Panevo Leverages Submetering to Identify a Decade of Billing Errors
Advances Analytics Cuts Consumption by 700,000 kWh and Charts Data Center Expansion
Billing Issues & Back Payments: Tracking Down Tenant Charges
With rows upon rows of server racks, in addition to specialized air management and cooling systems to manage the high density of computer’s waste heat, it’s not surprising that the average data center can consume up to 50 times more energy than a similarly sized commercial office building. With such high energy consumption, data center managers are continuously looking for ways to improve efficiency as well as fairly split the burden of energy expenses amongst occupants. This was the case with a data center located in Vancouver, BC, which was host to several of Canada’s large telecommunication tenants, each with a dedicated server space within the facility.
As part of the lease agreements, each tenant at this Vancouver site was responsible for a portion of the data center’s energy consumption. To equitably divide the energy charges, the data center managers installed a series of basic submeters on building mains to continuously capture each tenant’s usage. Although the meters were reliable, their simple design lacked a network connection, and an employee was required to walk the building monthly to take manual readings. Not only was this process time and labor intensive, but it had a serious side effect: When the employee tasked with meter reading and bill preparation left the company, nobody was tasked with backfilling the position. As a result, tenants were not charged for their share of energy utilization and the error went unnoticed for almost 10 years. Once the oversight was discovered, the data center managers knew that they had to take immediate action to rectify the situation. With consumption for each tenant in the range of $10,000 per month, there was no time to waste in resolving the billing issue and negotiating back payments from each tenant. In early 2019, motivated to remedy the situation quickly, the managers reached out to Panevo to develop a strategic energy management solution. With a long history of delivery energy and process optimization improvements to clients in North America, Panevo’s sharp focus on sustainability and industry leading energy management systems made them the ideal partner for developing a streamlined solution. To manage energy at the data center, Panevo recognized that a combination of user-friendly software and high precision, networkable submetering would need to be installed to automate energy data collection and tenant billing. With an expertise in developing targeted energy saving solutions, Panevo was able to deploy the install and commission quickly to help the data center get back on track.
Pairing ioTORQ EMIS Robust Data Modeling with Acuvim II Submeters
As a first step, Panevo set to work on Engineering a solution for the data center by implementing their ioTORQ Energy Management Information System (EMIS) solution. More than just a dashboard, ioTORQ is a scalable Software as a Service that delivers advanced analytics, data integration, and customizable reporting. With powerful utility bill management features, ioTORQ EMIS can automatically produce energy bills for each tenant with minimal oversight. Unlike general energy measurement applications, tenant billing requires advanced, high precision submetering capabilities. Panevo understood that they would need a meter that met stringent accuracy requirements and had approval for energy allocation applications. Based on positive experiences on past projects, they standardized on the Acuvim II power and energy meter from Accuenergy for the data center.
Chosen for its easy integration with Panevo’s ioTORQ EMIS platform and ANSI C12.20 Class 0.2 accuracy, the Acuvim II meter is a highly capable instrument designed for precision monitoring of any building load from service entrances to individual circuits. A total of five Acuvim II meters were deployed at the data center to efficiently monitor the power factor, kW, and kWh consumption for each tenant. With up-to-the-second data collection and revenuegrade accuracy, each Acuvim II was configured to deliver timely measurements on multiple energy parameters straight into ioTORQ EMIS. Installed on the main building feeds, the Acuvim II meters were configured to monitor granular demand and energy draw for each tenant. The meters use standard HTTPS protocol to deliver a constant stream of data directly into ioTORQ EMIS for analysis. From there, ioTORQ used the data to automatically generate monthly energy bills, eliminating the need for manual, error-prone meter reading and effectively reconfiguring the billing process from start to finish. On selecting the Acuvim II meter, Stephen Choi, EIT Project Engineer and Certified Energy Manager at Panevo, says, “What is really great about the Acuvim II meter is that Accuenergy is very open about how data can be transferred. For example, you can either send it through FTP or a Modbus gateway. There are a lot of options. Because of this, it was easy to integrate into ioTORQ software so that the analysis can be done in the cloud as well as generate bills for subtenants. The flexibility of the Acuvim II is certainly very important and much appreciated.”
