How to a decide which projects will yield the best return-on-investment for my company?

The process of establishing your best investment opportunities when it comes to energy efficiency or power generation is to look first at where your biggest energy inputs are. Take a total-cost-of-ownership perspective to make the most well informed decision because maintenance and repair costs and the number of years the system will last is extremely important to understanding the full picture. We help our clients by taking them through step by step approach from inventory of systems to approximately overall energy use by system, then maintenance history, and expected life time use. Once this is established we can then identify which systems have proven or custom solutions opportunity to reduce the operating costs and in a capital proposal we provide we can compare base case existing use to the new systems operation cost. From here we can take overall project cost estimates including equipment, installation, and operating costs and show the financial net-present-value or NPV of a project. For those not familiar, NPV is a financial metric used by corporate capital purchasers, Controllers, CFO’s and executive decision makers for conceptually the present day dollars of value added to the balance sheet once this upgrade is completed. We then rank the projects from best to least return and establish which ones are most needed by the staff and management or ownership and which ones could fit with this fiscal years capital budget.

Do LED Lights Really Save Money?

Absolutely. As long as the existing lighting is being used its worth looking at whether replacement is particularly compelling. The longer the lights are on the more the savings will be and the quicker the savings will pay back and exceed the cost of the system. Most publicly traded companies in North America realized this years ago as the cost of LED came down and energy rates rose. Lighting projects on average in Ontario for example range from 3 years to 6 Months after subtracting energy Rebates. In Manitoba that number is slightly higher as the electricity costs are about a third of what they are in Ontario but still have very compelling returns. Reduction of cost between 55% and 75% are very common and ROI can still look like somewhere between 20% and 50% depending on the technology chosen and operating hours of the lighting.

Why is power quality important?

Power quality is largely determined by reliability, efficiency of the conversion from energy source to the form it’s being consumed as, the Power Factor, and total harmonic distortion or TDH, for electrical the balance of 3-phase power, margin of fluctuation of voltage (no surges or sags), electrical losses in terms of heat and sound and distribution. FPS can has access to the testing and measurement equipment to monitor and measure transformer efficiency, PF, TDH, loading, and overall consumption. The use of back-up generation, battery storage and UPS, thermal storage systems, energy efficient transformers, power conditioning, and capacitor banks is a holistic approach to achieving a standard of excellence. This is important for keeping maintenance, repair cost, utility expense, and longevity of company machinery and environmental systems (HVAC, Refrigeration, Humidity, CO2 machines, Heat Pumps, Chillers, etc.)

What is the best approach for reducing organizational waste?

1.) Look at utility use and losses or unnecessary use and where improvements can be made.

2.) Strive at improving record and maintenance schedule and keeping good records ideally in a Maintenance Management Software or Asset Management System.

3.) Evaluate on-site production and re-use opportunities for water, Co2, and hydrogen.

4.) Consider whether waste-to-energy would meet volume requirements to justify capital improvement project.

What is the average cost for energy auditing?

Depending on the level of detail in the audit the cost for a consultation and report ranges from $0.05-$0.50/sq ft. We have been trained in the methodologies of ISO50001 which is a global standard for evaluating, planning, and implementing energy projects. We also follow the guidelines as suggesting by ASHRA (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers). There are levels organized by Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3 audits and each level has an increasing level of detail. Most capital projects can be well informed a macro level by a Level 1 however we suggest most clients pursue either a project or list of projects at the detail of Level 2.