Duke Energy 2006 Annual Report Download - page 27

DUKE ENERGY 2006 SUMMARY ANNUAL REPORT 25
Advancing the “fifth fuel” —
U.S. EPA case study
As Sam Pagán of the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) notes on a previous page, when the agency
needed an energy management and monitoring system
for its massive complex of labs, offices and computing
facilities in Research Triangle Park in North Carolina,
Duke Energy delivered. Three teams from Duke Energy
— account management, business development and
custom delivery — collaborated with the EPA’s energy
management team to get the job done.
The first idea was to measure the allocation of electric
power and its costs building by building. But it soon
became apparent that to achieve the EPA’s objective
— to view total energy use in real time and analyze
that data — a more comprehensive solution would be
needed.
The teams worked together to replace ineffective mea-
surement and metering systems with a new energy
monitoring and reporting system. The new system
tracks the use of city water, natural gas, fuel oil,
chilled and heated water, and electricity for the whole
complex. It collects the data on a secure Web site
and makes it available to campus energy management
systems. Controllers working from a central office, or
from anywhere on campus with a wireless laptop com-
puter, can monitor and project the energy needs for
individual buildings or for the entire complex.
The Duke Energy team also earned the right to install
and maintain the system, which may serve as a model
for other EPA facilities. As part of the company’s
renewed focus on energy efficiency, Duke Energy con-
sults with its other large business customers on the
benefits of total energy measurement systems.