Keynote speaker Jeff Brodsky, president of Related Management, struck an important note at the opening of Building Owners and Managers Association of Greater New York's (BOMA/NY)annual Energy Action Day (held March 8th) by reminding owners and managers that, as energy audit benchmarking information goes public, the efforts made in the base building by management may be overshadowed by the lack of energy conservation by the tenants. That theme dovetailed with the seminar's focus on using creativity to cut usage and costs and was addressed throughout the morning by the panelists.
A quick briefing on what to expect this summer was given by Catherine Luthin of Luthin Associates, who reported that electrical rates are going down and the historical trend indicates levels closer to 2009. Projected 2012 load growth is less than one percent and capacity prices will also be lower than in recent times, unless significant generation shuts down.
Lower rates raised the question of how to maintain the same or greater revenue, and was answered in a number of ways.
Christopher Cayten, managing director of Code Green Solutions, Inc., reviewed the Local Law 87 requirements, clarified the differences between energy audits and retro-commissioning, and led a panel discussion featuring Mitchell Grant, assistant property manager of 340 Madison (RXR Realty, LLC), the first building to complete LL87 requirements since its passage and John Hatton, chief engineer, RXR Realty, LLC.
Harris Schaer, project manager at NYSERDA, discussed trends in research and technology to help identify more load shedding opportunities and how they provide additional energy efficiency opportunities.
Anthony Eack, assistant chief engineer for 1211 Avenue of the Americas (Cushman & Wakefield, Inc.) walked participants through a case study of the energy reduction work that the engineering/building team performs at 1211 — including "pushing the envelope" in demand response, enhanced BMS utilization, aggressive temperature and humidity set points and increasing tenant response through constant communication and commitment "buy in," among others. And the proof was in the bottom line — their combined team effort and tenant participation resulted in 1211 increasing its load shedding from 400 to 2,000 kW, with 200 kW attributed to the tenants alone.
BOMA/NY would like to thank their sponsors: ABM, CodeGreen Solutions, Con Edison Energy Efficiency Programs, Con Edison Solutions, Luthin Associates and WSP Flack & Kurtz. Tags: