Cenergistic Energy Specialists Have Arrived

Left to Right: Jon Hilton, Art Dominguez, Blaine Richter, John Khong, not pictured Nicole Mattson

Last month, University of Nebraska President Hank Bounds, Ph.D. announced a five-year partnership with Cenergistic, aimed at finding energy savings across the campuses through technology- and behavior-based strategies that will help maximize NU’s use of its facilities and equipment.  Nebraska Medicine agreed to the same five-year partnership so the entire Med Center campus can be optimized.

“Campuses have done an excellent job of enhancing sustainability over the years, but we can always do more to be better stewards of our environmental resources,” Dr. Bounds said. “We’re excited to have Cenergistic on board to help us think through how we can be an even more sustainable and more innovative university.”

A team of Cenergistic engineers and conservation experts are on-site now, working with facilities to gather information about space and energy use in the university’s buildings. That includes, for example, building temperatures, use of lights, space utilization and other information.

Cenergistic, will recommend guidelines aimed at improving energy conservation and cutting costs. Guidelines will be vetted by campus leadership and will take into account, for example, the unique energy and space needs of research facilities, the hospital, and others factors.

In addition to the engineers and conservation experts, there will be Omaha-based energy specialists in specific spaces—offices, auditoriums, hallways, conference rooms to see how those spaces are performing, verifying data, and sometimes speaking with the occupants to learn how the space is used.  They will also be in buildings at night, as unoccupied spaces should be using much less energy than they do during the day.

The energy specialists are Blaine Richter, Nicole Mattson, and John Khong and will be led by Jon Hilton and Art Dominguez, all seen in picture above.

Cenergisitc will also deploy data-logging devices in many spaces, to not only verify what the system says is going on, but also to look at what is happening on one end of the room compared to the other.  These devices will only monitor temperature, humidity, and light levels.  Please do not touch, move, or interfere with the data-loggers.

Buildings will be notified prior to any data-logger installation.  The first buildings to be surveyed will be some annex buildings and then some of the education buildings.

All Cenergistic personnel have undergone campus safety and privacy training, background checks, required screening, and will have med center issued photo ID badges.  If you have any questions or concerns, please contact LiveGreen@unmc.edu