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New York City — The retail facilities and construction manager for The North Face needed an energy management system (EMS) to measure her stores’ energy consumption in order to meet the rigorous new sustainability requirements of the parent company, VF Corp.
The company has a set of far-reaching corporate social responsibility and sustainability goals, and is committed to eliminating waste and inefficiencies across all facets of its operations.
Ultimately, the manager, who at the time was Joni Jew, was looking for a scalable solution that would help her to identify energy waste, and drive savings and efficiencies. Since a large amount of the company’s total profit goes toward energy costs, she turned to long-time consultant ePlanet for a recommendation of the best solution that could fit her needs. ePlanet suggested Panoramic Power’s Energy Management Solution. Panoramic's comprehensive solution not only would measure the amount of energy her stores were consuming, it also would pinpoint energy consumption by device, as well as detect equipment problems and potential equipment failures before they occurred.
Panoramic Power’s circuit-level energy management solution was installed in four of The North Face’s highest-trafficked California locations: Corte Madera, San Francisco, Palo Alto, and San Jose (Valley Fair). The installation took less than six hours for each store.
About 150 circuit-level energy sensors were placed across the four locations that fed real-time data into Panoramic’s SaaS-based analytics platform. The sensors were placed on critical systems that included HVAC and lighting. The solution’s advanced business intelligence and analytic capabilities deliver load level, real-time energy data that would help The North Face stores optimize their energy consumption, infrastructure, and behavior.
In a short period of time, each store gained critical insights from Panoramic's solution that resulted in significant savings. Some examples include:
• In Palo Alto, the AC fan system was not working properly. Through early detection, the store management identified 69,420 kWh/year ($10,500) worth of savings and avoided an equipment failure.
• The HVAC system in Corte Madera, a store built in 2011, was not operating correctly and air handlers were over-cycling. Through the early detection, the store was able to save 16,016 KW. The combined energy and maintenance savings was about $2,250.
• Through real-time monitoring in San Francisco, managers got an alert on Mother’s Day, a busy retail shopping day, that the store’s security cameras were down.
• About 10 percent annual energy savings were identified in Valley Fair by changing the lighting schedule during off-hours.
Leveraging the Panoramic system, the ePlanet Facility Group identified $16,050 in savings for The North Face's four locations in less than six months.
Based on the savings identified in such a short period of time, The North Face estimates it will receive a full return on its investment in less than 1.5 years.
Based on the findings using Panoramic's solution, The North Face plans to expand usage in its current locations as well as in new locations. Their goal is to use Panoramic Power to:
• Identify energy savings: Find energy savings and better understand how devices and systems are using energy.
• Support predictive maintenance: Better plan for predictive maintenance through the detection of anomalies in the way equipment consumes energy.
• Study and analyze behavioral patterns: Operation patterns within each store are examined in order to improve procedural and operational efficiencies.
• Benchmark equipment and systems: In-depth reporting between stores will ensure that equipment is working optimally.
Panoramic Power is a provider of demand-side energy management services and a member of the Direct Energy group of companies. The firm enables businesses to optimize their energy consumption, improve operational efficiency, and generate income through load response programs. Its general manager and CEO, Yaniv Vardi, has nearly two decades of leadership experience in the enterprise software solution industry.
For more information, visit www.panpwr.com.
