Pacific Gas & Electric
Energy Audit of Hitachi Global Storage Technologies Systems Facilities, San Jose, California

Project Description

As more facility engineers are looking to increase site energy efficiency and decrease financial hemorrhaging, many are looking to strategies such as retro-commissioning (RCx) and monitoring based commissioning (MBCx) to both BE green, and SAVE green.

RCx and MBCx methods focus on monitoring energy consumption and follow a methodology to achieve desired savings. These programs involve creating a baseline of usage, identifying inefficiencies, and opportunities on site, fixing and/or enhancing systems, and then reviewing energy consumption post-implementation to arrive at a site’s consumption reduction values.

Eligible energy conservation measures (ECMs) can range in complexity from simply adjusting lighting control schedules to creating complex control algorithms to automatically adjust chilled water temperatures based on the temperature and humidity conditions of the local environment. Incentives are often available from local utility companies to help reduce the project cost and improve financial payback.

Due to Salas O’Brien’s familiarity with Hitachi Global Storage Technologies’ (HGST) campus, PG&E approached the firm to help with an on-site audit. Not only did they want to find ways to save money but it also responds to Hitachi Corporation’s ‘Green Vision’ of driving efficiencies. In collaboration with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) and Hitachi’s on-site facilities contractors, CH2MHill, Salas O’Brien helped the HGST campus in San Jose identify and implement projects for 2009-2010 that will save HGST over 4.6 Million kWh, 87,000 therms of natural gas, and close to $427,000 while potentially receiving up to $152,000 in incentives from PG&E. The magnitude of these electrical savings alone is equivalent to powering over 360 singlefamily homes for an entire year.

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