EEMS Project

The Enterprise Energy Management System Project at Bunker Hill Community College

Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) is a participant in an innovative energy efficiency project that is projected to save over $10 million per year in energy savings when fully deployed at more than 470 state owned facilities. The Enterprise Energy Management System Project (EEMS) is a unique collaboration between BHCC, the Department of Energy Resources (DOER) and EnerNOC, a company specializing in energy management applications. BHCC was one of a nine colleges selected to participate in the project that will enable BHCC to realize an estimated 5-15% in energy savings throughout all the buildings on our campus. The EEMS project was funded with monies awarded to Massachusetts by the U.S. Department of Energy under the American Recovery and Reinvestments Act (ARRA). The EEMS project utilizes state-of-the-art technology to track energy use in real time. This provides an invaluable tool for building managers to be alerted to unexpected usage patterns so they can make fuel saving adjustments. IN addition, the tool will help to target areas for improvement and track the success of planned energy conservation measures projects.

Project Implementation

The project was launched in the fall of 2010 with a site survey that provided a detailed plan for enhancing, replacing or introducing new metering equipment for each campus building. Once the inventory was completed, new meters and data-loggers were installed in each of the buildings along with an innovative software package. During the spring of 2011, the meters were installed and now transmit live data to a specially designed interface that allows users the ability to track real time energy usage in each building. Those with access to the EnerNOC website can view this data at any time and from any computer with Internet access.

Applications

The EEMS project will ultimately help us to accelerate the reduction of carbon emissions and inform the Climate Action Plan submitted to the American College and University President's Climate Commitment (ACUPCC) every two years. In addition, the project is being integrated within one of the new science lab courses offered at BHCC called Sustainability and Resource Conservation ENV511. Students in this course were actually given a demonstration of the EEMS software by their instructor and representatives from EnerNOC. Associated assignments use real-time energy data and the college's pursuit of carbon reduction strategies as part of educational learning activities in the course.