Sacramento
  New York
  Dublin
   
   
 

"

Respected

Kathleen Pynn Cottingham and Gerard McCabe are recognized leaders in the New York Real Estate Industry.

Their integrity and leadership surely make KPC GEMB the team Real Estate managers can trust."

  • Margie Russell
    New York Association
    of Realty Managers
  

"

Trusted

Kathleen Pynn Cottingham is a trusted advisor for real estate professionals in the New York market.

She brings insight, knowledge and integrity in completing large and small projects from start to finish."

  • Brian T. Leary
    Managing Partner
    Massey Knakal Realty Services
  

"

Valued

Gerard McCabe's dedication to energy conservation is recognized by the New York City Real Estate Industry.

I welcome the contribution the KPC GEMB team will bring to our City in reducing the use of precious energy reserves."

  • James F. Gennaro
    N.Y. City Council Member
    Chairman,
    Environmental Protection
    Committee
  

   


Client Case Study: Forming an Energy Partnership with KPC GEMB

  

 

THE CHALLENGE…
An international Candy Company with multiple manufacturing sites that produce a wide range of confectionery products was looking for a solution to balance its energy consumption with its complex manufacturing processes and understand costs at each plant. The Candy Company decided to start with one of their largest manufacturing sites. This multi-building, manufacturing site operates 3 shifts, 24-hours a day and employs about 1,300 people. Most of the buildings on this site are around 40 to 50 years old with outdated heating and cooling systems.

  

 

 To stay competitive, the Candy Company introduced a company-wide initiative to reduce costs through energy efficiency. Environmental factors like temperature are critical for candy production, but can increase energy consumption. The temperature must be warm enough not to affect the fluidity of the liquid chocolate. At the end of the production line where packaging occurs, temperatures need to be cool enough so the solidified chocolate does not melt and stick to the packaging materials. And temperature levels must be comfortable for employees. All of these demands seemed to be a huge challenge for the Candy Company.  

 

THE SOLUTION…
 We provided the Candy Company with an innovative plan to understand their energy use and identify energy saving opportunities that reduce costs throughout all their buildings. Our philosophy is that by working together in an Energy Partnership with the customer, significant energy cost reduction opportunities can be identified through monitoring, reporting, analyzing and advising. The bottom line means overall savings in energy cost achieved with us significantly outweighs its implementation cost.

  


 

SPECIFICALLY…
In order to identify the relationships between influencing factors such as temperature, production levels and facility equipment, we recommended the Candy Company utilize an energy information system.

The energy information system is designed to work across a network, allowing multiple users access to data simultaneously and various access levels enable staff to review energy performance without compromising the integrity of the data.


  

 

 To determine energy saving opportunities and provide data for benchmarking, we installed the necessary energy monitoring hardware, configured site requirements, and established plant control performance checks. We benchmarked the Candy Company’s historical data, taken over the previous two years, to establish energy saving targets. By monitoring energy, the Candy Company can clearly identify the areas in each building within the site that are performing better than expected and those that are not. This reporting and graphical capability helps the Candy Company identify and resolve manufacturing problems. This way operations are optimized, lowering costs and energy usage.  

 

To determine specific plant costs at each site, the Candy Company began with this site. They used this site to test the initial energy efficiency strategies and its success would determine how the Candy Company instituted the program throughout all sites.

As a result of our Energy Partnership, the Candy Company was able to:
  • Monitor all electric, gas and water (both treated and untreated) loads.
  • Sub-meter environmental factors like steam, compressed air, and temperature.
  • Sub-meter manufacturing equipment outweighs its implementation cost.

  


 

BENEFITS…
The program successfully met all monitoring targets and reduced energy costs by 15% from the previous year.

In addition to saving energy, the program also reduced manpower waste. Because the system automatically gathered energy information, the staff was free to spend their time analyzing the results and taking corrective action on the information collected by the system.

The Candy Company estimated that their manpower savings equaled one day per week.

Also, the automatic graphical data analysis allowed plant managers to tailor the reports to meet their needs.


  

 

 This provided a template to optimize plant operations and benchmark for assessment. It also highlighted areas of high energy, allowing remedial action to be taken. By monitoring they determined whether pre-set manufacturing processes were using energy efficiently.

KEY INITIATIVES…
Based on the energy information gathered by monitoring the manufacturing plants, the Candy Company decided to install a new Building Automation System (BAS). The BAS will control heating and ventilating, air conditioning, lighting, chillers, calorifiers and other manufacturing equipment. Working in parallel with the energy information system, total energy savings across the site should reach nearly 30%.

  

 

OVERALL…
The Candy Company was pleased with the program’s success.

In the beginning, the Candy Company was concerned about the energy information system interfering with manufacturing processes.

But the immediate energy savings outweighed their uncertainty and the entire manufacturing plant supported the program.

The Candy Company will continue with the program and believes they can achieve additional energy savings.

  
 
 
KPC GEMB.com © 2007. All Rights Reserved.