tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-52574921022799270272024-02-19T12:02:05.528-05:00PracticalSustainabilityThis blog focuses on trends in energy efficiency and sustainability. It is authored by Paul Baier, VP Products at FirstFuel Software (previously he was with Groom Energy)Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger216125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-86761589431182088102017-01-31T10:26:00.003-05:002017-01-31T10:27:59.075-05:00This blog has been discontinuedThis blog has been discontinued. Thank you for all the interest in previous years. I've started one on SaaS/Big Data <a href="http://paul-baier.blogspot.com/">here</a>.<br />
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<br />Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-20472546787969404912014-01-08T17:18:00.000-05:002014-01-08T17:19:42.282-05:00New Role for Paul. Blog and Email to Continue.<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;">
I've accepted a new position as VP of Products at <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001MsUiLMElVc5C6KPGGgvzcW5G80Ocla_rO1J7adYTHxZsb2nQw6Q62dne7yd9WdUmZ2H6aakZDPuE3CkFXuwLb5fjcBOi5Sgoe7uy0wpZ69I=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">FirstFuel Software</a>. FirstFuel Software is a venture-backed energy data analytics company that works with utilities and government institutions to identify energy savings (using remote audits and other techniques), to engage building owners and operators (through traditional and web-based programs), and to track projects and savings. Customers include Pacific Gas & Electric, Department of Defense, U.S. General Service Administration, and others. I'm delighted to join such a talented team. My role as VP, Products is to lead the product planning and product management efforts.</div>
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This move was attractive for several reasons. Careerwise, it's a move back to a technology products company (my career experience before Groom Energy) instead of a services company. It also fits with two common themes we saw at Groom Energy: the importance of utilities working as a partner with energy and facility managers through incentives, rebates, financing, and advice and the criticality of a cost-effective source of energy cost and use (monthly and interval) data. </div>
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Groom Energy continues to do very well (it had a fantastic growth year in 2013), and I value my time and friendships there. Groom Energy is an implementation partner at FirstFuel, so I look forward to continuing to work with the team. </div>
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There are several transition items. In terms of the market and vendor research (Enterprise Smart Grid, Enterprise Energy Management Software, Enterprise Carbon Accounting), it is not yet clear if this will continue. There remains much interest and value in this research, and it may continue at Groom Energy or another firm depending on staffing.</div>
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The email and blog will continue from my new role at FirstFuel Software. It has been a fascinating experiment from the first email sent December 9, 2008, to 24 people to this email, the 168th, sent to 5,123 people in 2014. While the utility of Twitter for business remains elusive (at least for me), the value and cost-effectiveness of relevant emails and blogs remain high. I'm proud of the small community we have created through the sharing of hundreds of emails and many email introductions, and I plan on continuing this practice.</div>
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Going forward, the vision for this email and the blog changes only slightly. It will continue to focus on trends and best practices for energy efficiency for commercial, industrial, and government organizations, but more emphasis will be on the motivation of organizations and teams actually implementing projects (I call it the "propensity to act," which is an important dimension to the "savings potential" for each facility). I believe these topics will continue to be important to corporate energy, facility, and sustainability leaders. Discussion of the differences among vendor solutions will no longer be covered (and while I am very proud of the technology at FirstFuel, the email and blog are not intended to be a vendor promotion vehicle). </div>
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I hope you continue to be a reader of the blog and the email as we learn together.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-9975261182161396932013-12-11T16:04:00.002-05:002013-12-11T16:04:38.637-05:00Manage Energy Like Quality<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">
<span style="font-size: 14.545454025268555px;">Corporate energy managers should apply lessons from the Quality Movement to drive organization-wide energy efficiency improvements. Tools like Plan-Do-Check-Act and others are integral to continuous improvements in quality and are aptly applied to energy management.</span></div>
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Dr. Edward Deming, the Toyota Production Systems (TPS) and others sparked a radical change in thinking and approach for manufacturing in the early 1970s. These approaches like <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001HjGdUTE_wzUq01TVBR7BRRsqXaHwrjc6l0Rw9xfL0CUTB88Jk1HN9DSwNh3_PpWAXEki1YxGAbDHzpYbIVxDv3FMXCGWkNSoqoEWDs8IeW-DubC0awsFjpJ7XYfvyCH7" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Plan-Do-Check-Act</a> <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">that has been incorporated in the <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001HjGdUTE_wzUq01TVBR7BRRsqXaHwrjc6l0Rw9xfL0CUTB88Jk1HN9DSwNh3_PpWAXEki1YxGAbBrVL8M36f2xoTYqzmRpkWUv7OEOu-1R8rTQa2ABiNqJjIQNEu2VWsyA1ZQCmn3JnF5fGCbAc-cg2P58GCAHclVbVud_4dlijb5wrl9idMqKzkhTlAfgiQyeDAnnC8RSkfLdKQALNdwNA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db;" target="_blank" track="on">ENERGY STAR Guidelines for Energy Management</a> </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">and <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001HjGdUTE_wzUq01TVBR7BRRsqXaHwrjc6l0Rw9xfL0CUTB88Jk1HN9DSwNh3_PpWAXEki1YxGAbDHuh2jHdM9Ch1PtJkGaiOBMir39k2TxGmJqNWCvsAsKOkqROEkEgzD25a_WykKExa8Ata_k4RyeJPDXMEj8fpBfp7nvE2pX75XIgWYnz_7fA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db;" target="_blank" track="on">ISO 50001</a>.</span></div>
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The Quality Movement emphasizes senior management commitment, broad employee involvement, performance metrics, and continuous improvement. Here are some points from <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001HjGdUTE_wzUq01TVBR7BRRsqXaHwrjc6l0Rw9xfL0CUTB88Jk1HN9DSwNh3_PpWAXEki1YxGAbDNrpKm4ZA4rRgO_lRkcjA8a1fU0NrWn4pTdxfXfysSlfDCKmmCDxl0DycntoNMcJRXnGp4pgXEew==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db;" target="_blank" track="on">Deming's famous 14-point philosophy</a> that are directly applicable to energy management:</div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Create constant purpose toward improvement</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Adopt new philosophy [energy as a variable and not a fixed cost] and embrace throughout the organization</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Stop depending on inspections</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Improve constantly and forever</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Use training on the job</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Implement leadership</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Break down barriers between departments [especially operations, maintenance, energy, sustainability, and finance]</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Get rid of unclear objectives</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Remove barriers to pride of ownership</li>
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Early in the Quality movement, some companies established large Quality Departments lead by a VP. This approach has been widely abandoned for a more inclusive and integrated approach that emphasizes that quality is the responsibility of all employees not just the quality team. A quality leader (often a director-level role) acts as a coach and educator in concert with the CEO to drive quality awareness and ownership throughout the organization. Corporate energy managers should adopt a similar approach.</div>
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Corporate energy leaders can also emulate how quality teams successfully presented a business case to senior management to justify a company-wide quality effort. Like energy management today, quality programs were initially greeted with skepticism by senior management.</div>
