CopperTree Analytics
Data Analytics Driven Energy Management

Climate change is real, and it is happening at a rapid pace. The Paris Agreement put forward by UN to tackle climate change in 2015, has seen 184 of 197 countries ratify to the convention until 2018. It is good that countries are stepping forward to curb the change, but with government regulations becoming stringent, the burden falls on the organizations to reduce the carbon footprint via optimized use of energy. Today, although organizations can gather energy data efficiently, they face problems to visualize and gain actionable insights from that data. Ushering the new era in visualizing energy consumption is CopperTree Analytics, offering Kaizen—a powerful ongoing commissioning and analytics tool that works in conjunction with the Building Automation System (BAS) and metering systems. The cloud-based analytics software monitors the building performance and energy consumption. Based on the data gathered, Kaizen measures it with the optimal performance guidelines, alerting if a fault is detected or the performance is below the optimal level.

While dealing with their clients the modus operandi of the company remains to leverage powerful automated data analytics methodologies, combined with human experts to identify and address energy inefficiencies. “We engage with our clients and align with their goals targeting energy efficiency, sustainability and moving from a reactive operation mode to proactive data-driven mode,” mentions Keith La Rose, Director of Sales & Marketing at CopperTree Analytics. Furthermore, the implementation usually starts with a small data logging device getting plugged in at the building level or at a centralized place where a server or data link is present; then the data is collected and sent to the cloud-based analytics platform. The algorithms, which include patented machine learning methodologies, are then applied to the received data to discover issues and faults. Those are listed in various formats within Kaizen, which users can view just by logging in to their dashboard. Moreover, they can see priorities such as energy conversion, environmental impact, potential savings, and comfort impact.

Another way of getting the information or insights is by scheduling the software to generate automated periodic reports, which can be personalized and received daily, weekly, or on a monthly basis, without the need to log in. Additionally, after logging in the user can manage the workflow and assign the work order to the concerned person or department.

In one such instance, Horizon Health Network—operating 12 hospitals and more than 100 medical facilities—asked CopperTree Analytics to implement Kaizen at their Miramichi Regional Hospital facility to help complement their existing energy efficiency initiatives. The challenge for the company in executing the software was to find significant areas for improvement in a facility with an excellent record of accomplishment concerning maintenance and energy reduction. The facility’s data was harvested, and a suite of analytics was applied to all major air handling units as well as the central heating and cooling plants. This included energy meters, fault detection and diagnostics (FDD) monitoring, and the implementation of Key Performance Indicators (KPI). Additionally, Building Management System (BMS) infrastructure monitoring was also applied with Kaizen’s Golden Standard program for the entire facility to highlight and track any changes to the base building’s systems. The results enabled Kaizen to analyze systems and for CopperTree’s Engineers to build custom rules that brought out additional hidden areas for improvement.

The company very recently has launched a new energy management information system called Kaizen Energy. It is a portfolio level energy management platform, allowing large economies in the efforts required to calculate energy consumption, apply normalized regression modeling, and identify benchmark energy performance between different buildings in a campus or a portfolio environment. This would ordinarily require significant manual effort to be applied by an energy manager on an ongoing basis. Furthermore, to stay abreast with the current trends in the technology world, the company is focused on further leveraging AI and ML application into their system.