Branch-Level Energy Savings: Improving HVAC Controls to Reduce Energy Spend

A diversified financial services company with over $44B in assets and operations in 7 states and the District of Columbia sought reductions in branch-level energy costs. At the center of their initiative was optimizing setpoint schedules to improve HVAC controls across their branches. The customer aimed to demonstrate branch-level cost savings in their three climate regions and performance improvements relative to similar-sized and located control branches.

Challenge

Transitioning from a pre-determined setpoint schedule to active control involved addressing several factors:

• Sub-optimal HVAC settings
• Limited visibility into performance standards and variations across branches
• No allowance for smart setpoints

Solution

To overcome issues with power supply fluctuations and overcrowding on the electricity grid, as well as reduce harmful emissions from the electricity being delivered to customers, the customer used NextEra 360’s all-in-one energy management solution. Thanks to this technology, the customer was able to solve these problems and fine-tune our use of energy resources on an hourly basis. This plays a crucial role in their ability to provide electricity with zero carbon emissions. To maximize co-located asset value, the customer used NextEra 360 Automatic Dispatcher for historical data analysis, real time information and proprietary algorithms to automatically optimize delivered energy from the storage system to the grid. This data is critical when setting up hourly matching of electricity, as it is a consumer-focused approach to purchasing electricity generation that matches to the consumer’s hourly electricity consumption. User discharge schedule override capabilities were provided so the customer could generate their own discharge requests for maximized asset value and to reduce overall energy costs.

Result

• 9% average energy savings per branch in the first twelve weeks of operation
• 12-15% forecasted energy savings in summer

As a result, the customer has extended the solution into the remaining 500+ branches to provide the customer with a more comprehensive energy management solution. The customer also intends to evaluate using NextEra 360 to automate the operation of the branch HVAC systems to increase projected energy savings further.

Implementation Timeline

6 weeks