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While the corporate energy management is a nascent but growing process in many organizations, there is no reason to have to invent tactics for success. Learning from your quality peers will improve the success of your energy management program.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-29051194419394550872013-12-03T10:50:00.001-05:002013-12-03T10:50:45.676-05:00U.S. Utility Efficiency Budgets Continue to Grow<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Customer or end-user incentives from utilities for energy efficiency (rebates, incentives and information that lower the cost of using electricity and gas) is an important part of any corporate energy management program and are forecast to continue to grow from $4.8B in 2012 to $9.5B in 2025. While new and existing programs are not always communicated well to companies (and the paper work can be frustrating), these programs represent "free" money for organizations and can be the tipping point for an acceptable financial payback for a project.</span></div>
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This year, <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Odpjy5vy1B2LP6Wgj7g1qGtSSY-tfW1mNFZ2DlsWfTjh4hC3qKNpotrfAtH7lVEqcL_rCld_q_71BLb-Vem4LDqevuYnwHjE5Q07ocQ74les6FbkQy5msKc5hwOPJfjMidUBVRR4UnnlQiywrp6-wg==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</a> (Berkeley Lab) and <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Odpjy5vy1B2LP6Wgj7g1qGtSSY-tfW1mNFZ2DlsWfTjh4hC3qKNpotrfAtH7lVEqcL_rCld_q_79BvPqMwuqApA9anIo59j6bcRPZkST8q1e4_HGCveZ3ETjB_vNofZB7QNCC6M4LNaKkJV_kzRyZ8RuKrM7Q3_wZegV1HYN9kphf_P8IU-5Y5UyXCcC2faSlvpTfrBHLTNREZFrdeii6Gq6L-dUrkdN" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Innovation Electricity Efficiency</a> (IEE) issued reports detailing current and projected energy efficiency budgets for utilities. Berkeley Lab projects that total spending on electricity and gas energy efficiency programs will increase from $4.8B in 2010 to $9.5B by 2025 (in the "medium case" scenario). This is a 4% yearly growth rate (CAGR), but the most significant growth is in the upcoming years.</div>
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Not surprisingly, spending in California is by far the largest, followed by New York, Massachusetts, and Florida. Future growth is expected primarily in the Midwest and the South, as the West and Northeast maintain their large spending programs. The Midwest has already seen three states (Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania) more than doubled their electricity program spending in 2011 from 2010 levels.</div>
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The persistent growth in these energy efficiency programs are due to higher interest in energy efficiency by regulators, state efficiency goals and targets that increase over time, and a reduction in coal-generated electricity in some states, according to the reports.</div>
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Some see a scenario where spending will increase beyond $9.5B in 2025. The "high case" scenario for spending is $14.3B in 2025, and, given that the energy efficiency standards are only established in half of all U.S. states, IEE believes that expenditures could even top $14.3B in 2025. </div>
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In short, U.S. utilities have and will continue to be valuable partner to help you meet your energy reduction goals. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;">Be sure to check sites from </span><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Odpjy5vy1B2LP6Wgj7g1qGtSSY-tfW1mNFZ2DlsWfTjh4hC3qKNpotrfAtH7lVEqcL_rCld_q_5-qWOpCT9Qurn8TIm8lscGI9m9kCLwMDmpRS9b54q80O2-zBMUE0VRBMujx_Jqda5K0Ukcp0pmW2kKH4LIYil9C_kF2fYNG-CusGOjmeLjHA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">DOE</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;"> and </span><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001Odpjy5vy1B2LP6Wgj7g1qGtSSY-tfW1mNFZ2DlsWfTjh4hC3qKNpotrfAtH7lVEqcL_rCld_q_6zmdocOb3DYlX6xEEuCIt0pkRM1l0NA1M=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">DSIRE</a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt;"> for utility incentives in your state and obviously ask your utility reps. </span><span style="background-color: transparent;">If you have not already, consider ensuring that your CFO is aware of these programs and she has a summary of incentives received the last several years for all facilities. We facilities and energy management teams strengthen the support of Finance when finance understand the wealth of utility incentives available.</span></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-62379903509159256412013-11-25T10:09:00.001-05:002013-11-25T10:09:26.064-05:00EnerNOC Formally Expands Beyond DR to Enterprise Energy Management Software <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 11pt;">Last week I attended EnerNOC's Analyst Day, a gathering of financial and industry analysts, for an update by its senior management team on EnerNOC's strategy. The event was attended by around fifty people in person with more on the phone (I attended in person). To summarize, EnerNOC has positioned its offerings, team, and capabilities to expand beyond Demand Response (DR) programs into a software product company, and this meeting provided an update of this plan, especially for the financial community. With a profitable core business, more than $100M cash on hand, and an infusion of enterprise software talent from the board through sales and engineering, EnerNOC has a real chance to become a leader in the emerging Enterprise Energy Management software space. </span></div>
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Below are my notes and thoughts from the event. All the presentations are online <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0019dln9okzaVAx7-ppMPR3w1huEBRpN-JBWYrqb4deauJB8cYPE5x5XcqDBdrFS_gp8CYGKY0b8yDlHH4eIuuBr_R2TNaHASPG2nCnJ2DHSVARFqcZngKOqMSLdiUxDLQy" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>. </div>
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Notes from the Event</div>
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<li style="font-size: 11pt;">Market opportunity: EnerNOC sees a $1.5B US market for DR with a 3X larger global DR market. It estimates the market for energy management software (which it calls Energy Intelligence Software [EIS]) to be $5B.</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;">EnerNOC believes it is poised and ready to be a leader in the Energy Intelligence Software segment, just as it became a leader in the DR space against numerous competitors.</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;">EnerNOC has added software experience throughout the company, including at the board level, management team (new CFO and new VP of Enterprise sales), product management, product marketing, and engineering.</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;">In DR, the biggest market opportunity for growth is in Texas (ERCOT) and international. Its DR strategy is to diversify away from PJM, expand sales to traditional utilities, and grow internationally.</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;">For the Energy Intelligence Software market, the strategy is to focus on the top 100,000 C&I customers in the U.S. and increasingly selling them their main products: SupplySMART (procurement and utility bill management), EfficiencySMART (energy use monitoring), and DemandSMART (demand response and time of use monitoring).</li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Sales strategy is to close 50 large C&I customers, which have an average $200M yearly energy spend, on software deals of $1M annually in three years. EnerNOC states they already have four customers at this level and proposals with another ten.</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">According to company executives, top competitors for software sales are Schneider Electric, Siemens, Constellation, Ecova, Comverge, and IBM.</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">From a business model standpoint, EnerNOC aims to diversify away from its hugely seasonal business (100% of EBITDA and 70% of revenue come in Q3) with increased software sales and non-Q3 DR revenue.</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Growth strategy has three elements: 1) grow US DR business, 2) drive DR internationally, and 3) drive adoption sales of its energy management software. This strategy will add $200M in top-line growth with the following breakdown: $40M DR, mostly driven by Texas; international DR $90M, expand to four new countries; and $70M in EIS software, driven by $1M yearly contracts with large C&I customers.</span></li>
<li style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Gross margins are expected to dip from 50% to 45% next year and then grow toward 50% afterward.</span></li>
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Groom Energy Analysis</div>
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Regarding the software business, with the addition of many people with software experience, the company looks very different from what it did three years ago. We were pleased to hear that the company is investing more in a utility bill management (monthly bill) solution for customers rather than just real-time interval data, as this development matches the broader customer need we see in the marketplace. </div>
