QUANTUM CONSULTING, INC.

RATIONALE

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 19:25:05 +0000

The market for process optimization (through the MWRP) in small and medium sized facilities has not been addressed for the following reasons:
•= Small and medium facilities have limited resources and generally cannot fund $100,000
process audits.
•= Engineering firms are interested in meeting discharge permits. During a particularly insightful interview, a wastewater engineer, when asked if he would ever consider identifying the minimum amount of energy required to keep a facility in compliance stated that “I’m not in the business of saving energy. I’m in the business of meeting permit.” This view permeates an industry that views its role as offering operator friendly” solutions. These firms are frankly not interested in working with and educating operators on their facility. The QC/BacGen Team has a successful track record of providing operators with the training and tools to reduce energy related expenses.
•= The QC/BacGen Team has a deep understanding of system biology and energy use.
Engineering firms that serve the wastewater industry take a more mechanical approach, usually resulting in increases to energy costs, e.g. increased filtration.

The specific market barriers facing the market for process optimization are as follows;

•= Lack of availability – Consulting engineers for the industry are focused on meeting permit with only passing reference to real energy savings. As the anecdote above implies, the wastewater-consulting engineers will not move to fill the needed void anytime soon.

•= Lack of consumer information/asymmetric information – The wastewater industry is
conservative and generally views anything new with skepticism. Local government’s are tightening their belts and are unwilling to fund many new projects. While larger urban cities have sufficient information on optimization techniques, those in smaller rural communities do not.

•= Bounded Rationality – While on paper, it would appear that process optimization is the appropriate solution for the majority of facilities, few rural communities do it without full funding. Operators are busy, and likely too busy to investigate the efficacy of each energy efficiency claim. Too busy to gather funding. Too busy to do the proper vetting required for any outlay of city funds.

Energy Management

admin — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:44:30 +0000

QUANTUM CONSULTING, INC. has developed a facility performance “toolkit” targeted directly at the needs of the small to medium segment. This “toolkit,” developed over the course of time and substantial investment, will be applied to this Project. The “toolkit” uses stateof- the-art, real-time process modeling, optimization and control technologies, overlaid with a deep understanding of wastewater microbiology. In addition to the toolkit, we provide energy management education for operators that would otherwise not receive it. To be clear similar toolkits are generally out of reach to small and medium
size facilities, primarily due to budgeting constraints.

- Data from the facility sampling is then used for DNA analysis (genetic analysis) and profiling. Our technologies specifically focus on enhancing each facility’s microbiological treatment environment, and the optimization of mechanical aeration energy use. By closely monitoring and controlling system parameters such as dissolved oxygen, pH, oxidation reduction potential and turbidity, We optimize the overall system performance and encourages the activity of bacterial species that require less aeration and are more “efficient” than the biology typically found in a highly aerated
treatment environment.

Energy Saving

admin — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 15:38:00 +0000

Facilities that are designed for flow rates of 4 million gallons per day, will operate at such rates even if current flow rates are half that. Without accurate monitoring and controls, facilities will consume energy at rate based upon their capacity, not current flow rates. While many facilities have the necessary monitoring and control capabilities to manage their energy consumption, these are generally urban or suburban facilities. These control and monitoring systems are rare in small to medium rural communities – communities that need to operate their facilities for today’s needs, not those in 20 years. To restate, the foundation of this project rests on two primary facts in the wastewater industry, particularly true for small to medium facilities;

•= Facilities are typically designed for a 20 year-life, under “worst case” conditions,
without risk of failure, and
•= These same facilities, particularly small to medium, are designed without significant
process control technologies and therefore are required to pay tomorrow’s O&M costs
today.
These over-engineered facilities lead to excessive energy expenditures in communities that are struggling to balance their budgets. It is our view that the 25 to 75 percent savings achieved by facilities, through our program that modifies facility operation using state-of-the-art monitoring and controls, would be welcomed relief to rural California communities.
The MWRP, quite simply, turns down the use of aeration equipment. Through sophisticated modeling of facility biology, installation of real-time biological data collection equipment, proprietary software modeling, and system controls, the MWRP will cause significant reduction in energy and demand in the rural municipal wastewater sector.

Energy Saving is very important for us.

Quantum Consulting and MWRP

admin — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:37:10 +0000

Quantum Consulting and BacGen Technologies (Team) are proposing the MWRP as an opportunity to achieve significant energy savings, with significant demand reduction, while leveraging investments already made by PG&E and The California Energy Commission. The MWRP has been successfully implemented in four facilities in the Central Valley of California, with an additional four facilities expected by March 2002. On an annual basis, we expect energy savings of approximately 40 percent from a program directed at demand reduction – demand reduction is expected to be more than 50 percent during the peak hours of Noon to 8:00 PM.2 These reductions are significant and likely unmatched by other options for the same price.
While the wastewater industry can be complicated, the MWRP is predicated on two simple points:

•= Wastewater facilities are generally over-engineered (i.e. use too much aeration, and
therefore to much energy), and
•= With proper monitoring/sensors in place, equipment aeration equipment can be
cycled without compromising system integrity.

