Cascade Energy announced an agreement with OSI, a world leader in providing quality products and custom solutions for the food industry, in support of OSI’s plan to deepen their energy efficiency efforts and expand their single-facility pilot program into five additional plants.
In 2013, Cascade and OSI launched a pilot program at OSI’s Oakland, IA facility that involved:
- Setting up an energy measurement, tracking, benchmarking, and reporting system.
- Performing a tune up on the facility’s refrigeration, compressed air, and high-pressure water pump systems.
- Delivering a final report, listing action items to be implemented.
- Engaging OSI site staff to assist with the action item implementation.
- Reviewing system performance to drive additional energy savings.
Cascade introduced SENSEI to OSI engineers and operators. SENSEI incorporates real-time energy use, production, and weather data to provide visibility into true energy performance. At the Oakland site, OSI used SENSEI to assign, record, and track action items and monitor the resulting energy savings.
During the course of the initial tune up, and after observing Cascade’s engineers walk through the OSI facility and quickly identify sources of inefficiency, OSI Oakland General Manager Mike Koranda responded, “I want our operators and technicians to be able to spot any other possible system inefficiencies and fixes like that!” Cascade developed a two-day industrial refrigeration best practices training program specifically for the OSI team to impart thorough knowledge of the system and give them the ability to propose appropriate solutions for their facility.
As of November 2014, OSI Oakland has saved over four million kWh and over $295,000. Based on the success of the training and tune up results at the Oakland plant, OSI is excited to roll out a three-year program to five more facilities in Illinois, Wisconsin and Utah. Cascade and OSI will work together to help meet OSI’s company-wide goal of 10% energy intensity reduction by 2020.
OSI will focus on developing:
- Executive support and commitment
- Site-specific energy goals
- Dedicated roles and responsibilities for program implementation at each site
- Program performance monitoring through energy key performance indicators
Cascade will provide support for the program in the form of:
- Onsite energy efficiency tune-ups that identify and implement low/no-cost energy savings opportunities
- Training on refrigeration system best practices
- Cascade’s proprietary energy management information software, SENSEI
- Technical support over the three-year program to help facilitate continuous improvement
“OSI is taking an aggressive and comprehensive approach to energy management,” said Cascade Energy CEO Marcus Wilcox. “We are excited to build on the success of the Oakland facility, and look forward to our continued partnership, working side-by-side with the OSI team, to strategically manage energy costs.”