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<span face="Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">The existing relationship it has with thousands of customers through its DR offering (DR clearly has been a "killer app") and its strong balance sheet position it well to execute on its product roadmap. EnerNOC's offerings and roadmap include a number of capabilities that will be attractive in the market, including enhanced understanding of tariffs for customers, using DR fees to fund energy management software (most vendors can't do this), one-stop shopping, peak rate analysis with action at the facility level (e.g., time of changes, etc.), and Energy Analysts to analyze energy data for time-starved facility and energy engineers.</span></div>
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A higher mix of recurring and high margin software revenue will help increase company valuation (the company is currently valued at 1X revenue (enterprise value / revenue).</div>
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<span style="font-size: 11pt;">The transition will not be easy, however. EnerNOC made a large, successful DR business by basically giving money to companies to shut things off or to run local generators. Asking companies to pay for software, in a highly competitive software field, is a larger challenge. We have seen a few $1M yearly software deals for energy management software, so we believe EnerNOC's average deal size estimates are too high, but they may make up for this on a larger volume of smaller deals. T<span style="font-size: 11pt;">he company's roadmap does not include any products for asset manag</span></span><span style="font-size: 11pt;">ement, so companies that wish to have a single solution for asset management and energy management will need to consider to other vendors.</span></div>
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Overall, however, EnerNOC is well positioned to be a market leader. Only a handful of other companies have the product breadth and financial resources to challenge them.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-45158402472988618142013-11-21T17:36:00.002-05:002013-11-21T17:36:28.476-05:00Some Utilities Provide EMS Software to C&I Customers<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">Utilities traditionally have paid (and continue to provide) financial incentives for the modernization of equipment (upgrades or retrofits for lighting, drives, etc.) to improve energy efficiency. In the last several years, utilities have also compensated companies to curtail load during critical peak hours through demand response and other programs. </span></div>
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With the increased availability and affordability of meters and software, it would make sense for utilities to provide energy management software as well to drive efficiency. At the end of the day, the utility should be indifferent to the program details if the program provides guaranteed savings. The use of, say, LED lighting or the deployment of energy management software that drives energy savings via behavioral changes should be equally valuable to the utility as long as savings are verified. <br />
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We have seen few examples of custom utility incentives for energy management software, but no programs. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">This appears to be a changing. While this trend is still very early, here are several examples:</span><br />
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001m1293YoQc3jS2j6WnWpavwSsWBzYjB_Q8QZrC9WL3prgr9I6fSrYcVgO5vJj66XIh_GQobm6nDBOS133icDddL3W7_P9vASpG9KAt8hzhMThJ9YrK_PtHB0P-Bo39URasg2AnIWh_cxYLa-IcuCBy0104TMEbbtyXDXDLFyAbB1TFuqHc91r8vtU0eD0mmkanyCKoiQVQIowcxBwvGlVrA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank" track="on">NV Energy</a> offers cloud-based software from Building IQ to its large commercial customers, like Vegas hotels, in exchange for participating in demand response programs</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001m1293YoQc3jS2j6WnWpavwSsWBzYjB_Q8QZrC9WL3prgr9I6fSrYcVgO5vJj66XIh_GQobm6nDCD5iOwLzbs35K19JhpagtG7_XbXcnInmNv8reVmNihFw6bW9r8oRu4o4f4s2tFcjHRayM-yUArwvhJOriMIjfvihcD06raWi8rGFrYK-HeO_XPkj2qETgNMMt_VEZO9CEROGNrl9U7XJduFrLeqEmpE86uX0i7COU=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank" track="on">PG&E</a> is working with C3 Energy to provide energy analytics to its largest customers</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Canadian-based <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001m1293YoQc3jS2j6WnWpavwSsWBzYjB_Q8QZrC9WL3prgr9I6fSrYcVgO5vJj66XIh_GQobm6nDAxnptqQ6PTce06D4-T_S7n0k7TUSGHEXsf0upkDWoJTHmqsyv4IvgkHIHsZofwXL94SNryGyLnztPGYr0eyU51v99FBJ9wL-rbbHJTHqx-0H0xfblmBdTNWPTPgu_jXUkdwjgtc_myKW0vQNjLXjyTTfY-Pq8rtDbsYVQZA7jmtQ==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db; font-weight: bold;" target="_blank" track="on">FortisBC</a>, as part of its EnerTracker program, gives qualifying gas customers the choice of using energy management software from Pulse Energy or Energent for up to three years at no cost</li>
</ul>
On the residential side, utilities have been using software to find energy savings for a while. Opower, C3 Energy (through its Efficiency2.0 acquisition) and others are supporting innovative residential utility programs to drive energy savings.<br />
<br />
For companies, this is a promising trend in utility commercial and industrial programs. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">Let us know you're your thoughts or if you know of similar C&I utility programs.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-77179010595296794862013-11-14T12:26:00.000-05:002013-11-14T12:27:01.540-05:00A Facility and Load-Centric View of Energy Management is Essential <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">We have the opportunity of working with many companies in a variety of maturity stages of their corporate energy management program. One recurring observation is the absolute importance of taking a facility and load-centric view when expanding any program.</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
While carbon footprint calculation and other sustainability metrics are common across industry and facility types, effective energy management is facility-, load-, and equipment-specific. <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">Underlying energy loads differ by facility type and purpose. Lighting is a critical load of big box retailers. Refrigeration and lighting are top loads for grocery and cold storage firms. HVAC is the largest load for large commercial buildings. For energy-intensive manufacturers, the energy load of manufacturing equipment and processes, such as furnaces or smelters, dwarf the lighting and heating loads of the related physical buildings. </span><br />
<br />
Different facility types and energy loads require their own tools and technology to drive efficiency. One sized does not fit all. While visibility into utility bills provides an essential, energy cost and use "source of truth" baseline for managers, bill visibility is only the very basic starting point to identifying energy use anomalies. While the industry discussion of utility "smart meters" is pervasive, utility smart meters only provide information about the main meter at a building, not underlying energy loads or equipment. <br />
For an organization just starting the journey to improve its corporate energy management, developing an understanding and sizing of energy consuming loads is essential when prioritizing investments. The highest return investment may be focusing first on lighting at distribution centers before investing in an corporate energy management software for all building types (stores, offices, etc.) or upgrading BMS systems. For large commercial buildings, HVAC optimization could be a more prudent initial step, with investments in plug load and lighting improvements planned for future phases. For a hotel chain, a focus on hotels in very hot climates such as Florida and Caribbean may offer a quicker return than focusing on all hotels in all geographies. <br />
<br />
In short, when refining your energy management program, push beyond basic, main meter utility data and develop a prioritized list of facility and energy loads to guide your investment decisions.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-3111525000822251392013-11-07T10:26:00.004-05:002013-11-07T10:26:47.515-05:00EEI Conference -- Largest Gathering of Corporate Energy Managers<div style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: small;">I attended and spoke at the EEI National Key Accounts <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001LdT3EmgEQwlVusv34yGJqetx8OHya2SJ8nY10xuUcrqkoasoZ653xZHvXxZsEc3e_nTROsYAhnXnNJswSrms2B_E-9Z4O9GG--RAul0YqFj-_BpGwVdnc3WuOUY5onUfCsyp-imUhCLtr34xKVq4NC8FyzLfNNQg3vc_Y0hpgieQW0EkNzSlb55NmSuKVuV4ncHrMk6jwU7W7jfv8GkkZA==" shape="rect" style="color: #0a74db; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">conference</a>
(the link includes the presentations) last month in Vegas. This 700
person conference brings together utilities with companies with
facilities in multiple states. This was my first time attending and I
left impressed (kudos to the team at EEI).
