Supporting Nexteer's 6% Annual Reduction Goal:
A KenergyAI Pilot in Saginaw, Michigan

What if your HVAC system checked the weather forecast and adjusted itself, saving energy without waiting on your facilities team?

That's part of what KenergyAI is bringing to manufacturing, starting with a pilot at Nexteer Automotive's Saginaw, Michigan site with our partner Energy Design Engineers, who brought us to the project.

Nexteer is a global supplier of steering and driveline systems, including electric and hydraulic power steering and advanced driver assistance technologies for automakers. Its Saginaw site is the company's largest, with six manufacturing plants totaling 3.1 million square feet of manufacturing floor space, alongside a global technical center, a test and validation center and a test track. A site of that scale carries a large energy load, and Nexteer is working to bring it down.

The target is 6% year-over-year reductions in electricity use, fuel use and carbon emissions, and KenergyAI is working with them toward that goal. HVAC is one of the biggest electricity users in any office, so running it only when and where people are there puts a direct dent in that electricity goal.

Our occupancy-based HVAC control software does exactly that, automatically, taking the work off the facilities team's plate. When a space is empty, it widens heating and cooling setpoints, then returns to normal comfort settings as people come back. It also reads the weather forecast and adjusts the system ahead of changing conditions. The result is HVAC that responds to how the building is actually used, around the clock, without anyone having to step in.

The pilot puts this to work in one very large workspace of offices and open work areas. With 23 occupancy sensors installed and our software connected to the existing Schneider Electric BMS, it can be proven out with no construction and without disrupting operations. At a site this size, even small cuts in HVAC runtime in unoccupied space add up. We expect early results within three months of installation, and if the pilot succeeds, Nexteer's remaining office spaces are next, in addition to projects in their manufacturing spaces.

Managing facilities for a manufacturer, campus or commercial portfolio? Send us a message to talk about a pilot at your site.