Neiman Marcus rolling out new energy management solution

Berkeley, Calif. Scientific Conservation announced that The Neiman Marcus Group is rolling out its SCIwatch Automated Continuous Commissioning solution across its stores.

Neiman Marcus is using the solution to proactively detect, identify and diagnose potential faults and anomalies affecting key mechanical, electrical and HVAC systems well in advance of service interruptions or outright failures. As a result, the company believes that it will reap considerable savings on capital expenditures and operating expenses.

In addition, Neiman Marcus hopes to extend the lifespan of strategic and highly expensive systems and save significant amounts on annual energy spending by ensuring power-hungry electrical, mechanical and HVAC systems are running optimally.

SCIwatch is a software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based ACC platform that detects, monetizes and prioritizes system faults. To date, Neiman Marcus has deployed the system across 21 facilities and intends to apply it company-wide over time.

“For the first time, we have an automated process that continually checks system assets across our properties from a centralized dashboard to pinpoint which systems are performing outside of acceptable tolerances,” said Mark Boraski, VP property management, Neiman Marcus, Dallas. “This enables us to intelligently assign technical resources to address system issues on a prioritized basis. It has proven to be an effective resource allocation tool.”

SCIwatch is an ACC platform that interfaces with any building energy management system for automatic data collection, warehousing, diagnostics and work order issuance and tracking. It also serves as a centralized system that consolidates up-to-the-minute views into energy usage and system-wide performance levels with reporting parameters tailored for executive-level and operational staff.

“When we started applying SCIwatch in our first 21 facilities, we found a number of sensor errors,” Boraski said.  “More importantly, SCIwatch identified sensors we thought were reading correctly that were actually misleading.”

For Boraski and his team, SCIwatch’s automated anomaly-detection capabilities underscore the reality that there are simply never enough technical resources available to dedicate to the task of ongoing system diagnostics.

“You simply must monitor systems on a round-the-clock basis, especially for an organization like ours that expects equipment to be operating perfectly once our doors are open to our customers,” Boraski said.