</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
The event is the
largest, in person, gathering of corporate energy managers that I am
aware with perhaps 200 attending. Most were from large, national
retailers including Marriot, Starwoods, Staples, Macy, Saks, Home Depot,
Walgreens, Shell, Jack in the Box, Pepsi, among others. This wealth of
corporate energy managers and utilities representative provided for a
rich set of discussions and a snapshot of major trends in corporate
energy management.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Here are my notes from public presentations:</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Companies</div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Companies continue to see a linkage between sustainability and energy management and most programs are now linked</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Interest in PPA and renewables grows </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">More CEO and CFO are asking questions about energy management</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Energy
management and facilities teams need to improve their skills in
explaining and selling energy management program benefits to senior
management</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Utilities remain key to so many initiatives (rebates and demand response programs, custom incentives, on-bill financing, etc.)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">It
continues to be incredibly frustrating for companies with hundreds of
facilities across United States that each utility has different rebate
programs, definitions, forms, etc. Many ask: why can't one rebate form
be used across utilities?</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Interest in Enterprise Energy Management accelerates (my talk was one of three talks aobut EEM). <span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">Companies
would like all the technology systems (BMS, monitoring, bill
management, maintenance, etc.) to work together, but recognize, however,
that the integration challenges and cost may be large (one national
retailer mentioned that his ideal system involves combining 12 systems
they use today)</span></li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Utilities</div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">More utilities are
incorporating "customer plans" in their rolling, 5 year business
planning process and are establishing Chief Customer Officers. This is
huge difference from ten years ago when business planning and
prioritization was primarily based on financial returns with no regard
about the impact to customers</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Several utilities combine regulatory and customer roles in a SVP of Regulation and Customer</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Planning
and investing in reliability, especially given severe storms in recent
years, has crowed out some investments that improve customer experience.
Tree maintenance and management remains a perennial challenge with
local communities. Northeast Utilities however mentioned that for the
first time that some communities impacted by Sandy were asked for more
aggressive tree trimming </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">All utilities are increasing customer choice (plans, pricing, programs) and see this trend continuing</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On-site generation is growing faster than anticipated in some areas, impacting utility revenue</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
In conversations with
many corporate energy managers, I was struck by the similarities of the
trends and challenges they face. I'm told that ten years ago there
were very few corporate energy manager in the audience. The number will
undoubtedly increase in the next ten years. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-37930273992549199632013-10-16T14:50:00.001-04:002013-10-16T14:50:45.135-04:00Don't Underestimate the Cost of Obtaining Energy Data <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">Leaders implementing enterprise energy management software (EEMS) must not underestimate the cost of obtaining billing or interval energy data for their facilities. Securing accurate and complete energy data is a perennial implementation challenge that increases budgets and delays rollouts. For multiple reasons, utilities systems are not improving quickly and, in response, companies are increasingly turning to utility bill management services from vendors like Schneider Electric and Siemens and to "energy data services" from startups like Urjanet and Genability. These vendors help in acquiring energy cost and use data from multiple utilities for dozens or hundreds of facilities.</span><br />
<br />
Accurate and complete energy data are essential to successful implementations. It simply does not matter how fancy the graphics, reports or dashboard from your EMS are if the data are not accurate, complete, and timely.<br />
<br />
Energy data comes in two forms: monthly utility bill data and interval data (in a variety of types). Both forms need to be normalized for weather, load and other factors to determine trends.<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Monthly utility billing data</span> from the main utility meter at each facility is the foundational layer and the "source of truth" that energy budgets must tie back to. While monthly bills contain use and cost information, they are "rear views" into consumption, as they are received 30-60 days after the energy is used.<br />
<br />
Interval data helps identify energy use anomalies for operational improvements and comes in a variety of flavors. Here are several types of interval data:<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Interval data from main meter (delayed)</span>. This is interval data from the main meter that often comes from the utility's pulse or smart meter, but may be delayed by several days since the data is frustratingly first sent to the utility before being sent to the company. This data may or may not come with useful metadata such as price (tariff) and peak charge information, address, and parent/company account information.<br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Interval data from main meter (real time)</span>. A meter installed by the company or a demand response vendor is another source of interval data from the main utility meter. This meter<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;"> provides real time data to the EMS system but does not include cost information.</span><br />
<br />
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">Interval data from specific loads (real time)</span>. Submeters on specific energy loads like lighting or HVAC or individual energy assets, like a chiller or furnace, are another source of real-time interval data. Energy assets can also include on-site generation equipment like solar, wind, etc. where companies track power generation as well.<br />
<br />
Capturing all these types of data is cost prohibitive for organizations, so teams need to prioritize based on use cases and financial returns. Most teams start with utility bill data and then move to the select use of interval data for certain facilities.<br />
<br />
Data and implementation problems can also be hampered by other factors. The sheer number of facilities is one (one company has 250 facilities across 45 countries). Some facilities have multiple utilities meters because they had buildings that were expanded (one hotel had 8 utility meters while one factory had 5). For organizations that purchase electricity from third parties, determining the actual cost of electricity from the generation and transport charges can be labor intensive.<br />
<br />
In short, obtaining energy cost and use data for any EEMS is not trivial and should not be overlooked by teams implementing software. While each organization is unique, data capture requirements need to be adequately budgeted for in terms of dollars and time.<br />
<br />
If you are able, join us tomorrow, Oct 17, for a webinar with Cox Enterprise and Urjanet on this topic (info below) to learn how one company tackled this problem.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span><strong>Webinar -- <span style="font-size: 10pt;">How to Cost Effectively Get Energy and Billing Data for 1,000+ Facilities: Case Study with Cox Enterprises. Thursday Oct 17, 1p EST. [new date]</span></strong><br />