It is critical to know how to get the best performance out of each piece of equipment in a system and questions around configuration or specifications are normal at the start of any technical project. Not only was Accuenergy able to deliver the much-needed meters on time, but they were a proven partner throughout the commissioning process. Choi adds, “Accuenergy’s presales and technical support are top notch, bar none. When it comes to support, they are far better than other manufacturers and I always get a response right away. They are the best in the industry and their solutions are cost competitive.”
Submeters Play Critical Role in Cost-Recovery Over 10-Year Billing Gap
With automatic billing and in-depth energy analysis, the data center managers have finally taken charge of energy management throughout their facility. By implementing a powerful combination of Acuvim II instruments and Panevo’s ioTORQ EMIS platform, they can bill each data center tenant for their true energy and demand charges, a solution that is both fair and further incentivises energy reductions. In addition to automatic tenant billing, the data center managers were able to use data from the Acuvim II meters to assess and trend each tenant’s energy consumption to calculate a fair amount to charge retroactively for energy consumed during the 10- year billing gap. Rather than using a rough estimate, precision submetering provided trend data that could be used as justification for establishing a payment schedule, allowing the management to recoup a substantial amount of cost-recovery. Additionally, the automated, granular data harvesting allowed for actual power and energy billing when reconciled against the utility’s rates.
700,000 kWh in Energy Savings Charts Data Center Expansion
Although the project began as a tenant billing application, the data center managers found the combination of the Acuvim II submeters and ioTORQ EMIS made it easy to identify energy savings opportunities throughout the facility and were ideal for detecting unusually high building loads. In one instance, they observed unusually high energy consumption was being drawn by an unknown load in the building. By reviewing the consumption data presented on the ioTORQ dashboard, the energy managers discovered that a fan was incorrectly configured to run nonstop, consuming significant energy around the clock. Once the fan was shut down, they measured an immediate drop in energy usage, saving over 100,000 kWh or $10,000 annually. Without the Acuvim II submeter and ioTORQ EMIS, the issue would have continued to go unnoticed.
The data center managers were also able to accurately quantify the energy savings of a lighting retrofit project. With an original lighting system from the 1970s, they knew the data center was a prime opportunity to increase efficiency through an LED lighting upgrade. However, retrofitting hundreds of fixtures has a high upfront cost and a slow payback, even with anticipated efficiency gains. By using submetering and time of use loggers to analyze the lighting system’s energy consumption, the managers were able to apply for a utility incentive to offset the cost of the lighting upgrade and improve efficiency, saving almost 500,000 kWh and almost $50,000 annually. As a bonus, the capacity savings allowed for more server load to be installed on site without significant upgrades to transformers or distribution infrastructure, which generated more income for the site. Finally, the power data has been critical to calculating the baseline consumption for performing Engineering analysis to determine the amount of energy consumed by the servers and other equipment, such as chillers or fan drives. The Acuvim II meters were utilized to collect kVA loading data to determine the maximum current on each phase for load balancing. When analyzed in ioTORQ EMIS, the data is essential to understanding available capacity for additional equipment, a crucial step in charting data center expansions. The data center managers calculated the energy and power consumption for specific equipment, whilst properly sizing supporting equipment, and more effectively coordinating with the local utility to unlock financial incentives for installing higher-efficiency equipment, saving both energy and money. Versatile and effective, the Acuvim II submeters are a critical component in the data center’s ongoing energy management strategy. Choi adds, “Permanent metering is not only good for spot studies of energy savings, but with the data you can actually plan out your expansions as well. Without metering, this is otherwise impossible.” The implementation of automatic meter reading and billing has saved the data center managers many hours of manual data entry every month while permanent submetering has reduced overall energy consumption by approximately over 700,000 kWh per year. From gaining control of tenant billing to understanding and reducing energy consumption, and charting a defined course for future expansion, the data center managers have benefitted from the powerful combination of Acuvim II meters and the ioTORQ EMIS platform and continue to do so.
ABOUT ACCUENERGY
Accuenergy was formed in 1998 with the vision that facilitating energy information is the cornerstone to providing better energy decisions. As a trusted global manufacturer specialized in advanced energy measurement and communication technology, our instruments are built to meter, process, and deliver reliable energy data to any software or server. We take an innovative approach to ensure our solutions perform for quality, performance, and cost-effectiveness. Accuenergy has developed a growing global footprint with offices in Toronto, Pretoria, and Los Angeles.
To learn more about full range of Accuenergy power monitoring products and solutions, visit https://www.accuenergy.com.
