Operators Make Buildings Smart and Efficient

SAN FRANCISCO—While EnerNOC's Energy Intelligence Software business was a pioneer in energy management serving a wide variety of industries, its spin-off by former EnerNOC leaders, Hatch Data, is focused squarely on the $15 trillion commercial real estate market. This is a logical step, given the increasing concentration on environmental, social and governance issues that come with real estate ownership.

"Our former company invested a decade and tens of millions of dollars to develop an energy management platform that was proven across thousands of businesses. Commercial property operators have been especially successful in using our platform to radically simplify and automate the time-intensive tasks associated with energy management, proactive maintenance and performance management. Operators make buildings smart, and we're on a mission to help them scale their impact across entire portfolios," says Zach Robin, Hatch Data chief executive officer who formerly led the product team at EnerNOC. "While new construction projects capture the imagination, the average existing building is 40 years or older and can experience 15 to 20% degradation in operating performance each year. Hatch Data makes it easy to extend the smart building benefits of improved efficiency, increased productivity and optimized asset value to existing buildings by tapping into existing infrastructure and data sets."

Data on the platform is open, extensible and shareable across work-order management, enterprise resource planning, accounting and asset investment management systems. The software can be deployed for a single office building or across a multi-asset portfolio.

Hatch Data launches with an existing customer base of more than 250 companies that rely on the platform to capture, organize and analyze operating data across more than 350 million square feet of occupied space. Customers include Beacon Capital Partners, Boston Properties, Franklin Street Properties, Hines, Oxford Properties and Unico Properties.

And, WindSail Capital, a Boston-based investment firm focused on energy innovation and sustainability, made an investment in Hatch Data to enable the company to be independent and expand its position in building operations performance management software.

"Hatch Data already has a sizable customer base and is positioned to grow quickly with its performance management software that can be readily implemented for one building and scaled across large real estate portfolios," says Ian Bowles, co-founder and managing director of WindSail Capital. "Whether assessing opportunities for capital investment, tracking down a specific operational issue or ensuring quality of tenant experience, the benefits of Hatch's platform are tangible, and building operators who deploy it can experience the results first-hand."

Moreover, Beacon Capital Partners deploys Hatch Data software at most of its building sites, some 150-plus US office properties. Using Hatch Data's real-time monitoring of multiple data streams, Beacon's head of facilities has identified two significant energy and other operational savings, GlobeSt.com learns.

Instead of running HVAC systems intermittently during the night as Beacon often previously did, now systems start up between 5:00 and 6:00 a.m. at most Beacon properties, which is ample time to cool and heat adequately for tenant satisfaction. Beacon determined this by experimenting with different system start-up times and comparing utility load, utility costs and real-life temperature conditions in buildings to arrive at optimal times to start-up HVAC systems at each building. The result was millions of dollars saved per year portfolio-wide.

In addition, many Beacon properties are contractually obligated to deliver conditioned air within a certain temperature range to tenants during building operating hours. With real-time monitoring of energy use, utility expense and the temperature within conditioned spaces, Beacon determined in many instances, it could switch off chillers, cooling tower fans and compressors while keeping the air blowing into tenant spaces and maintaining temperatures at the desired level. The result was millions of dollars saved per year portfolio-wide and an extended life for the equipment now running less frequently.

"We have worked with the team behind Hatch Data for more than 10 years and with great results achieved by their software and energy engineers, both essential for success," Al Scaramelli, managing director of Beacon Capital Partners, tells GlobeSt.com. "We've surveyed the industry for new approaches to maximize asset value for our investors and remain with Hatch Data. Their technology platform seamlessly integrates into our operational workflows and makes it easy for our teams to stay aligned and on track."

The software collects, organizes and analyzes minute-by-minute data streaming from commodity meters, sub-meters, building automation systems, work orders, market data and other third-party systems to inform diagnostics, prediction and response planning. The software's insights are based on 10,000-plus best practices and business rules designed into the Hatch Data platform and validated against more than 14 billion hours of operating data collected by the company for a decade.

Hatch's software platform offers a unified and consistent approach to evaluate and improve asset performance, regardless of building size, age or value. The analytics engine has been validated across more than 350 million square feet and 14 billion hours of real-world operating data, GlobeSt.com learns.

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Lisa Brown is an editor for the south and west regions of GlobeSt.com. She has 25-plus years of real estate experience, with a regional PR role at Grubb & Ellis and a national communications position at MMI. Brown also spent 10 years as executive director at NAIOP San Francisco Bay Area chapter, where she led the organization to achieving its first national award honors and recognition on Capitol Hill. She has written extensively on commercial real estate topics and edited numerous pieces on the subject.