</div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Obtaining energy data for thousands of facilities is often the largest cost element of successful corporate energy management deployments. For large organizations, securing billing and interval data from hundreds of facilities can account for 50% or more of a project budget. Corporate energy managers, IT professionals, EHS managers and Sustainability leaders will learn on this webinar how Cox Enterprises reduced their energy data cost by 80%. Moderated by Paul Baier from Groom Energy, the webinar speakers include executives from Cox Enterprise and Urjanet. <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Register <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=00149xEjVVaNMWsvKOFsJ2YYEOYZX8O7fVv021zOUHIAc9LghqBRZc5OLi4BN0A-1u0NQY1kf0U-XCYRfkvEDNb8mKP5T1F1bGHN_iMP2UDzsC2BVCoOOKRFpcKs7uCvxatlrMxmDvcbhwgs96wuPZPlIMYyWQmfvGFlnz-vqxizx4=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-81938867804635079092013-10-02T09:43:00.005-04:002013-10-02T09:43:51.639-04:00Webinar -- How to Cost Effectively Get Energy and Billing Data for 1,000+ Facilities: Case Study with Cox Enterprises. Thursday Oct 17, 1p EST. <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">Obtaining energy data for thousands of facilities is often the largest cost element of successful corporate energy management deployments. For large organizations, securing billing and interval data from hundreds of facilities can account for 50% or more of a project budget. Corporate energy managers, IT professionals, EHS managers and Sustainability leaders will learn on this webinar how Cox Enterprises reduced their energy data cost by 80%. Moderated by Paul Baier from Groom Energy, the webinar speakers include executives from Cox Enterprise and Urjanet. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">Register <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OA7zwbHViETXyz3YJMDQ6w0vTdxY7z2ZpUeWpLERCExByuBX-1leARSL3w97GcCSNSkehp5cS_ka34DR_JjjrYqG-Ab6Cgu4LkhWxhMMlUQOkeme43895qi3ZQkIAodCV5myBLBC9mvjEXbcikOV6gR9esEbD4RR" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-83526802890446879602013-10-02T09:43:00.001-04:002013-10-02T09:44:03.708-04:00An impressive case study: Office Depot Saves $2m/year across 1,200 stores with Energy Management<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">We are fan of case studies as they clearly demonstrate the value of a particular vendor's solution. The Office Depot case study with the Phoenix Energy Technology is impressive and shows where multi-site energy management is going in next ten years.</span></div>
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
As a national retailer, Office Depot is constantly looking for ways to improve margins at its 1,200 stores without adding labor. Office Depot already has implemented lighting and HVAC upgrades and has a system of networked BMS systems. They turned to Phoenix Energy Technology to drive additional savings based on behavior changes (adjusting lighting and temperature controls) without adding more labor or work at each store. <span style="font-size: 10pt;">The Phoenix solution is based on remote visibility <span style="text-decoration: underline;">and</span> control of lighting and HVAC. </span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
In our <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OA7zwbHViETXyz3YJMDQ6w0vTdxY7z2ZpUeWpLERCExByuBX-1leARSL3w97GcCShkZOW30-8OFvgjBpmUbxsUPwo5fP3Q084TvwaumfYY7ky7V7pzHLtexCbO9cueah2bJFdypwAOijSqinKAv2UrA58ubygj1M" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Enterprise Smart Grid framework</a>, we differentiate between vendor solutions that focus on energy use Visibility from those that drive energy savings from Control with Visibility. Both have advantages, but significant, cost savings can be driven by actually controlling energy loads and not just monitoring them, especially in environments where facility managers are overloaded and energy accountability is lacking. Solutions that provide Visibility to energy use identify energy use anomalies and potential energy savings opportunities, but these savings are not realized until a facility manager actually changes something at the building. An identified energy use anomaly not acted upon is not energy savings.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
Control and Visibility solutions, like the one from Phoenix, send control signals back to the building to adjust lighting and HVAC, without local facility managers getting involved. This is much more difficult implementation and requires a plethora of operation procedures and technical integration between Office Depot's 1,200 stores and Phoenix's software and monitoring capabilities, but the results are notable. Office Depot is saving over $2m per year. Moreover, these savings continue to occur each year as Phoenix and Office Depot refine the monitoring and control parameters.</div>
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<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
This outsourced remote control of lighting and HVAC for 1,200 facilities doesn't work for all industries, but is very applicable for national retailers with networked BMS systems across their stores. Read more about this implementation <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001OA7zwbHViETXyz3YJMDQ6w0vTdxY7z2ZpUeWpLERCExByuBX-1leARSL3w97GcCShkZOW30-8OHRsmua5o0rZvniwRdhHFzc09XT8W2_0EDSYr8pyvi6OTUBOwH8w7H0" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>.</div>
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<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-15718291189242321182013-09-13T11:15:00.002-04:002013-09-13T11:15:57.337-04:00The City of Boston Invest in Enterprise Energy Management Software<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">The City of Boston (USA) continues to set the bar high for its sustainability and energy efficiency programs. Galvanized by the Mayor Thomas Menino's goal of reducing </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent by 2020, the City has invested in a number of programs and technologies, including the purchase of an Enterprise Energy Management Software (EEMS) system.</span></div>
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The EEMS will help the City find energy savings opportunities on its $57M yearly energy expense for its 250 facilities and 64,000 streetlights. <span style="font-size: 10pt;">Major functionality of the EEMS includes better and easier allocation of monthly utility bills to budget owners, calculation of GHG emissions, tracking of energy efficiency projects, and the management of interval data at individual sites. </span><span style="font-size: 10pt;">After a competitive evaluation, the </span><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0014lAwBjwA7PwuS3kqi0Q7K8othogumxr8gr7Pum6s4AzcYnKNyc8hUNpdoOZMTdxx0Ex2tEtv1MpRP4ed_Abu1EfSwDmR9JtnMZlERRMV5BJRb8tmM3LeiGB0ihyzhnFBHZ_a6dBE0inHLIKFNm_r5831vleo-4DJp6vV6t0oTRy7gl-48Qsz8kMaH5-D3sYfISFsh1gsrPEew_a-Tn5dB9zEqu2VKFZEXQqSwOUMh4NzN5_oj3T2oU77G8OXBo8W" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">City selected Schneider Electric</a><span style="font-size: 10pt;">. (Disclosure: Groom Energy assisted the City in defining its requirements and the developing of its RFP).</span></div>
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In addition to the EEMS, the City has adopted LED lighting for streetlights, developed <a href="" shape="rect">Renew Boston</a>, an innovative network of energy efficiency and alternative energy service provision, and secured approved for <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0014lAwBjwA7PwuS3kqi0Q7K8othogumxr8gr7Pum6s4AzcYnKNyc8hUNpdoOZMTdxx0Ex2tEtv1MpRP4ed_Abu1M-g6e-troakNw2QA1BpLbP-QK4444qKEX1cObPUSFPhf3595uZdw6fYaW7OSXt8fvzPrJ_GoqIINoo_aNxriywUwE6dU_BsotBz5jPqoyyf" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Building Energy Reporting disclosure</a>.</div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">Already recognized as one of the more progressive cities in terms of sustainability and energy efficiency, this investment in an EEMS helps the City take its program to the next level of maturity and achievement gives management better tools to drive a culture of energy accountability.</span></div>
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The City is an excellent example of the power of energy reduction and GHG reduction goals established by senior management. The Mayor's commitment to GHG reduction has directly translated into action throughout the entire organization. Leadership counts.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-14487092022649983912013-09-12T14:20:00.004-04:002013-09-12T17:10:15.014-04:00Feedback on Groom Energy's Definition of Enterprise Energy Management Software<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
<span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">In our July 11 blog post, "</span><a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0012m9HzqtWwXYCh8rNUMR6n9IDWbl_cAke_NjzmH5kkDe25DvRShJ7Wp7BsNYJQWw3bgvFurhQFeugyfFJHG9ZXBHJ3hCJ61PrLhhkbd7heyAszaNWdIzmpgz9_5vJFkjBFOznv7ERe-AoB0bys23gmnUsqKWppv00vRXkcsXmtOAL6eFoEUpUBLxoEcGLm29xyxuTf5Eaz5gnEoGi93lRXQ==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="background-color: transparent; color: blue; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;" target="_blank" track="on">What Exactly is Enterprise Energy Management Software</a><span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">,</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;">" we shared our working definition of Enterprise Energy Management Software (EEMS). This definition has been evolving over the years and was refined during our research for our recent report, </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt;"><em>2013 Enterprise Smart Grid and a Corporate Buyers' Guide to Energy Management Software</em>. We received lots of feedback but nothing that warranted a material change.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 10pt;">The working Groom Energy's Definition of Enterprising Energy Management Software is as follows:</span></div>
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An EEMS is a corporate-level tool that</div>
