Jim McAdam, PE, CEM
SENIOR ENERGY CONSULTANT
From McMurdo Station in the Antarctic to the halls of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Jim McAdam has applied his engineering and energy management expertise for the benefit of organizations and the environment alike.
In April 2010, after reviewing nearly 200 submissions, the EPA through its Energy Star program, selected Morrison Residence Hall located on UNC’s Chapel Hill campus to be a contender in their year-long National Building Competition for reducing energy waste. Jim’s role on the team was to provide building tuning and mechanical system optimization. His success in this effort was evident on October 26, 2010 when the EPA announced that Morrison won the competition with a total energy savings of 36%! More impressive is the fact that the 12 month savings window the EPA established (9/1/09-8/31/10) did not capture the 15% reduction Jim had already achieved prior to 9/1/09, bringing the overall savings to over 50%! Unlike many of the buildings in the competition, Jim’s work at Morrison included no capital expenditures whatsoever. Furthermore, these savings were accomplished after a major efficiency initiative was completed in 2007. In this earlier initiative that Jim was not involved in, significant capital was spent at the 10 story, 217,522 sq. ft. dormitory installing central heating and air conditioning, solar hot water panels, thermal and electric sub-metering, an energy dashboard and digital building automation controls.
The notable achievements from Jim’s work reach far beyond one large facility, however. He has performed studies and implemented successful non-capital energy reduction strategies at more than 75 facilities with a wide array of types and ages. Even at brand new, commissioned, LEED certified facilities, he has achieved savings of better than 20%. As a result, Jim’s work is producing annual savings of millions of dollars — all for a combined cost of under $200,000 for parts and contractor labor.
Also worth noting is Jim’s strong operations background and his deep appreciation and understanding of the importance of each facility’s operations. While improving efficiency without capital has long been his passion, reliability is always job one for Jim. On every project, his goal is to significantly improve operational performance as he develops ways to reduce energy use.
Jim has also delivered significant improvements on chilled water systems that serve many critical facilities. During one recent project, he implemented adjustments that increased system efficiencies by approximately 15%; increased electric load shedding from 12-megawatts to 14-megawatts; and, he proposed and directed the design of an innovative, heat pump based district heating & cooling plant that will produce annual savings of $2 million.
Partnering with a municipal water and sewer authority, Jim helped developed a reclaimed water system that now saves more than 200M gallons of potable water per year. These results earned the facility the 2009 WateReuse Association Institution of the Year Award.
Before his extensive and long-lasting achievements in non-capital based energy efficiency projects, Jim was the Facility Engineer at McMurdo Station in the Antarctic for 2 winters. In this vital role, he designed, procured and managed the installation of a 2-megawatt cogeneration-based district heating system. The station is completely isolated from the outside world all winter long and Jim’s pragmatic, customer focused approach allowed him to optimize the energy performance of mission critical infrastructure without compromising operations in any way. A mistake at this facility could have been life threatening for the nearly 200 people living there.
With a lengthy track record of success and the unique ability to quickly develop, implement and sustain non-capital energy reduction strategies, Jim is not only a key member of the Ridgecrest team but also a valuable resource to our clients.
