Future Resource Engineering has announced the addition of Rick Sommers to the position of controls engineer, where he will be responsible for the development, programming, installation, and on-site startup and commissioning of HVAC controls for mission critical environments.
To his new role, Sommers brings nearly seven years of experience in industrial and utility-scale solar thermal electric power plant design, construction, operations, and control system development. As controls engineer for Future Resource Engineering, Sommers will be responsible for performing controls set-up, programming, and on-site system start-ups and system commissioning for the firm. His other duties include overseeing the installation of hardware, firmware and software for new customer controls projects and developing project scope, design of systems and functional specifications.
Prior to joining Future Resource Engineering, Sommers performed a variety of roles at Abengoa Solar, LLC. Most recently a senior automation engineer with the firm, Sommers’ accomplishments include designing a large scale, dense wireless mesh network for a 100k autonomous heliostat. He also successfully facilitated the development of a control system and Graphical User lnterface for an international mining company, driving control system design to conform with industry and customer requirements, safety standards, and best practices.
“We are delighted to welcome a seasoned Controls Engineer like Rick to the efficiency engineering team at Future Resource Engineering,” said Jeremy Swanner, executive vice president, Future Resource Engineering. “His impressive experience in system design, controls, and instrumentation will be vital to our success in identifying data center energy and operational efficiency opportunities for our customers.”
In a 2015 survey, Future Resource Engineering identified more than 24 million kWh in energy savings and $2.2 million in cost savings across 40 U.S. data centers. The firm also identified more than $1.4 million in available utility incentives that the data centers could use to offset the cost of retrofitting while enjoying a faster return on investment (ROI).