These two points stem from a general fact in the wastewater treatment industry – facilities pay for tomorrow’s operations and maintenance (O&M) today. That is, given significant construction costs, facilities are built for a twenty-year time horizon, leading to over-capacity.

Wastewater Retro-commissioning Project

admin — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 15:26:59 +0000

The Municipal Wastewater Retro-commissioning Project (MWRP) is focused on increasing energy efficiency in the rural wastewater sector. The MWRP works closely with local
governments in small communities primarily in California’s Central Valley. While MWRP has been successful in moving the program forward in PG&E’s service territory, we have been
unable to gain funding for complete installations in Southern California Edison’s (Edison) territory. For this reason we seek funding to bring the MWRP to rural communities in Edison’s
territory. Using the CPUC’s program definitions, MWRP can be described as follows.

Program Type – Local Energy Efficiency Program
Program Strategy – Incentives
Program Segment – Nonresidential Process Overhaul
Customer Segment/Type – Small and Medium Usage, Non-residential Hard to
Reach (Geographic – rural)
The MWRP has received startup funding from PG&E and the California Energy Commission.

These resources have helped move the MWRP forward by funding marketing databases and materials, outreach through site visits, and eight initial installations of our process control/optimization technology. The Quantum Consulting and BacGen Technologies (QC/BacGen Team) seeks additional resources to fully fund eight (8) installations in Year 1 and to partially fund (60 percent) five (5) installations in Year 2. It is our belief that by Year 3 we should have sufficient proof of concept (case studies) for this conservative and skeptical industry such that future funding will be unnecessary. Our goal is to have a sustainable business by Year 3. Key to achieving this goal is convincing facilities to partially fund installations, which will only happen with a sufficient number of case studies. To assist the QC/BacGen Team in developing a market for process control/optimization technology we seek $1,605,150 in funding to push the program in Edison’s territory, for which we will deliver more than 6,500 MWh in energy reduction annually and more than 104,000 MWh in net life cycle
savings.1 Candidate facilities have already been identified and the QC/BacGen Team is ready to move forward.

Quantum Consulting

admin — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 12:03:56 +0000

Quantum Consulting is focused on providing the highest quality information to the energy industry, assisting them in designing, implementing and evaluating energy efficiency programs. We provide our clients with valuable direct feedback on how well they’re doing in designing programs and products that customers need and want, in delivering programs efficiently and effectively, and in increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.
QC’s core competency is market assessment and evaluation. Since our inception, we have been providing the nation’s major utilities with defensible studies, helping them to achieve maximum shareholder earnings. QC’s approach to market assessments and evaluations reflects our belief that the key to enhancing program performance relies on in-depth understanding of the environments in which energy related decisions are made.
QC’s engineering staff brings critical knowledge of the mechanical and thermodynamic properties of energy efficient technologies to support our clients’ program goals. Whether through metering, program design, evaluation or load profiling our engineering simulation models and data analysis yield information that we incorporate into our recommendations for enhancing program activity.

QC’s expertise in load research and load profiling developed over many years enables us to provide effective solutions to shave peak load or shift load demand, meeting your needs.

QC’s wastewater retro-commissioning project is a perfect example of the melding of our service areas. This original project grew out of a process evaluation and technological assessment to become an innovative program in demand reduction.

Quantum’s knowledge of the program environment allows us to make powerful recommendations that create successful, cost-effective programs withstanding regulatory scrutiny.

Wastewater Retrocommissioning

admin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:59:02 +0000

Quantum Consulting and its technology partner, BacGen Technologies, are currently implementing two optimization or ‘retro-commissioning’ programs for municipal wastewater treatment facilities (WWTFs) in California. The goal of these programs is to achieve significant energy savings and demand reduction at these facilities. In general, WWTF ‘retro-commissioning’ is fairly simple and is predicated on two points:

Municipal WWTFs are generally over-engineered (i.e. use too much aeration, and therefore too much energy).
With proper monitoring equipment, aeration equipment can be cycled to achieve significant demand reduction and energy savings without compromising system integrity or jeopardizing permit compliance.

