Energy management system built on FDSI technology will reap big savings, reduce CO2 emissions by 14,000 tons per year IT doesn’t just have the power to control energy waste in the datacenter and on the desktop. Rather, that power extends to the heating and cooling units of the buildings frequented by customers and end-users.Case in point: Bank of America announced this week that it’s deploying a centralized energy management system built on Field Diagnostic Services Inc. (FDSI). The system will be in use at BofA’s 3,300 bank locations. The company expects up to 50 percent cost savings using the system, compared with using standard building control technologies. The FDSI software platform is also forecast to reduce CO2 emissions from the banking centers by an estimated 14,000 tons annually.[To learn how other companies have reaped savings by embracing green technology, please read “Savoring the fruits of the Green 15’s seeds.”] FDSI’s technology includes software, handheld energy-efficiency diagnostic tools, and project management services, designed to “enable more rapid and accurate servicing of heating, ventilation and air conditioning equipment, decreasing energy and operational costs.” This type of smart climate control technology has great potential beyond keeping BofA’s banks comfortably and efficiently heated or cooled: As part of a larger smart grid, the approach can help prevent brownouts, which is overall great for business. [For more on smart grids, please read “Power delivery, the smart way.”] With the data culled and analyzed from BofA’s 3,300 sites, the FDSI-layered system “will be able to chart and address energy management, performance, consumption and external factors — like weather — across the network and at specific locations. In doing so, the system can help the bank anticipate demand, costs and other impacts in order to modify use as needed systemwide, in a region or at an individual site,” according to GreenBiz.com.FDSI is in the process of developing enterprise software to use data captured from networked heating and cooling units to automatically detect energy waste, optimizing energy costs, and reducing onsite servicing. The investment in the EMS is part of Bank of America’s $20 billion, 10-year environmental commitment to promote sustainability in its operations and through its lending, investing and new products and services, the bank says. Thus far, BofA has managed to reduce paper usage per associate by 40 percent. The company also has committed to cut energy consumption to reduce GHG emissions by 9 percent. Technology Industry