Commercial, Demand Management, Energy Efficiency  -  May 15, 2017 - By Amy Poszywak

DOE recognizes MGM, Sprint, CBRE for work in EMIS

The U.S. Department of Energy on May 15 recognized five participants in the recently launched Smart Energy Analytics campaign for going the extra mile through their involvement with the program, which seeks to accelerate the adoption of energy management information systems, or EMIS, to uncover energy savings opportunities. 

Among those five participants recognized for their involvement in the Better Buildings Initiative program were two commercial applications being implemented by three large companies.

MGM Resorts International was recognized as the largest portfolio in the campaign. The company, which also has broad corporate sustainability goals that include the use of renewable energy, has applied fault detection and diagnostics software across its portfolio of nine properties representing 38 million square feet. The rollout has saved money in avoided service calls and unnecessary equipment replacement, according to the DOE. 

Additionally, Sprint Corp., in partnership with CBRE Group Inc., has dem onstrated a best practice in EMIS by inventing fault detection diagnostics software that is yielding energy savings of about $430,000 from a 2014 baseline, according to Kathleen Hogan, deputy assistant secretary for energy efficiency at the DOE. The software was deployed at Sprint's corporate campus of four million square feet.

Speaking at the Better Buildings Summit in Washington, D.C., Hogan also recognized three public sector participants in the Smart Energy Analytics campaign: Emory University, Salt Lake City, Utah; and the University of California, Davis. Emory, she said, has recorded a 25% energy use reduction across 20 buildings over a five-year period. 

Launched in the fall of 2016, the Smart Energy Analytics campaign was designed to help establish best practices for installations of EMIS and accelerate the use of cost-effective, energy-saving building analytics platforms and processes in commercial buildings nationwide. Building off the 18 inaugural participants in the program — including Macy's, Whole Foods and Wendy's — the Smart Energy Analytics campaign now involves 39 participants with a goal of reaching 50 by September. 

Participants in the program benefit from access to a wide range of resources intended to help organizations from those just getting started with energy management information systems to those further along, according to Claire Curtin of the Lawrence Berkley National Lab, who manages the campaign. Curtin recently told Smart Energy Decisions that those resources include help drafting requests for proposals for EMIS, technical assistance, webinars and access to shared information among peer groups.

Hogan recognized the Smart Energy Analytics campaign participants May 15 among a host of others making significant progress to deepen energy efficiency across both the private and public sector through their work with the Better Buildings Alliance and its various other programs and initiatives. In the past year, the DOE has welcomed 240 new organizations as partners into the Alliance, Better Plants, Better Communities Alliance and Better Buildings Accelerators, according to a May 15 news release. 

Through Better Buildings, the DOE aims to make commercial, public, industrial, and residential buildings 20% more energy efficient over the next decade. The results, the DOE says, are saving hundreds of billions of dollars on energy bills, reducing emissions and creating thousands of jobs.

Editor's note: The Better Buildings Initiative is a Smart Energy Decisions content partner.

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