The Cross-Cutting Demand Reduction Program, sponsored by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) and funded through Public Purpose Funds, serves municipal WWTFs in PG&E service territory. In Phase I of this program, the Quantum Consulting and BacGen Technologies (QC/BGT) Team will save a total of 3,423 MWh (and 540 kW) annually in four municipal facilities. Phase II of this program will add an additional ten facilities, for a total of fourteen (14) municipal WWTFs. On average, the QC/BGT Team expects to save 855,750 kWh and 135 kW per Phase I facility. Implementation of Phase I should be complete by December 31, 2001. Phase II of this program will follow, and should be fully implemented by March 31, 2002. The QC/BGT Team is also currently conducting the Innovative Peak Load Reduction Program, sponsored by the California Energy Commission (CEC). As part of this program, twenty (20) municipal WWTFs throughout California will receive fully-funded retro-commissioning services, and an additional one hundred (100) facilities will receive technical training and assistance. The QC/BGT Team expects to achieve a total of 6 MW of peak demand reduction through this program.

These programs take advantage of new technologies to better manage WWTF aeration delivery systems. The BacGen Technologies “tool kit” reduces the amount of aeration required through state-of-the-art, real-time process modeling and optimization. By closely monitoring and controlling key system parameters, BacGen Technologies optimizes the overall system performance. Proprietary instrumentation is installed in each wastewater system to collect real-time, cross-parameter performance data. This data is then transmitted to BacGen Technologies for analysis using internally developed modeling and optimization software. Using results from this analysis, BacGen Technologies may directly or remotely control the facility’s treatment processes to maintain permit compliance while minimizing aeration energy use. BacGen consults with a “peer review team” of world-class industry experts to continually validate its technical approaches and methodologies.

The QC/BGT Team looks forward to discussing our energy and demand reduction services with other facilities in California and beyond.

Program Design

admin — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 20:19:10 +0000

Our experts have assisted numerous utilities and program administrators in designing and planning energy-efficiency and demand-response programs throughout North America. Our best practice program designs have resulted in design enhancements that substantially increased the productivity and cost effectiveness of programs. We have, for example, performed multi-year, multi-million dollar market and technology assessment activities that have led to the design and planning of successful residential and commercial sector programs and assisted in the design of industrial customer programs. You can see at our site energy-efficiency best practices, to see how we established a comprehensive structure for assessing and communicating best practices to help meets todays complex program design challenges.

Impact and Market Effects Evaluation

admin — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 19:59:07 +0000

QC’s comprehensive impact evaluations provide our clients with accurate, timely estimates of energy (kWh and therms) and demand (kW) savings associated with their energy-efficiency and demand response programs. Our staff has evaluated hundreds of energy-efficiency and demand-response programs within California, the Northwest, New England, Florida, Hawaii, and beyond. Our measurements are widely recognized as being valid and valuable. Many of QC’s impact evaluations for our California clients were required as part of their Annual Earnings Assessment Proceedings (AEAP), and their earning mechanism was based entirely on the results of these studies. QC’s findings were closely scrutinized by contractors that were hired by the California Public Utility Commissions Office of Ratepayer Advocates and found to be of the highest quality in California.

Process Evaluation

Our process evaluations help refine program delivery procedures and make them more effective and efficient. Clients use our process evaluation results to reduce the cost of fielding new and existing products and services; to redesign internal processes, increasing staff productivity and job satisfaction; and most importantly, to increase customer satisfaction and market penetration.

Senior Engineer At QC

admin — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:43:29 +0000

The ideal candidate for this position will be a hands-on individual who seeks a balance between analytical and report writing tasks and engineering fieldwork. If you are an energy efficiency generalist with a good working knowledge of HVAC/lighting systems and commercial/industrial building controls, this may be the right position for you.

Quantum Consulting provides a collaborative, collegial environment in which individuals contribute to project teams to provide services for clients desiring to improve energy utilization in their facilities. We provide energy services including energy audits and feasibility studies, retro-commissioning, and load-management services. Our consulting services also include Market Assessment & Evaluation, Program Design & Planning, Technology Assessment & Market Research.

Responsibilities

Develop measurement plan & perform energy calculations to measure & verify energy savings.

Prepare written analysis and present recommendations for improvement in energy efficiency.

Conduct energy audits, project verifications, and monitoring studies in large commercial/industrial buildings. Troubleshoot equipment using various data collection techniques and diagnostic tools.

Work closely with program manager and client to meet project deadlines.

Qualifications

Undergraduate degree in Engineering

PE license preferred

3 – 5 years of relevant work experience

Strong analytical and report writing skills

Ability to develop spreadsheet analysis for a variety of energy efficiency measures

Familiarity with energy analysis software packages (e.g. DOE-2,eQuest, Energy 10)

Ability to conduct field work and interact with clients in a professional manner

Familiarity with data collection equipment

Good working knowledge of HVAC, lighting, motors, and refrigeration systems

Familiarity with various energy management systems

Excellent oral and written communication skills

Good organizational skills

Good computer skills including proficiency in Word and Excel