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<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">meets the need of senior management (especially the CFO) to achieve stated energy improvement goals (often expressed as energy intensity measures)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">is an essential tool to drive a culture of viewing energy as a variable and controllable expense rather than an uncontrollable, fixed one for all departments</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">provides P&L and budget owners with clear visibility into past, current and expected energy use and cost</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">"foots" with or tie-backs to the actual utility bills; that is, an EEMS is the source of record for both energy use and cost </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">tracks energy reduction projects and expected benefits to assist with capital budgeting and energy goal achievement</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">calculates scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">provide insights from interval data (energy use data from main utility meter and sub-metering of top loads) at local sites, normalized for weather and other factors, for behavior changes in operations and identification of energy use anomalies </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">easily enables internal (historical and cross facility) and external benchmarking</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">supports the energy governance model of the company (e.g. Plan-Do-Act-Check, ISO 50001, etc.)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">supports the maintenance team and budgets (including optional links to CCMS/asset management software)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">optionally, provide energy cost allocation by customers/tenants or by product</li>
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We received plenty of feedback. In general, corporate energy managers and facility managers agreed with our definition, but all recognized that the term "energy management software" is loosely defined and company-specific. A number of readers noted that in their organization the focus is on occupancy comfort (for office workers, hotel guests, shoppers or movie theater attendees) or product output and not on the optimization of energy efficiency KPIs. In such situations, "enterprise" energy management is a multiple-site need for technology that optimizes these operational metrics and that does not need to tie back to the monthly utility bills.</div>
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The responses from vendors, not surprisingly, were thoughtful and spirited. The term "enterprise" seems to suggest higher value and prices and thus many vendors strive for this term. We had two spirited conversations with vendors whose solutions are only based on interval data, and while we agree that these solutions drive value to organization, we do not agree that they are sufficient to delight the CFO.</div>
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Overall, we found broad agreement with our working definition and did not find need to make material changes to it at this point.</div>
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So, what does this mean for corporate energy managers? <span style="font-size: 10pt;">We believe our definition of EEMS is a good starting point for you as you prioritize your business needs and then look for energy management software that supports this.</span></div>
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Let's keep the conversation going.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-33232829808052044602013-07-29T09:27:00.001-04:002013-07-29T09:27:03.184-04:00The Falling Cost of Installed Submetering <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">Developing energy management insights requires capturing interval data from both the main utility meters and submeters of top energy loads. Metering costs vary significantly depending on the utility (electric, gas, steam, or water), whether utility-grade metering is required, and the level of installation, maintenance and communication complexity. </span></div>
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Meters have a wide price range: at low-end <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTpZ-VG7MY5CVHYeTpWRoNNncIG152MGO7w=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Onset HOBO data loggers</a> cost $50 and at the high-end, advanced solutions include $3,000 <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTqyBjUT_rdBP_2E0xxGFSJC183pJM41q46kQCqloX3azGHATMjrEql6C2biDXHEsqw=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Rockwell Power Meters</a> and utility grade meters from <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarToLBzeOWU0ZdJ7Rh06ExUOk2mSczLH01mGGu-6a8GTtGMPmi_19Thzv" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">GE </a>and <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTqKfNb8J5oH-oz2HRaw9Q_VRPjtdF89N7rE5PA8oJb2sA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">E-Mon D-Mon</a>. Fully loaded installed costs (including labor to install and communication setup) range from free (from the utility main meters), to $75, to $9,000.</div>
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In the past twenty-four months, several factors have led to a 30 percent drop (our estimate) in the installed cost of electric submetering on a per point basis. Factors driving this drop include</div>
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<li>Pricing pressure from new vendor entrants with wireless and circuit monitoring approaches (examples include <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTqqKlZ3LEcadNHlj-eZKcV-5JMTyFHT-Jq8Lqkc5StNhg==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Powerhouse Dynamics</a>, <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarToOP5-x9Uo5NUeVXVHBUQ-jG2wApXB7yqA=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Panoramic Power</a> and<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTp4aHn8L2JKL0dsVWEpCK3cxBIlIapFFtfzrTZEvm7Pyw==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Outstart Power Systems</a>)</li>
<li>Increased availability of free or low cost interval data directly from utilities and through applications used by utilities from building analytics firms like <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTq3az3bjqQd9CSg94vNwyI1Oa8C5iZmSsg=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">First Fuel</a>,<a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTo29pezOo_8CNh1h5xyvCfshySTv011AMn80DrXqpAD0w==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Retroficiency</a>, or <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTorjL5HTLdxKgiSjLQaF7FqeiSvBL39u-Y=" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">C3 Energy</a></li>
<li>Increased use of meters for M&V in Demand Response which can also be used for building monitoring (EnerNOC installed base DR sites is now <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001wgowadtxrqfJjAhruY3VUgd7h5sscEiOvfqx42ssWw8ux5mFiADwpVIpD2pGqkmPmt-pX0OarTqCnJExBlD1aCMam5GKULkbUxyYERpXNiUHTVyW4Nzd_VpQIYIHJ2u0PmPPeNB4wiESPfGgRi_ooj5n1sHlw_Ia_mQzGL3thy2bNy2alB51h1Ime41OYs2Fj1_mtrnX5KapNWnhVQu9WNB5Y-wSjjKBUPUdtHamnyghc4wsIcLXvrIOC7uBAxVP_ODD8aeOv4bul5lJD12dhA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">over 14,000</a>, up significantly in the last several years.)</li>
<li>Increased deployment of digital utility main meters or smart meters</li>
<li>Increased availability of trained technicians to install hardware and software</li>
<li>Lower cost of communications using Wifi, LAN cellular or radio communications</li>
<li>Increased use of temporary metering and logging tools</li>
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Collectively these trends are driving higher adoption for companies implementing metering to identify energy savings opportunities. The reduced cost of installed submeters doesn't solve the problem of energy ownership, but for organizations committed to energy efficiency and with more mature energy management programs, more cost effective options now exist.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-6345005503872522182013-07-29T09:26:00.001-04:002013-07-29T09:26:11.266-04:00Remote Energy Audits Gain Credibility<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
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One of the industry debates in the last few years has been about the value of remote energy audits that use analysis of interval data and other factors to identify energy savings opportunities rather than sending a team of engineers to a facility. As this technology matures, the value and applicability of remote audits has grown. Remote energy audits have now gained credibility as a cost effective and scalable approach to identifying energy savings opportunities.</div>
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Traditionally, building energy audits are conducted by engineers who physically visit a facility, identify the largest energy loads and analyze operations to identify energy savings opportunities. Traditional energy audits are thorough but expensive and time consuming.</div>
