Heritage

Hank van Ormer, one of the true experts of compressed air systems and their operation, started Air Power USA as a technical consulting company in 1986. His goal was to provide industrial customers with sound and practical insights to troubleshoot and improve their compressed air systems. Hank, along with Bill Scales, is generally recognized as one of the foundational contributors to the creation of the highly respected Compressed Air Challenge Program (CAC), operated by the US Department of Energy.

Central to Hank’s approach is the need to apply transparent analytics and solid economic evaluation as the basis for his recommendations. But most important was Hank’s commitment to ensuring his analysis was “independent and brand neutral” and free of any bias toward any OEM. To this day, “Air Power USA – Independent and Brand Neutral” remains the tag line of our company.

For most of the 1980s and 1990s, Air Power USA projects were funded directly by end-users like General Motors, Abbott Labs, and Packaging Corporation of America (PCA). When business economics shifted in the 2000’s, fewer and fewer engineering resources and capital budgets were available to make compressed air system improvements. Air Power USA shifted as well and began working with a new revenue source–electric utilities that had engineering and project incentives to help their industrial customers become more energy efficient and competitive in a world marketplace. This shift continues today with more than 70% of Air Power USA revenues linked to utility incentive programs, often on a performance basis, which means our revenues are based on how much verified savings we can demonstrate by improving a customer’s air system.

The last five years have brought a third stage in the evolution of Air Power USA; we have assembled an array of similarly independent and brand neutral technical consulting firms that together can help customers with almost any of their energy-using systems. We’re not limited to compressed air and vacuum system; we also work with systems, such as process cooling, hydraulics, automation and controls, industrial process changes, power quality, steam and heat recovery systems, and lighting. With this shift, we now offer turnkey solutions that cover the complete package of System Assessment, Project Implementation, and Creative Funding. We are most excited to offer the creative funding benefit because when we combine our highly regarded expertise in Utility Incentive Management with our ability to provide project financing on a Cash Flow Positive Basis, we can offer turnkey energy system improvements that result in a minimum impact on the limited capital budgets most companies face today!

Our History

1985

1985 December 5th, 1985 – Air Power USA was incorporated. Air Power USA was founded in 1986 by our president, H.P. "Hank" van Ormer, to meet a growing demand for expert counsel on ways to improve production and reduce electric power costs of compressed air systems. We are not a compressor dealer. We are practical, down-to-earth compressed air consultants, not "blue sky" theorists.

1986

First Large contracts through Air Power USA were before the independent consulting days. Hank was contracted by an Italian OEM, German OEM and a Parts Company to help improve their direct mailing program in the US. These contracts were to help them understand the US market. It was collectively a 2-year contract at $9/M.

1980s

Hank held a Full-day seminar in Wisconsin on compressed air best practices. Hank met a guy from General Motors (GM) and the next thing he knew he was contracted to assess every GM compressed air system for the foreseeable future. In order to accomplish this, Hank’s son, Scott van Ormer joined as a lead auditor.

1990s

Accomplishments during the 90’s:

- Initial compressed air study completed for the department of defense, culminating and reviews of 15 sites.
- Industry Award from Compressed Air Challenge, U.S. Department of Energy.
- Identified our largest compressed air leak to date.
- Air Power USA adds project implementation support to its services.

1998

Partners in Excellence: Partners in Excellence from Ross Products Division of Abbott Laboratories.

1999

Comprehensive review of compressed air systems in more than 30 GM plants from 1999-2000.

2000

Improving Compressed Air System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry From 2000-2003 Hank Van Ormer worked with Bill Scales in key advisory role for the publication of “Improving Compressed Air System Performance: A Sourcebook for Industry” – The NREL sourcebook for the DOE’s Industrial Technologies Office

2002

Utility Programs: Air Power USA moves strongly into working within utility programs to fund and develop compressed air studies. This is a result of traditional customers having fewer resources available for efficiency improvements.

2007

Proprietary Modeling Software Development: Developed proprietary modeling software for modeling and report automation from 2007-2014. f. 2008 - 60 Audits Throughout California: From 2008-2012 we completed 60 Audits throughout California which represented our first concentrated utility program blitz.

2008

60 Audits Throughout California: From 2008-2012 we completed 60 Audits throughout California which represented our first concentrated utility program blitz.

2013

Entergy Arkansas Exceptional Achievements Award.

2014

Top Performer Award – 35 GWh of verified savings and expanded assessment opportunities into Hydraulic applications.

2015

Viva Las Vegas: Assessed all 11 Nevada Energy facilities, which power the Las Vegas Strip. In 2015 Air Power USA also completed 52 project implementations under the Efficiency Vermont Utility Incentive program using its first “no cost project” incentive model.

2016

Air Power USA grows into new office space in downtown Gahanna Ohio, 6 minutes from the Columbus Airport.

2017

Awards and Opportunities: Air Power USA delivered its largest single systems project savings to date – 6.5 GWh

2019

From 2019-2021 Air Power USA achieves year-over-year recognition for most savings achieved through the ComEd Industrial Systems Program.

2022

Air Power USA rebrands to APenergy to recognize its ability to service all industrial systems from project discovery through implementation and funding. APenergy still maintains its Air Power USA foundation and is still recognized as Air Power USA, a subject matter area expert in industrial compressed air systems.