Congratulations, James Hrenyk!

Thank you, Amir Kamandlooie (Energy Consultant, Energy@Work Inc.) for nominating James!

The Wrench of the Year awards are two, $250 cash awards, intended to acknowledge and celebrate the individuals that best exemplify the spirit of hard work, hands-on responsibility, and determination that result in the successful implementation of an energy efficiency project. The award specifically rewards on-site facility personnel that are often overlooked in major efficiency projects but whose hard work and attention are key to successful project implementation.

Project Overview

4711 Yonge Energy Management Action Plan (E-MAP) encompasses an on-going continuous improvement program to reduce utility use through cost effective solutions, typically operational changes, that do not compromise safety, tenant comfort or equipment reliability.

Day to day James is tasked with monitoring the building automation system, coordination and also efficient collaboration with vendors and consultants. James is also an effective supervisor to three operators and responds to the building’s management and tenant requests.

James’ Contribution

James, as an integral member of the team, supported the identification, review and implementation of Energy Efficiency Measures (EEM). What made James contribution unique, is his openness to ideas and also support in going beyond a surface review and into the issue’s root cause for a permanent solution. Moreover, he makes sure the best practices are well understood by his operators and also documented for future references.

Project Impact

Through James’s efforts towards the Energy Management Action Plan, 4711 Yonge achieved a verified savings of 640,000 kWh of electricity over 21 months, during the implementation of the E-MAP. The savings are approved by Toronto Hydro and are resulting from a combination of no to low-costs operational improvements. The monetary benefit has reached over $150k. His unique role in the energy efficiency improvement of the building has resulted in a significant improvement in building Energy Use Intensity (EUI) and also WUI (Water Use Intensity). In addition, the building’s Energy Star Score has reached over 92 from 75 over the last few years.

Other Project Considerations

James has an in-depth knowledge of BAS and building HVAC systems. He played an important role in a pump system re-commissioning project through his revision and optimization of the SoO (Sequence of Operations). James was actively involved in initiation phases, completing functionals tests and also reviewing the final implementations. Last, but certainly not least, now that the project is complete, James reviews the implemented project and ensures that it continues to function as planned and verifies that they are achieving accurate results on an ongoing daily basis, in addition to his day to day activities. The project was completed in two phases and resulted in savings over 238,000 kWh.