HACKENSACK, N.J. –– Hackensack University Medical Center has awarded a contract to utiliVisor for energy monitoring and optimization services for the hospital’s central boiler plant.
The project is being performed under a carbon abatement program offered by PSE&G in New Jersey. The PSE&G Hospital Efficiency Program is a $129-million initiative that will fund installation of energy conservation measures at approximately 35 hospitals in the utility’s service territory. Through the program, PSE&G provides an investment-grade audit at no cost to the customer, then proposes various cost-effective energy conservation measures that make a substantial impact on the hospital’s energy efficiency and meet other program criteria, such as having a simple payback of less than 15 years.
Under its contract, utiliVisor will install a web-based energy monitoring system for the central boiler plant at HackensackUMC. The system will feed “real time” data on the plant’s operations via the internet to the company’s operations center, where experienced energy engineers will perform energy analyses and recommend the most efficient operating strategy at all load conditions. The data analyses will verify the energy consumption for the central plant, enabling the equipment to be fully optimized on an ongoing basis.
“We anticipate that monitoring the boilers at HackensackUMC will cut overall gas usage by 10 percent, resulting in an annual savings of $116,000 per year,” said Peter Angerame, utiliVisor’s director of sales. “The total project payback will be achieved in less than one year, with savings continuing to accrue well into the future.”
The central boiler plant monitoring is the second energy efficiency project utiliVisor has performed at HackensackUMC. In 2010, the company was awarded a contract to provide a customized web-based monitoring system and operations center energy data analysis for the hospital’s chilled water generation plant. During the first year of the project, utiliVisor documented more than $475,000 of energy savings by analyzing the performance of the chilled water plant in real time and making operations recommendations to the hospital’s plant staff. The company continues to work with the hospital staff to fine tune the chilled water plant operations and energy savings for the second year of the project are anticipated to meet or exceed the first year’s savings.
“UtiliVisor has not only been instrumental in helping HackensackUMC reduce its carbon footprint, they have created the capital investment needed for future energy projects on our campus,” said John Nesbitt, director of infrastructure at HackensackUMC. “As a result of the utiliVisor project, all future energy projects can be evaluated using actual past plant performance data – and will be measured and verified through utiliVisor’s web-based monitoring system.”