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In the last several years, startups like <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQtVTON5kjwat790vG7BdHI9YEJBo8J42GfvHcydDK-AXvUaau5eBz9v5Sdh2s03EkVdTPvkYYxT-P_N5TIr4bxb9ZH1UvN6GY9yhXMnH5cyrBw0Y3cvNvk-Xr3kK1je" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">Retroficiency</a>, <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQtVTON5kjwat790vG7BdHI9YEJBo8J42GfvHcydDK-AXvUaau5eBz9v5Sdh2s03EkVdTPvkYYxT-P_N5TIr4em_JRW4LdF0ye8dt31JP_o5N0s_CO26Ww==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">First Fuel</a> and others have developed software that analyze interval data, weather, building location and other factors to identify underlying loads (lighting, HVAC, etc.) and energy savings opportunities through benchmarking. This approach is particularly well suited to utilities that have interval data for many buildings and owners of large building portfolios, like the government. This approach does not require a visit to the actual building by engineers so it is much cheaper and more scalable than traditional energy audits.</div>
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Vendors providing remote energy audits claim to be able to determine within 5% the lighting and HVAC loads of buildings, which is invaluable for quick benchmarking. This is applicable to building types with common and predicable loads (e.g. offices, schools, etc.), but not ones with variable schedules (e.g. manufacturing plants). </div>
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Remote energy audits were initially met with skepticism in the industry but this is changing as more companies perform tests to compare remote energy audits with traditional onsite audits and as the technology matures.</div>
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One case study found variability of traditional energy audits of across engineers (thanks to First Fuel for alerting us to this study). The U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Efficiency Hub hired three firms to do a traditional energy audits of the <span style="text-decoration: underline;">same</span> building and found wide differences in recommendations. Click <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001uQtVTON5kjwat790vG7BdHI9YEJBo8J42GfvHcydDK-AXvUaau5eBz9v5Sdh2s03EkVdTPvkYYxT-P_N5TIr4fKkoahf5nXwelvpjG4G3ifu0GBM3lrUmzWnkd-stnB2tmPtWjCzGIOEx4j2dv9eDZxNDLHTXCUJCqZFQLmrqTOOX3WbjsOkUNMhyKICiVmgahp543XGf6rdSGWcPW6nlQ==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a> for the full case study. </div>
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Traditional audits are not flawless and like any labor-based system, they are highly dependent on the skills of the individual person and potentially error prone. </div>
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So, do not dismiss the remote energy audit approach completely and be sure to understand the skill sets of the engineers doing a tradition energy audits.</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"> </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-54091281211492725012013-07-16T06:20:00.004-04:002013-07-16T06:23:26.247-04:00New Report: Large Vendors Vie for Leadership in Enterprise Smart Grid Market <div _mce_style="margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;" style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">
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<span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">Today we released an update to our vendor report to help companies make sense of the confusing energy management software market. The</span><span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"> </span><em style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;">2013 Enterprise Smart Grid with a Corporate Buyers' Guide for Energy Management Software</em><span style="font-size: 13.63636302947998px;"> is based on 68 interviews with corporate energy, facility and sustainability managers, vendors and an online survey of 158 companies. It provides an overview of the industry, lists recommendations for companies making purchases, and names ten Enterprise Smart Grid Leaders.</span></div>
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Major findings from the interviews and research are:<span _mce_style="font-size: 10pt;" style="font-size: 10pt;"> </span></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">Larger vendors are beginning to dominate through acquisitions and broader offerings, while many venture-backed startups struggle</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">The installed cost of submeters for visibility has fallen 30 percent in the last two years as more products come to the market and more technical are trained to install</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;">Companies increasingly are looking for vendors with a broad product and service portfolio</li>
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The ninety-five page report outlines the key principles of the Enterprise Smart Grid framework, categorizes and profiles 48 vendors and provides recommendations for companies refining their requirements and development a short list of vendors to evaluate. Vendors are mapped to the Enterprise Smart Grid framework.</div>
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The new report names ten 2013 Enterprise Smart Grid Leaders based on the strength of product, financial stability of the company, financial payback of solution, number of customers, sales momentum in the last 18 months and product vision. The 2013 Enterprise Smart Grid Leaders are (listed alphabetically):</div>
<ul>
<li>BuildingIQ</li>
<li>Ecova</li>
<li>EFT Energy</li>
<li>EnergyCAP</li>
<li>EnerNOC</li>
<li>eSight Energy</li>
<li>Gridpoint</li>
<li>Phoenix Energy Technologies</li>
<li>Schneider Electric</li>
<li>Siemens</li>
</ul>
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Congratulations to the Leaders!</div>
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The fee-based report is available now and is priced at $1,995 for an organization or unlimited, multiple-user license. Purchase the report online <a _mce_href="http://www.groomenergy.com/orderESG.html" _mce_shape="rect" _mce_style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.groomenergy.com/orderESG.html" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue !important;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>.</div>
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Discount report pricing of $395 is available to qualified energy, facility and operational managers. For more information, email me for information.</div>
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A webinar reviewing the report highlights is scheduled for Tuesday, July 30th, 12:00 PM/Noon ET and is useful for companies considering an investment in energy management software in the next 12 months. Register <a _mce_href="http://www.groomenergy.com/events.html" _mce_shape="rect" _mce_style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" href="http://www.groomenergy.com/events.html" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue !important;" target="_blank" track="on">here.</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-63116865623587820232013-07-15T06:21:00.003-04:002013-07-15T07:48:20.794-04:00Schneider Electric Continues Its Energy Management Acquisition Spree <div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px; text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SEnAG_2AfyWm6_ZtZwJI4QyYmrA_9wHJ34x7An7hhtCmmGUFpx1ijbz6sLV5zbkqum_v9ElwPZRje7tdax9NbASYNTRYwaixH7344wcwowmVPQM8xKti-rg-HfM1Of2TjKyeAF3VZ3Xy/s1600/logo_schneider.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="58" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-SEnAG_2AfyWm6_ZtZwJI4QyYmrA_9wHJ34x7An7hhtCmmGUFpx1ijbz6sLV5zbkqum_v9ElwPZRje7tdax9NbASYNTRYwaixH7344wcwowmVPQM8xKti-rg-HfM1Of2TjKyeAF3VZ3Xy/s200/logo_schneider.jpg" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">Last week Schneider Electric announced that it made a $5B offer to acquire Invensys, an energy management and controls software company, which is known for its widely used Wonderware software. If successful, the Invensys portfolio adds to an already large portfolio of Schneider's demand-side, energy management related software and systems. </span></div>
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The proposed deal comes after a series of recent energy management software-related acquisitions including the following:</div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;">2013: SCL Elements, wireless building solutions</li>
<li>2012: M&C Energy Group, procurement and sustainability specialist</li>
<li>2011: Lee Technologies, data center products</li>
<li>2011: Summit Energy, utility bill management, energy management software and procurement, purchased for $268M</li>
</ul>
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From what we hear, Schneider Electric is doing an excellent job integrating these acquisitions - retaining key management, developing a broader Schneider marketing story and cross-selling to the newly acquired customers. </div>
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While large major rivals such as ABB, Emerson, General Electric, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Rockwell, and Siemens have also completed software acquisitions, none can keep up with the pace set by Schneider Electric. Schneider clearly sees a massive market for selling products and services for Enterprise Smart Grid and is picking up key assets in the industry to establish a competitive advantage. </div>
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We think Schneider's acquisitions are well thought-out. </div>
