and protect sustainable installations as weapon-system platforms through engineering and emergency response services across the full mission spectrum, will use IBM TRIRIGA software to gain greater visibility and control of its physical assets.

IBM’s integrated workplace management software, called IBM TRIRIGA, provides the Air Force with a standardized, powerful technology platform to analyze data about real property assets, streamline work orders and suppliers, and reduce energy use across thousands of buildings. These tools will help USAF measure and manage its operational, financial, and environmental performance to determine and prove effectiveness against government-wide and agency real property management objectives.

“IBM TRIRIGA software will help implement our NexGen IT vision and give USAF a data-driven approach to manage its real property and physical assets, as well as help us predict issues before they impact service and safety,” said Alexander Earle, Chief Information Officer, Air Force Office of the Civil Engineer.  “Implementing IBM TRIRIGA will help strengthen our IT infrastructure by removing redundant systems, providing real-time analytics and optimizing core processes that enable us to make better decisions about how we manage our resources.”

Using IBM TRIRIGA, USAF plans to reduce operating costs, increase return on budget and reduce energy consumption through:

• Integrated Workplace Management: Provides a single system to optimize performance of all real estate locations, assets and personnel operations. By optimizing building use, occupancy costs are reduced, lease administration is made easier, and managers can evaluate future space requirements to make long-term planning decisions.
• Energy Assessment Tools: Enables users to obtain environmental insights and pre-defined, automated operational procedures and processes to monitor and reduce energy consumption as well as waste production from real property assets operations.
• Condition-based Maintenance: Better manages the maintenance of property and equipment based on the age, condition and history of facilities. Having this insight can prevent costly repairs by allowing staff to pinpoint equipment that should be replaced before incidents occur.

“Having the right data at the right time is essential for U.S. Air Force personnel,” said George Ahn, vice president of Enterprise Asset Management, IBM.  “IBM TRIRIGA infuses a new level of intelligence to physical infrastructures that will enable U.S. Air Force to make the timely and critical decisions about their assets that are essential to the success of their operations.”

IBM TRIRIGA improves the operational, financial and environmental performance of real estate assets and operations. The software provides a comprehensive suite of applications to manage the real estate lifecycle of an organization with pre-defined management processes and extensive Web-based configuration management tools.

For more photos and information on news at the IBM PULSE conference in Las Vegas, visit:http://www.ibm.com/press/us/en/presskit/37001.wss.

News Release from EPA

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEFebruary 22, 2012 

Energy Star Leaders Achieve President Obama’s Energy Efficiency Goal for Buildings 

EPA’s Energy Star provides model for superior building energy performance and savings 

WASHINGTON –The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that nearly half of the organizations recognized as Energy Star Leaders have improved the energy efficiency of their building portfolios by 20 percent or more. Last year, President Obama announced a nationwide call to action to improve the energy performance in buildings across the nation by 20 percent by 2020. EPA’s Energy Star program has helped these 90 leading organizations achieve the President’s goal by providing them with a proven energy management strategy, which includes a focus on ongoing performance measurement and whole-building improvement. Energy Star Leaders have cumulatively saved more than $150 million on utility bills and prevented greenhouse gas emissions equal to the electricity use of nearly 95,000 homes.

“Making our buildings more energy efficient is one of the most effective ways for American businesses, government and other organizations to save money and reduce the pollution going into the air we breathe,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “With help from EPA’s Energy Star program, these leaders are benefitting their bottom lines while protecting our health and the environment.”

Energy Star Leaders must meet one of two energy efficiency improvement milestones. The first milestone requires a 10 percent improvement in energy performance across their entire building portfolio, and subsequent recognition is given for each 10 percent improvement thereafter. The second milestone, known as “top performer,” requires the buildings in an organization’s portfolio, to perform on average in the top 25 percent of similar buildings nationwide. To be eligible for Energy Star Leaders recognition, organizations are required to track and submit energy performance data for all buildings and fuel sources through EPA’s Energy Star Portfolio Manager tool.

In the past year, EPA also recognized Decatur County Community Schools in Indiana as the first Energy Star Leader to improve energy efficiency across their building portfolio by 60 percent. The complete list of Energy Star Leaders has grown to more than 200 organizations, including school districts, national retailers, commercial real estate companies, healthcare systems, supermarket operators and hotel managers that have achieved energy efficiency improvements across more than 11,400 buildings covering nearly 730 million square feet in the United States.

With help from EPA’s Energy Star program, thousands of businesses and organizations are improving the energy efficiency of the places where we work, play and learn and are saving billions of dollars while preventing millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions from entering the atmosphere each year. 

Airlines Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times
Wednesday, February 08, 2012

Airline Emissions System May Be Adjusted in Europe 

By JAMES KANTER

BRUSSELS — The European Union could suspend parts of a new law requiring airlines to account for their greenhouse gas emissions if countries were to make clear progress this year toward establishing a global emissions control system, a senior official said Tuesday.

The comments, by Jos Delbeke, the director general for climate action at the European Commission, came the day after China announced that its carriers would be forbidden to pay any charges under the European emissions system without Beijing’s permission.

The comments were the clearest sign yet that Europeans were considering how to defuse a mounting conflict over the new emissions law with its most important trading partners.

The law, which went into effect Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports. Its goal is to speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.

But Europe’s bold climate initiative also could push nations heavily reliant on air travel into a trade war because of the effect of the new law on flights outside of European airspace.

Mr. Delbeke said at a conference in Brussels that he could recommend “a conditional suspension” of parts of the system, in which polluters can buy and sell a limited quantity of permits, each representing a ton of carbon dioxide, by the end of the year if nations sped up adoption of an effective global system.

For that to happen, any global system would have (to) be better for climate protection than simply applying the European system that is already in force, Mr. Delbeke said. A global system also would have to treat all airlines similarly and to set emissions reduction targets for a near-term date like 2020 rather than midcentury.

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China Balking at EU Airline Emissions Charges

Excerpt from an article in The New York Times

Tuesday, February 07, 2012

E.U. Rebuffs China's Challenge to Airline Emission System

By JAMES KANTER

BRUSSELS — The European Commission said Monday that it would continue charging airlines for their greenhouse gas emissions, despite an announcement from China that its carriers would be forbidden to pay without its permission.

The E.U. program, which began Jan. 1, requires airlines to account for all emissions on flights using European airports and represents the Union’s boldest move to protect the environment.

“We’re not backing down in our legislation,” said Isaac Valero-Ladrón, a spokesman for the commission, the executive body of the European Union. “We’ll apply this to companies operating in Europe.”

Europe says its system is less costly than portrayed and would speed up the adoption of greener technologies at a time when air traffic, which represents about 3 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions, is growing much faster than gains in efficiency.

Earlier Monday, the Chinese air regulator effectively prohibited the country’s carriers from paying those charges or other fees, or increasing ticket prices in response to the E.U. system, without permission from the government.

The Chinese government said it was also considering unspecified measures to protect Chinese companies, something Europe can ill afford as it looks to China to help ease its debt crisis. European countries also want access to China’s fast-growing economy, including free-spending Chinese tourists who might not show up.

The intensifying dispute is another sign that European environmental regulations could lead to a trade war if governments start retaliating against carriers or products.

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New Fuel Economy Rules Win Broad Support

Excerpt from January 18 New York Times article with the above title.

Not everyone is so enthused about the new mileage standards.  See the January 10 post.

New Fuel Economy Rules Win Broad Support

By NICK BUNKLEY

DETROIT — Writing new regulations that will require cars and trucks to have significantly higher fuel economy by 2025 prompted years of fighting among automakers, environmentalists, regulators and consumer groups.

But now that the standards have been proposed, nearly everyone involved in the process is on board with the results, as a public hearing held Tuesday in Detroit showed.

More than 90 people who spoke throughout the day asserted that the stricter fuel economy requirements would create jobs, reduce oil consumption, create cleaner air and save drivers money, all while helping automakers increase their profits.

“We’re celebrating something that has taken a long time to reach,” said Representative John D. Dingell, a Michigan Democrat who helped quash previous efforts to impose higher mileage standards. “There appears to be no significant opposition amongst responsible persons.”

The National Automobile Dealers Association, however, did speak out against the idea of setting requirements for vehicles made more than a decade from now until more is known about the strength of consumer demand for more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Don Chalmers, a Ford dealer in New Mexico and the group’s government relations chairman, said he worried that vehicles would become too expensive for some consumers to afford. “Before rushing headlong into a set of new mandates aimed at doubling today’s fleet fuel economy, we need to understand better the potential ramifications,” Mr. Chalmers said. “If our customers do not purchase these products, we all lose.”

