As the climate continues to change and power grids age it is more important than ever to focus on creating resilient buildings. Resilient buildings not only protect profit but also protect business operations and can ensure operations continue even when other buildings may be without power, heating, or cooling.
With the increased frequency of extreme weather events such as heat waves, ice storms, and hurricanes the pressure to create resilient buildings can feel overwhelming. But an energy management system makes it easy.
An energy management system (EMS) can help improve a building’s resiliency in many ways including ensuring HVAC health, managing energy storage programs, tracking the performance of renewable energy, and tracking CO2 emissions.
Building Resiliency with HVAC Health
HVAC health is vital when it comes to building resiliency. When HVAC systems fail under pressure, buildings can be forced to close because of temperature. With an energy management system, you can better monitor the status of assets on-site like HVAC and perform proactive maintenance to ensure peak asset health.
Moving from a reactive to a proactive maintenance method allows you to address problems before they occur. Proactive monitoring leverages real-time and historical data and indicates when a unit is beginning to underperform. Maintenance/repair can be scheduled proactively to ensure there is no downtime at a business. Proactive monitoring also helps to extend the life of equipment and ensure assets are performing at their peak if a catastrophe were to occur. An energy management system can also help reduce truck rolls and lower energy bills.
Learn more about GridPoint’s Health Monitoring Tools
Utilizing Energy Storage
Energy storage combined with an energy management system allows you to keep energy in reserve when severe weather and other adverse events threaten continued access to grid power. Buildings with energy storage systems can charge batteries during off-peak hours and discharge energy when needed.
Continued access to a key resource like electricity even during a blackout or other adverse conditions is especially valuable. Energy storage solutions put your building in a better position to keep the power on even during natural disasters and widespread power outages.
When you keep the power on, your company can continue to meet its obligations and focus on mission-critical business needs even as others sit in the dark.
Track ROI and Performance of Solar & Renewables
Solar and renewable energy plays a key role in strengthening a building’s resiliency but can be difficult to track and control. An energy management system allows you to monitor energy usage and get precise tracking to better understand how your building is utilizing renewable energy.
An EMS will also allow you to track energy production data and compare energy usage from traditional sources and solar and renewables. This makes it possible to easily track ROI from renewable sources.
Learn More about GridPoint Solar Reporting Solution
Using Energy Monitoring to Reduce Carbon Emissions
Reducing commercial carbon emissions plays a significant role in ensuring not only building resiliency but the future of climate-resilient communities. As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, the climate will continue to change, and extreme weather will worsen threatening the stability of energy.
An energy management system can help you to monitor and reduce carbon dioxide emissions and monitor CO2 goals. Energy management systems do this by calculating real-time grid emissions, which are applied to electricity consumption. It then can provide a detailed assessment of CO2 impact.
Auditable carbon reporting combined with automated building controls helps businesses manage emissions in real time to drive a more sustainable future and improve building resiliency.
Read More about GridPoint’s Carbon Reporting Solution
Resilient and intelligent buildings will be vital in creating a sustainable energy future. Smart solutions such as GridPoint’s Energy Manager bring the above solutions together to help commercial buildings improve resiliency.
Interested in learning more about how to use an energy management system to create energy-resilient buildings? Sign up for a free demo today!