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What is the difference between a microgrid and a smart grid?

Article | InBuilding Magazine

The term “smart grid” is often used as a generic term when discussing how technology is impacting the creation and use of energy, but it’s somewhat vague. Technology affects energy use in many ways and at many levels, and the phrase “smart grid” is not meaningful to most building owners. However, a related concept, the microgrid, is something that owners and property managers should become familiar with. So what do these terms actually mean? Southland Energy’s Ken Robinson explains.

To continue reading, click here.

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Leveraging Building Analytics to Optimize Energy Savings Performance Contracts

Article | The Military Engineer

Southland Energy’s Ken Robinson discussed the recent technological advancement of building analytics within the building automation industry and how building analytics can plan an important role in maximizing the benefits of an Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) in area ranging from project development to savings preservation.

To read  more, click here.

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Leveraging Facilities to Generate Operational Savings

Article | CFMA

Many businesses are often challenged with how to deal with their aging facilities and infrastructure. Simultaneously, reducing overall operating costs often conflicts with a facility’s maintenance needs. As a facility matures and equipment begins to falter, the need for repair or replacement can increase overall maintenance costs.

Read more, here.

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14 Aspects to Consider in Equipment Selection

Article | CSE Magazine (April 2016)

Mechanical engineering is a science relatively unchanged over the past 50 years. Conversely, equipment selection for a mechanical engineer is as much an art as a science of technology. Today, refinements to manufacturing, increasingly advanced controls, and changing end-user needs determine both the science of technology and the roster of equipment for selection.

Read more, here.

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10 Strategies for Energy Management

Article | Facility Executive (2015)

When energy use is deliberately monitored, controlled, and conversed, decreases in utility consumption and overall costs can be realized without sacrificing facilities operations. Such energy management techniques can take on many shapes and sizes. Southland Energy’s Vice President, Natasha Shah discusses strategies that facility management executives can use to increase efficiency while overcoming potential costly challenges.

Read the full article here.

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Meeting energy-saving targets for the rest of 2014

Article | American City & County (September 26, 2014)

Federal and state budgets will continue to be significantly challenged in 2014 to fund building efficiency and other initiatives to meet energy reduction and renewable energy goals. There has been a significant push by federal and some state governments to pursue third party-financed alternatives for funding energy efficiency projects through Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC) and other alternative financing methods.

The federal government has been motivated by the active engagement of the executive branch, most recently in the form of a Presidential Performance Contracting Challenge in 2011, which challenged federal agencies to enter into $2 billion worth of performance-based contracts within two years. Federal agencies have executed over $800 million in ESPC projects, and have developed a pipeline of nearly $2.3 billion. Read the full article here.

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Southland Energy selected as preferred contractor at Fort Knox

Article | Contractor Magazine (May 21, 2014)

Southland Energy, the comprehensive energy services division of Southland Industries, has been selected as Nolin Rural Electric Cooperative Corporation’s preferred contractor for all energy services projects executed at the US Army Post at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Under Nolin’s utility energy services contract with Fort Knox, Southland Energy will develop and implement energy improvement projects. Through such energy projects, the US Army aims to reduce the energy related costs of operating and maintaining facilities at Fort Knox. Read the full article here.

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Cogeneration Plants for On-site Energy Distribution

Article | HPAC Engineering (February 7, 2014)

by Seth Pearce | Southland Industries

The United States’ infrastructure for power transmission and distribution is aging and, in many places, has difficulty meeting the demands placed on it. Local utility companies produce power on a large scale at a distance from sources of usage, with as much as 25 percent of the energy lost during delivery. Using the same natural resources, cogeneration plants eliminate those losses and function in excess of three times more efficiently than local utility companies. Read the full article here.

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Energy Management’s Role in Commercial HVAC Projects

http://contractingbusiness.com/commercial-hvac/energy-managements-role-commercial-hvac-projects

Article | Contracting Business (April 2, 2013)

by Terry McIver | Contracting Business

As energy grids are maxed out and building owners want lower maintenance costs, it’s up to building designers, engineers, and HVAC contractors to provide solutions from start to finish, and beyond.

Energy management. Everyone in HVACR circles is talking about it, thinking about how to apply new methods to their service and installation offerings, or practicing it, to the mutual benefit of contractor and building owners. Energy managment strategies have become impossible to ignore. As energy grids are stretched to their limits, and building owners demand lower maintenance costs, it’s up to building designers, engineers, and HVAC contractors to provide start-to-finish solutions.