Energy Manager

20 Years of Case Studies: Plants Sharing Best Practices

Edited by Troy Dreier, Senior Editor, Compressed Air Best Practices®

For 20 years, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine has published articles focused on helping manufacturers reduce power demand, lower water consumption, and improve the performance of compressed air, cooling, blower and industrial vacuum systems. In this article, we highlight a sampling of those stories across the following industries:

Plastics and Packaging
Food and Beverage
Automotive and Transportation
Cement, Building Materials, and Mining
Metals, Pulp, and Paper
Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare, and Research
Wastewater Treatment

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Energy Management at Visteon

Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine interviewed Jennifer Meier, Global Energy & Engineering Manager, at Visteon Corporation.

There are three main segments in Visteon's climate group are climate systems, powertrain cooling and engine induction. Climate systems include refrigeration compressors, fluid transport, heat exchangers, battery cooling modules, climate controls, auto defog/demist systems, and multi-zone HVAC systems. Powertrain cooling systems include heat exchangers (radiators, condensers, charge-air, exhaust-gas), airflow management, and diesel and hybrid thermal management. Engine induction includes air induction systems and intake manifolds.

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Compressed Air at the Lowest Energy Cost; Energy Management at Ball Corporation

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices® Magazine

Compressed Air Best Practices interviewed Doug Barndt (Manager, Demand Side Energy-Sustainability), Joseph Gress (Principal Engineer, Demand Side Energy) from Ball Corporation and Chris Gordon (Compressed Air System Specialist) from Blackhawk Equipment.

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Kellogg’s Eggo Decreases Energy Consumption by over 675,000 kWh

By Patricia Boyd, Ecos Air

This article describes a compressed air retrofit project implemented at Kellogg’s Eggo factory located in San Jose, California. Kellogg’s continues to realize both annual energy savings and quality improvements because of the upgrade. In addition, Kellogg’s received a substantial utility incentive from Pacific Gas and Electric Company, which was based on the achieved energy savings.

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Why is Positive Energy Important in the Workplace?

By Shari Bench

If you have chosen the privilege and responsibility to supervise others, how are you dealing with your negative employees? Negativity is contagious. It may seem as if dealing with negative people is easier to simply ignore them. However, it’s important to remember that many people are not aware of how negative energy is affecting them.

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Do Your Meetings Sabotage Your Profits?

By Don Schmincke

It’s not that tracking performance is wrong, but there are other ways to issue status reports on projects more efficiently. Email, intranets, and old-fashioned paper can allow data to be absorbed more quickly than verbal presentations at meetings. Why not use the invaluable time in management meetings for what we wish we had more time for – solving problems?

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Energy Management at Saint-Gobain

Compressed Air Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Brad Runda, Manager-Energy, Saint-Gobain Corporation.

Congratulations on Saint-Gobain being named a 2010 ENERGY STAR Partner of the Year by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. This is the second year in a row you’ve won the award. Why was this award received?

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The Character-Driven Company: 5 Simple Rules

By Dave Anderson

Right now you're probably busy taking inventory, organizing your books, and evaluating what you did right (and not so right) in hopes of preparing yourself for a profitable new year. Here’s a suggestion: Instead of focusing solely on financial matters, why not take a good hard look at the character of your company?

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Vapor Recovery Units Manage Greenhouse Gases

By Rod Smith, Compressed Air Best Practices®

Compressed Air Best Practices® interviewed Mr. Sid Van der Meer and Mr. Terry Nickel from Northwest Equipment Ltd in Airdrie, Canada.

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Benchmarking Energy Performance

By Ed Schlect, PE, CEM, GBE Executive Vice President, Advantage IQ

It’s no secret that cost-cutting is now a main focus for many business owners. When times get tough, the first reaction is figure out where it’s possible to spend less in order to maintain the bottom line. Over the last year, there have been countless examples of companies that eliminated programs, slashed entire departments, and sliced into salaries to protect profits.

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