The proposed new standards call for automakers to increase the average, unadjusted fuel-economy rating of their vehicles to 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025, up from about 27 miles per gallon today. Because of the way testing is done, the 2025 requirement correlates to a window-sticker rating of about 36 miles per gallon, according to the automotive information Web site Edmunds.com, or roughly what Toyota’s tiny new Scion iQ car achieves today.

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New Tool to Access 2010 GHG Data

News Release from the EPA:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:January 10, 2012
Media Alert: EPA to Hold Webinar to Showcase a New Tool to Access 2010 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Data from Large Facilities

WASHINGTON – For the first time, comprehensive greenhouse gas (GHG) data reported directly from large facilities and suppliers across the country are now easily accessible to the public through EPA’s GHG Reporting Program. The 2010 GHG data to be released includes public information from facilities in nine industry groups that directly emit large quantities of GHGs, as well as suppliers of certain fossil fuels and high global warming gases. 

WHAT: Media teleconference to explain the agency’s new tool for accessing greenhouse gas emissions data

WHO: Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation.

WHEN: Wednesday, January 11, 2012, noon, Eastern Time

HOW: To participate, please use the following dial-in numbers.
Call-in: (866) 900-8984 Toll Free for U.S. and Canada; and (706) 679-8357 for international callers

Conference ID: 41836951
To access the Webinar use GoToWebinar link: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/288135930

Power Plant Rule is Delayed

Reuters reports that efforts by U.S. regulators to cut air pollution from coal-fired power plants faced a setback on Friday when a federal appeals court issued a last-minute order delaying their January 1 implementation.

The U.S. District Court of Appeals granted a request to stay the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Cross-State Air Pollution Rule (CSAPR) pending further court review.

The EPA finalized the rule in July, setting much stricter limits on sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxide emissions from power plants in 27 states to protect the health of residents in states downwind from the emissions.

Power generators said the January 1 implementation date was too soon to allow the design and installation of pollution control equipment to meet the rule, forcing a number of units to shut or to run only part of the time.

The group responsible for keeping the U.S. power grid reliable has warned that the cumulative impact of the EPA's rules could create power problems in Texas and New England.

Proponents of stricter rules say the industry can adapt and maintain that the costs of implementing the rules will be offset by savings from reduced healthcare expenses.

The EPA estimated that the Cross State rule will save up to 34,000 lives, prevent 15,000 heart attacks and prevent 400,000 asthma attacks each year, providing $120 billion to $280 billion in annual health benefits for the nation.

Texas challenged the EPA rule because the state was included in the final version without having an opportunity to provide input on its impact in Texas. State regulators who met later with EPA officials said the agency used faulty assumptions about the state's power grid.

EPA News Release on New Air Pollution Standards

The previous post contains an excerpt from an article published by The Hill describing how dozens of electrical power plants, most of them coal-burning, will close down, rather than upgrade, to meet new air pollution regulations.  In this post, I am presenting an EPA news release to provide that agency's perspective on the matter.  I would recommend reading the EPA news release and the article from The Hill in its entirety before forming an opinion.

EPA Issues First National Standards for Mercury Pollution from Power Plants/ Historic ‘mercury and air toxics standards’ meet 20-year old requirement to cut dangerous smokestack emissions

Release Date: 12/21/2011

Contact Information: Enesta Jones (News Media Only,jones.enesta@epa.gov, 202-564-7873, 202-564-4355 Doretta Reaves (Non Press Inquiries), Reaves.doretta@epa.gov, 202-564-7829 En español: Lina Younes, younes.lina@epa.gov, 202-564-9924, 202-564-4355

EPA estimates that the new safeguards will prevent as many as 11,000 premature deaths and 4,700 heart attacks a year. The standards will also help America’s children grow up healthier – preventing 130,000 cases of childhood asthma symptoms and about 6,300 fewer cases of acute bronchitis among children each year.

"By cutting emissions that are linked to developmental disorders and respiratory illnesses like asthma, these standards represent a major victory for clean air and public health– and especially for the health of our children. With these standards that were two decades in the making, EPA is rounding out a year of incredible progress on clean air in America with another action that will benefit the American people for years to come," said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. "The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards will protect millions of families and children from harmful and costly air pollution and provide the American people with health benefits that far outweigh the costs of compliance."

“Since toxic air pollution from power plants can make people sick and cut lives short, the new Mercury and Air Toxics Standards are a huge victory for public health,” said Albert A. Rizzo, MD, national volunteer chair of the American Lung Association, and pulmonary and critical care physician in Newark, Delaware. “The Lung Association expects all oil and coal-fired power plants to act now to protect all Americans, especially our children, from the health risks imposed by these dangerous air pollutants.”

