Macalester College Implements Software from kWh360 to Track Energy Efficiency
Goal is To Reduce Consumption and Cost
Macalester College of St. Paul, Minn., has implemented software from kWh360 to help reduce costs, cut consumption and improve environmental sustainability.
The college serves about 2,100 students on its 53-acre urban campus. It operates about 57 buildings on site and in the surrounding neighborhood, says Mike Pumroy, energy manager.
“We have about 120 different electricity, gas, and water meters,” Pumroy says.
“The kWh360 software helps us achieve three main goals,” Pumroy says. “The first is to track utility costs. The second is to track our progress in reducing cost and consumption. And the third is to identify areas where we can improve our performance.”
“Our goal, starting in 2015, was to reduce our consumption by 3% year over year for the next five years,” he says. “That’s a total of 15%.”
Until they added the new software, Pumroy says, it was hard to measure consumption.
That’s because utility cost and consumption vary independently. If a gas utility raises its rates, Macalester’s costs may increase even when their consumption declines. So the college wanted to measure the units of energy they consume.
But that gets complicated. The college may consume less energy because of milder weather, not because they’ve gotten more efficient.
Previously, the college tracked its utility costs in a spreadsheet, Pumroy says. Because they manage so many utility accounts, the spreadsheet was cumbersome, complex, and prone to data-entry errors.
The new software from kWh360 improves data accuracy by flagging likely data-entry errors.
It also normalizes variations in weather and other factors, Pumroy says. Now the college can see improvements in efficiency, after adjusting for changes in utility prices and weather.
Pumroy says he especially likes the software’s ability to identify opportunities for improved efficiency.
“It identifies outliers,” he says. “For example, it performs a statistical analysis that ranks buildings with their peers.”
“The software compares water use across a group of rental houses we operate. One of them was highlighted as using more water per square foot than the others. So that becomes a target, a place to look for opportunities to conserve.”
“We are pleased to have Macalester College as the first college and second educational institution to be use the kWh360 software,” says Abtar Singh, CEO and founder of kWh360.
“Until now our sweet spot has been grocery retailers,” Singh says. “But we will continue enhancing the software to meet the needs of educational institutions and other organizations that monitor utilities across many locations.”
For more on 360-Cloud and kWh360, please visit https://www.kWh360.com
About kWh360 Inc.
kWh360 (www.kwh360.com) provides software applications and services that help organizations manage the energy efficiency of their buildings across many locations. The company offers tools for building owners, energy consultants and providers of energy-efficiency technologies. Software tools from kWh360 help their users conduct energy surveys. They also perform computer modeling and payback calculations, and they facilitate collection of utility rebates.
About Macalester College.
Macalester College, founded in 1874, is a national liberal arts college with a full-time enrollment of 2,138 students. Macalester is nationally recognized for its long-standing commitment to academic excellence, internationalism, multiculturalism, and civic engagement. Learn more at macalester.edu.
These innovations help organizations set priorities for efficiency projects based on sustainability goals, speed of payback, and the measured return on investment. Contact Singh360 to see if these innovations fit with your facility and energy management strategy going forward.
Interested in a demo?
Contact us at info@singh360.com
