Located in Anaheim, Calif., Magnolia School District serves 6,000 pre-K through sixth-grade students.
Eliminate the overnight load from plug load devices.
520 BERT Smart Plugs Running Measurement, Control, Analysis, and Threshold
From projectors to laptop charging carts and Smart TVs, technology has taken hold in classrooms. Unfortunately, these loads are not managed by Building Automation Systems (BAS), meaning MSD had no way to automatically turn devices off when the staff went home. Devices ran 24/7 – even though school buildings were empty about 70 percent of the time.
Magnolia selected ENGIE Services U.S. to develop and deliver a district-wide sustainable energy program that is expected to save over $14 million in energy costs over the life of the project. The comprehensive program included new HVAC units, HVAC/lighting controls, solar shade structures, and plug load management.
During the Investment Grade Audit (IGA), BERT identified over 500 devices, including vending machines, printers, copiers, projectors, and smartboards, throughout the district’s nine schools that could be turned off nights and weekends. Using exclusive data from years of plug load energy management along with the detailed audit data from the schools, BERT engineers calculated that the district could save almost 52,000 kWh annually. Based on the savings estimate, Magnolia and ENGIE moved forward with BERT, ordering 520 BERT Smart Plugs.
BERT also identified over 100 Smart TVs that were not included in the savings estimate because the TVs contained processors managed by the district’s IT department. BERT does not usually install Smart Plugs on computers because many IT departments want the ability to perform overnight updates. At Magnolia, BERT worked with IT to coordinate a schedule that allowed BERT to turn off the TVs without impacting computer updates.
By controlling the Smart TVs, BERT significantly increased total energy savings while keeping the number of Berts installed the same. Installers were able to plug the TVs and projectors/smartboards from the same outlet into a single Bert. In TV-only locations, BERT substituted higher load TVs for some of the smaller load devices listed on the IGA. Detailed information about the installation – including the location, device(s) being controlled, and the Bert MAC address, was captured real-time – allowing BERT to give ENGIE and Magnolia immediate “as-builts” that reflected all changes.
Energy savings are guaranteed so we do everything we can to meet or exceed our IGA savings estimates. By taking the extra time to work with MSD’s IT department, total kilowatt savings for the project increased by 35 percent.
BERT eliminated the overnight load at Magnolia School District. After the TVs were controlled, annual kilowatt savings rose from 51,875 kWh to 69,901 kWh.