More than 20 years ago, a bipartisan Congress passed the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments and mandated that EPA require control of toxic air pollutants including mercury. To meet this requirement, EPA worked extensively with stakeholders, including industry, to minimize cost and maximize flexibilities in these final standards. There were more than 900,000 public comments that helped inform the final standards being announced today. Part of this feedback encouraged EPA to ensure the standards focused on readily available and widely deployed pollution control technologies, that are not only manufactured by companies in the United States, but also support short-term and long-term jobs. EPA estimates that manufacturing, engineering, installing and maintaining the pollution controls to meet these standards will provide employment for thousands, potentially including 46,000 short-term construction jobs and 8,000 long-term utility jobs.

Power plants are the largest remaining source of several toxic air pollutants, including mercury, arsenic, cyanide, and a range of other dangerous pollutants, and are responsible for half of the mercury and over 75 percent of the acid gas emissions in the United States. Today, more than half of all coal-fired power plants already deploy pollution control technologies that will help them meet these achievable standards. Once final, these standards will level the playing field by ensuring the remaining plants – about 40 percent of all coal fired power plants - take similar steps to decrease dangerous pollutants.

As part of the commitment to maximize flexibilities under the law, the standards are accompanied by a Presidential Memorandum that directs EPA to use tools provided in the Clean Air Act to implement the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards in a cost-effective manner that ensures electric reliability. For example, under these standards, EPA is not only providing the standard three years for compliance, but also encouraging permitting authorities to make a fourth year broadly available for technology installations, and if still more time is needed, providing a well-defined pathway to address any localized reliability problems should they arise.

Mercury has been shown to harm the nervous systems of children exposed in the womb, impairing thinking, learning and early development, and other pollutants that will be reduced by these standards can cause cancer, premature death, heart disease, and asthma.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, which are being issued in response to a court deadline, are in keeping with President Obama’s Executive Order on regulatory reform. They are based on the latest data and provide industry significant flexibility in implementation through a phased-in approach and use of already existing technologies.

The standards also ensure that public health and economic benefits far outweigh costs of implementation. EPA estimates that for every dollar spent to reduce pollution from power plants, the American public will see up to $9 in health benefits. The total health and economic benefits of this standard are estimated to be as much as $90 billion annually.

The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards and the final Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which was issued earlier this year, are the most significant steps to clean up pollution from power plant smokestacks since the Acid Rain Program of the 1990s.

Combined, the two rules are estimated to prevent up to 46,000 premature deaths, 540,000 asthma attacks among children, 24,500 emergency room visits and hospital admissions. The two programs are an investment in public health that will provide a total of up to $380 billion in return to American families in the form of longer, healthier lives and reduced health care costs.

More information: http://www.epa.gov/mats/

Dozens of Power Plants Closing

The following is an excerpt from an article by The Hill.  I am not sure that imposing tough new environmental regulations in a fragile economy with high unemployment is the smartest thing that we could be doing as a nation. But no one asked me for my opinion.

Dozens of Power Plants Closing Due to New EPA Rules

December 21, 2011

The Hill

BRIAN KOENIG

Due to new federal air pollution regulations, more than 32 power plants across the country will be forced to close their doors, according to a recent Associated Press survey. Those plants, which are mostly coal-fired, discharge enough electricity to supply more than 22 million households, the survey notes, and their closure will lead to job layoffs, depleted tax revenues, and a considerable hike in electric bills. The areas that will be hit hardest are the Midwest and in the coal belt (Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky), where dozens of plants will likely be retired.

Two regulations are in question: One aims to curb air pollution in states downwind from pollutant-heavy power plants; and the second, which was finalized last week, would enact the first standards for mercury, acid gas, and other pollutants from plant smokestacks. In total, the new regulations could eliminate more than eight percent of coal-fired generation nationwide.

AP’s survey, the first of its kind, looked at the analyses by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of plant retirements and interviewed 55 power plant operators about the effects on power supply and about their plans to deal with the new regulations.

Basing their assertions on energy analyses, congressional reports, and government regulators, critics have predicted that the new EPA regulations will lead to widespread blackouts, and possibly the retirement of coal as a power source altogether. However, proponents of the rules claim that those studies inflate closure numbers by considering plants shutting down for reasons other than the EPA’s new restrictions.