PowerCAST

New Application Platform Helps Businesses Save More, Get More

Energy is hard. It’s a highly regulated industry. Utility bills tell you very little about how you’re actually using energy. Many energy efficiency projects are capital- or time-intensive, and if you’re like most organizations, you’re feeling the pinch for both. EnerNOC’s philosophy has always been to meet you where you are – whether that means you’re ready to reduce energy a few times a year in exchange for payments, to get your facility running like a well-oiled machine through data-driven energy efficiency, to manage your energy spend more effectively, or to track and manage your carbon footprint. We also aim to ring the cash register for you early and often by turning cost into an opportunity, reducing your risk, and delivering the most value to your bottom line – and the latest release of our energy management application suite is designed to do just that.

The latest release of EnerNOC’s energy management application suite includes:

• DemandSMART™, a comprehensive demand response application, including support for capacity, economic, ancillary service, and peak load contribution markets worldwide
• SiteSMART™, a data-driven energy efficiency application, including commissioning, monitoring-based commissioning, and energy engineering services
• SupplySMART™, an energy supply and risk management application, providing supply choice decision support, utility bill management, and online reverse auction energy exchanges
• CarbonSMART™, an enterprise carbon management application, providing a comprehensive suite of tools to capture, track, manage, and report greenhouse gas emissions

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Energy Saving Strategies for Data Centers

Data centers are the life blood of today’s economy, but they’re also considerable energy hogs. By 2011, data centers could be spending $7.4 billion annual on electricity. In 2006, the peak load on the power grid from these servers and data centers was estimated at approximately 7 gigawatts (GW), equivalent to the output of about 15 baseload power plants. If current trends continue, this demand will rise to 12 GW by 2011, which would require an additional 10 power plants. Most data centers are aware of the challenge, and step one is to evaluate and invest in new lower-power hardware or better resource utilization through virtualization. But what’s next? Is there more that data centers can be doing to lower energy consumption? Furthermore, as attitudes change about energy management and it becomes an increasingly more pressing business priority, what do data center managers and IT staffs need to do to get ready?

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UPDATE: Next Steps for California Direct Access Market

Last month we reported on the implications of the California Direct Access Market re-opening. Specifically, based on the ruling Senate Bill 695, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) was ordered to open the Direct Access Market for a certain number of commercial and industrial customers. While the re-opening guidelines have been in process, new information based on the February 9th Administrative Law Judge Pulsifer Proposed Decision now provides additional structure around the market re-opening. While it’s possible that the details of the proposed decision will change, as it stands today, the following rules will go into effect on April 11, 2010:

• The transition to Direct Access will occur over a four-year period, with 50 percent of eligible Direct Access load migrating in 2010, 70 percent in 2011, 90 percent in 2012, and 100 percent in 2013.
• Eligible customers must submit a notice of intent (NOI) to their public utility (PG&E, SCE, or SDG&E) beginning with the effective date of the final decision of the CPUC, April 11, 2010, to indicate the customer’s desire to receive Direct Access service.
• The utilities will determine if the customer’s request can be accommodated. If the customer’s response can be accommodated, the customer will have 60 days to submit a Direct Access Service Request (DASR) to the utility which will initiate the customer’s Direct Access service.
• The NOI is not binding until the DASR is submitted.

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Carbon Management in Hotels: Spotlight on the Seaport Hotel

The Seaport Hotel is one of the leading hotels in the Boston area, welcoming thousands of visitors and hosting trade shows, events, weddings, and more at its 330,000-square-foot mixed-use facility. An EnerNOC DemandSMART customer since 2009, Seaport, which includes the Seaport Hotel and the nearby Seaport Boston World Trade Center, is at the forefront of the green hotel movement, working hard to reduce its environmental impact while providing an exceptional guest experience. One of Seaport’s most recent sustainability efforts is using EnerNOC’s CarbonSMART application to better manage and measure its greenhouse gas (GHG) footprint.

“With climate change at the forefront of today’s most pressing issues, Seaport prides itself as a leader in sound environmental policies. Our customers demand high standards of service and business practices, and we make the same demands of our partners. As EnerNOC has proven to be a trusted energy partner, it made sense to expand our relationship to include our carbon measurement and management activities,” said David O’Shaughnessy, President of Seaport.

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EnerNOC Welcomes Sue Tierney to its Board of Directors

Last month, EnerNOC announced a new addition to its Board of Directors, Dr. Susan F. Tierney. With extensive experience in economics, regulation, and policy in the electric and gas industries, Dr. Tierney brings an insider understanding and appreciation of the challenges faced by EnerNOC customers. We recently sat down with her to get her thoughts on what’s going on in Washington D.C. with regards to the energy industry and on the industry in general.

EnerNOC: Sue, you’ve spent a lot of time as an observer of (and participant in) energy policy. Is DC as divided on energy as they seem to be about everything else?

ST: Yes, I’m sorry to say. Even though energy policy tends to divide – historically – on regional differences, we now also have the overlay of heightened partisan politics, which makes it unlikely we’ll see new energy legislation coming out of Congress. Don’t get me wrong: I’ll be pleasantly surprised if we see action on energy and climate change legislation. But I think that we can’t count on it this year.

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Spotlight on: Carmen Henrikson, Senior Manager, Strategic Planning and Programs – SiteSMART Operations

With energy efficiency a national priority in the U.S., Canada, and the United Kingdom, Carmen Henrikson spends her days helping utilities understand how the convergence of IT and energy data will transform the way businesses think about their energy usage. Because of her work, in 2010 more businesses will have access to EnerNOC’s industry-leading SiteSMART energy efficiency application.

EnerNOC: Carmen, how would you sum up your role at EnerNOC in one sentence?

CH: My primary role is to collaboratively develop and manage the delivery of reliable and cost-effective energy efficiency programs to our utility customers.

What gets you excited every day to come to work?

CH: What most excites me about the work that I do at EnerNOC is being a part of the shift paradigm in energy management where EnerNOC provides a valuable service to both utility and commercial and industrial customers, and at the same time is contributing to a change in how the energy industry will operate in the future. EnerNOC’s use of advanced technologies to offer services such as SiteSMART and DemandSMART in ways that have not been viable in prior years is forcing change in both the business and policy of the energy sector. Throughout my career, I have found myself drawn to the space in between the science/technology, policy, and business sectors, and the need for education and understanding between divergent interests to move forward. My job enables me to focus on the challenges of interfacing between sectors and working towards bringing positive change in a field I am passionate about.

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