New York City — Incorrect temperature settings and inefficient equipment contributed to significant financial losses during the extreme cold snap, according to Panoramic Power.
New York City — January’s record-breaking cold front, otherwise known as the polar vortex, was an extreme weather pattern that affected nearly 80% of North America. Statistics gathered from more than 4,000 energy measurement points at over 250 sites across North America revealed that off-hour energy consumption, incorrect temperature settings and inefficient equipment contributed to significant financial losses during the extreme cold snap, according to Panoramic Power.
The company reports that the storm resulted in unusually high levels of energy consumption and device failures at multi-site retail chains and large square footage commercial buildings where Panoramic Power energy sensors are installed. One common theme from this data is how a lack of proper energy planning contributed to financial loss and a disruption of business.
Some of the data findings include:
10% of retail stores had non-functional heaters or boilers
There was a 30% increase in off-hour energy consumption
The largest impact was specifically in places such as Texas that do not normally use heating equipment with over 400% increase in overall energy consumption
Efficiency of heating equipment dropped by 30 percent during the peaks of the storm resulting in 30% excessive energy consumption during operating hours.
“The ‘polar vortex’ weather system that blasted North America with extreme cold resulted in financial loss for manybusinesses that did not have strategic energy management technology in place,” says Yaniv Vardi, CEO at Panoramic Power. “This is a wakeup call for enterprises to place a higher priority on their proactive energy management technology strategy. Best-in-class companies can prevent financial losses due to inefficient energy consumption and poor facility maintenance data.”
As weather patterns continue to disrupt businesses and their infrastructure, companies must implement technology that provides visibility into energy consumption at the system level. They also need data and analytics that reveal usage patterns and trends, and identify maintenance issues before failures occur. This will result in operational processes that leverage intelligent data to optimize energy use and reduce consumption across a retail chain’s portfolio.
SOURCE: Panoramic Power