Operations | By Daniel David
Do more with less. Sounds like a paradoxical request. But thanks to a pair of forward-thinking companies, it is entirely possible for a quick-service restaurant to streamline its energy consumption and lower its monthly utility payments.
Both Energy Saving Management Systems (ESMS) and AlertMe UK offer energy-monitoring systems that allow operators to receive up-to-the-minute updates about energy use in stores and small businesses.
In light of the slowing economy, knowledge that energy-monitoring systems conserve millions of pounds of carbon dioxide might interest some operators, but it is the potential for billions of dollars in annual savings that should really turn heads in the quick-service industry.
“Because of what the system regulates, I think an energy monitor has merit for every type of restaurant out there,” says Dick Bold, owner and operator of a McDonald’s franchise in Godfrey, Illinois.
The system that Bold uses is the Ektos, a wireless management console manufactured by ESMS. Ektos can control up to 12 HVACs, two freezers, two coolers, and 50 individual lighting zones.
ESMS is a self-adjusting system that automatically lowers kilowatt-hours (kWh) and kilowatt demand and was designed with the quick-serve industry in mind. For example, it doesn’t regulate cooking equipment because people fire it up and down as needed.
AlertMe was until recently a home-security outfit, but later this year the British company will add an energy-monitoring component to its 2-year-old product. AlertMe’s focus is on small businesses and homes, so it won’t rival ESMS, but the AlertMe Smart Plug and Smart Meter technologies might find their way into restaurants.
Smart Plugs and Smart Meters allow AlertMe to monitor a building’s power consumption in real time. A smart meter retrofits to an existing meter, allowing the owner to see second-by-second measurements.
“Because the whole thing is Internet-based, we can work with the utilities company to deliver a complete economic picture,” says Pilgrim Beart, co-founder of AlertMe. “Let the machines handle it—all you care about is the dollar amount.”
Beart’s company hasn’t formally launched the energy component stateside yet, but he notes that AlertMe is growing its U.S. operation aggressively.
Meanwhile, after 10 years in the business, ESMS debuted Ektos in October 2007. Compared with its predecessor, the second-generation system paints a more comprehensive picture of the areas in which it regulates kilowatt usage. The system informs an owner precisely how many kilowatts are running in a particular area of the restaurant, and it will graph the kilowatt usage over days, weeks, and months. Unlike the previous hard-chip model, Ektos is a completely software-driven, Windows-based platform.
“Operators can download our entire network with the flip of a switch,” says Tom Hopper, ESMS regional sales manager. “Ninety-nine percent of our models are wireless, and they can download upgrades over the Internet. We don’t anticipate any mechanical upgrades; there are no chips to change.”
This wireless capability is especially useful when something in the restaurant goes awry. For instance, if a freezer fails, Ektos will not only trigger an alarm on the panel, it will also text, page, or e-mail three crew members in the restaurant. If an AlertMe Smart Plug is connected to a fridge that starts drawing a lot of power, a text or e-mail alerts the owner that the door is probably open.
Both systems will catch faulty freezers and doors ajar, and they are equally vigilant about those close calls that are easier to ignore.
“The technology is just as important for when a freezer almost fails,” Hopper says. “You don’t know going in or out of that freezer if it’s -5? or 5?; you can’t tell the difference. There could be $5,000 to $10,000 of food in there, and it could be a safety issue, so you’ll be alerted.”
During the initial Ektos setup, the owner determines who will receive these alerts. Hopper notes that the system is password-protected to ensure that those operating the system are in “a bill-paying position.”
“I had a situation with an air-conditioning unit that wasn’t working correctly,” Bold says. “I got an alarm on the unit, and I made a phone call, and in a matter of an hour, that store was back regulated.”
A bill payer doesn’t have to be in front of the Ektos or AlertMe unit to make changes—he can monitor the situation from anywhere in the world over the Internet and even see what equipment is performing and what lights are on or off.
“With the first model, I was saving somewhere between 8 and 10 percent in kWh, and the new model saves me 15–20 percent more,” Bold says. “Some months, I was saving 30–40 percent.”
The savings are characteristic of a traditional store that closes at midnight, not a 24-hour location. However, Bold notes that while an all-night restaurant won’t see the results initially, the savings will eventually appear.
ESMS guarantees a 15 percent annual savings for each installation and adds that some stores’ savings reach as high as 25 percent.
“If we assume there are 14,000 McDonald’s in North America and that we’ll save them each 10 percent at the minimum, over the next decade they would avoid $770 million in energy costs,” Hopper says.
Three-quarters of a billion dollars is nothing to sneeze at, nor are the environmental savings that accompany this figure. Karli Barich, ESMS energy directives manager, estimates that with Ektos installed in roughly 1,000 stores (including McDonald’s, Burger King, Hardee’s, and Carl’s Jr.), the company is saving enough energy to power 4,564 houses a year.
Based on CO2 emissions for the average passenger car, the system is removing the equivalent of 21,887 cars from the roads, and reducing carbon emissions to the same degree as a 31,124-acre forest.