UtiliVisor Aids Medical Center in Energy Efficiencies

HACKENSACK, N.J. — Hackensack University Medical Center (HackensackUMC) is known for making operational efficiency and environmental impact a priority, and its latest endeavor involves awarding a contract to UtiliVisor for energy monitoring and optimization services for the hospital’s central boiler plant.

UtiliVisor will install a web-based energy monitoring system for the medical center’s boiler plant. The system will supply real-time data over the Internet to the company’s operations center, where energy engineers will analyze the information to figure out the most efficient operating strategies during all load conditions. It will determine the plant’s energy consumption, allowing the equipment to be fully optimized on an ongoing basis.

“We anticipate that monitoring the boilers at HackensackUMC will cut overall gas usage by 10 percent, resulting in an annual savings of $116,000 per year,” said Peter Angerame, UtiliVisor’s director of sales. “The total project payback will be achieved in less than one year, with savings continuing to accrue well into the future.”

The project is being performed as part of the PSE&G Hospital Efficiency Program, a $129 million carbon abatement initiative that will fund installation of energy conservation measures at about 35 hospitals in the utility’s service territory. PSE&G provides an investment-grade audit at no cost to the customer and offers various cost-effective energy conservation measures that impact the hospital’s energy efficiency and meet the criteria of the program, such as having a payback of less than 15 years.

This is the second energy efficiency project that UtiliVisor has performed at HackensackUMC. In 2010, the company was contracted to create a customized web-based monitoring system and operations energy data analysis for the hospital’s chilled water generation plant. In the Central Plant Operations alone, UtiliVisor helped the medical center achieve savings of more than $700,000 through smart management, including more than $400,000 through continuous energy oversight of the chiller plant. Now in the second year of that project, the company continues to help improve the chilled water plant operations and energy savings.

“UtiliVisor has not only been instrumental in helping HackensackUMC reduce its carbon footprint, they have created the capital investment needed for future energy projects on our campus,” said John Nesbitt, director of infrastructure at the medical center, in a statement. “As a result of the UtiliVisor project, all future energy projects can be evaluated using actual past plant performance data — and will be measured and verified through UtiliVisor’s web-based monitoring system.”