UH turns to private sector to cut electricity costs

The University of Hawaii and a Hono­lulu-based energy efficiency company have teamed up for a pilot program that will help the university cut electricity costs.

UH and Ibis Networks said the university will save up to 20 percent on its electricity costs with the help of 1,300 InteliSockets and energy management software platforms installed at UH-Hilo, UH-Manoa and Windward Community College.

The sockets will be used to manage the energy use of 1,500 devices across the three campuses.

"We are adding intelligence all the way down to the socket level," said Kevin Hause, Ibis Networks chief operating officer. "You put these in and they give you a lot of data and tell you how much power is going through every socket every 15 seconds or so. With that understanding you can make decisions, and using our back-end system, you can turn devices on and off remotely." 

The installed sockets will allow the university to monitor the electricity use of appliances and control their energy use through a website. Ibis plans to demonstrate the technology Friday at an event at Windward Community College.

"The first step for any institution working to control its energy costs is to obtain detailed data on their actual energy usage," said Michael Pfeffer, CEO of Ibis Networks. "The InteliNetwork system was built to be highly scalable and secure, enabling large institutions to obtain granular energy use data for thousands of devices across multiple campuses."

The university will save up to $200,000 over the five-year pilot program, Ibis Networks said.

"If I turn it off at 6 p.m. and back on at 5:30 a.m., how much will that save me per week or per year, so I can get the optimal mix to not affecting operations and save the most money?" Hause said. "You can look at this and have different schedules by department, by floor. You could do it all the way down to the socket level or all the way up to the entire campus."

The InteliSockets plug into an outlet, and electric devices are plugged into the InteliSocket. The InteliSocket sends a signal to a computer, which can switch off the socket at times when it is not in use.

This program is the first of many as the university, the second-largest electricity user in the state behind the military, looks to cut its energy use, said Matthew Lynch, system sustainability coordinator at UH.

"The state just reaffirmed their commitment to Hawaii’s clean-energy goals," Lynch said. "The university is a complex institution with many different parts. To do our part in collaborating with key stakeholders, this is one aspect we are really excited about. This isn’t a silver bullet, but it is an integral part of the overall strategy."