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While large customers will continue to have lots of options, over time they will seek broader and more integrated solutions. Customers don't simply want more point hardware and software solutions; the days of customer lock-in with proprietary hardware and closed software are over. Schneider sees this and wants to develop a wide yet integrated portfolio of products to create more selling opportunities within each customer's organization.</div>
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If Summit Energy is the example, expect rapid and effective integration for Invensys. </div>
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Manufacturers of physical products have historically had a difficult time expanding into the software, but Schneider appears to be an exception. Schneider rapidly moved to get Summit employees excited about the new combined opportunity and committed to investing a lot more money into software, which pleased everyone. Schneider's field selling organization penetrated Summit's accounts to deliver the message that the story was bigger and better. We expect the same with Invensys.</div>
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What does this mean for companies buying Enterprise Smart Grid solutions? </div>
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It means that Schneider Electric has strengthened its leadership position. Look also for more acquisitions in general over the next 12 months as large companies pick up the remaining unique, independent vendors in the market (we have our internal list of smaller, innovative firms that we expect will be acquired at some point).</div>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px;"> </span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-4164639687791400712013-07-11T10:01:00.000-04:002013-07-11T10:07:53.287-04:00What exactly is Enterprise Energy Management Software (EEMS)?<div style="background-color: white; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">
<span style="font-size: 13.600000381469727px;">What exactly is Enterprise Energy Management Software (EEMS)? It's a term increasingly used by companies, vendors and investors and is starting to show up in Request for Proposals (RFPs). It feels impactful for companies and like a promising new market for vendors.</span></div>
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It is also a term that has an evolving definition in the market. As we update our Energy Management Software vendor report, called <em>"2013 Enterprise Smart Grid and a Corporate Buyers' Guide to Energy Management Software," </em>we had briefings and demos with 38 vendors, most of which had a slightly different definition of EEMS. Some view EEMS as a energy management solution for multiple sites (i.e., multile sites for utility bill management, BMS or sub-metering) and others view it a having the capability to monitor all IP-based equipment. Yet other vendors believe EEMS is software that manages and reduces the biggest energy loads (say at manufacturing plants) but not tracking smaller loads or small offices.</div>
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Here is our view.</div>
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An EEMS is a corporate-level tool that</div>
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<li>meets the need of senior management (especially the CFO) to achieve stated energy improvement goals (often expressed as energy intensity measures)</li>
<li>provides P&L owners with clear visibility into past, current and expected energy use and cost</li>
<li>tracks energy reduction projects and expected benefits as a tool to assist capital budgeting and energy goal achievement</li>
<li>calculates scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions</li>
<li>provide insights from interval data (main utility meter and sub-metering of top loads) at local sites for behavior changes in operations and identification of energy use anomalies </li>
<li>supports the energy governance model of the company, as defined by each company (e.g. Plan-Do-Act-Check, ISO 50001, etc.)</li>
<li>optionally, provide energy cost allocation by customers/tenants or by product</li>
</ul>
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Importantly, an EEMS must "foot" with or tie-back to the actual utility bills -- that is, an EEMS is the source of record for both energy use and cost. But it's more than just a utility bill management. <br />
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The <span style="text-decoration: underline;">EEMS is an essential tool to drive a culture of viewing energy as a variable and controllable expense rather than an uncontrollable, fixed one for all departments</span>.</div>
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This later point was reinforced to us this spring by a large organization where the CFO was sponsoring an RFP for an EEMS investment. The CFO told us that they initially were driving energy accountability and savings through quarterly reviews of energy budgets and projects, but discontinued this practice because there was simply too much internal disagreement and confusion about what were the actual energy cost and variances. </div>
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For this CFO, one important benefit of the EEMS is the ability for budget owners and facility managers to look at a single source of truth and to be held accountable for energy efficiency improvements in daily operations and capital allocations.</div>
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This does not mean that other energy management solutions, like light controls, building management systems, and demand response systems, do not provide significant financial returns for companies. But to call these later solutions, EEMS, does not meet the genuine needs of senior management to drive a culture of energy accountability and improvement.</div>
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A good EEMS enables senior management, budget owners, plant managers and facilities managers to produce or sell more products or to serve more customers with less energy.</div>
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What is your view?</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-75429387380547137192013-07-08T06:53:00.002-04:002013-08-02T12:52:28.962-04:00Highlights of Greenbiz/Groom Energy Survey of Corporate Energy Managers<div style="background-color: white;">
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This spring we worked with Greenbiz to develop a online survey to better understand the emerging role of corporate energy managers. 158 companies responded, 63% with revenues greater than $1 billion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some survey highlights:</span></div>
<ul style="background-color: white;">
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More companies have a dedicated energy manager at the corporate level. This mirrors the trend of adding of corporate sustainability leaders that started several years ago</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Energy efficiency and energy management are the top priorities (over energy procurement and renewables)</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The two most common key performance indicators (KPI) tracked by senior management are energy intensity by facility (54%) and overall energy cost year to date compared to previous year or budget (45%)</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">More CFOs are becoming involved, but energy management is not a priority for CFO at 38% of reporting companies </span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">18% of companies plan on investing in additional software for plants and facilities this year. 23% indicated they will purchase software to monitor and manage energy at their facilities for the first time this year</span></li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The awareness of different vendor solutions remains low, with no single vendor mentioned by more than 31% of respondents</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Read more about about survey results <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0011uhfggR2MfDwqWceh4KgYFd-lqPHyOiWnV8dq3LpUp--8ce3LPhyuYTyd1WkvEOEtK-tjtZG5U7Xlhqdde-5ve8dDE6hF4DkHCbl1gbi-_-v13EjcFfVFJeWufWWJprlxXdFw2HXjd2iHHKWjeVIyy-TRzbAsZQJe-NNZ6YOvA9rbEJxKb3l52vEMLOFA7olWOYBAx7n7LRReLfNT9HEHA==" linktype="1" shape="rect" style="color: blue;" target="_blank" track="on">here</a>.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-15059875858862508702013-04-22T11:31:00.000-04:002013-04-22T11:31:05.363-04:00The Rise of the Corporate Energy Manager / Take Greenbiz/Groom Energy CEM survey<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
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More companies are
establishing corporate-wide programs for coordinated energy reduction
and improved capital allocation. The execution of these programs is
often by lead by a Corporate Energy Manager along with his or her direct
and extended team. This role requires new skills and Key Performance
Indicators (KPIs). Look for more companies to staff this position in
upcoming years.
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Corporate energy
management programs are increasing. Despite flat energy prices,
companies continue to see opportunities that energy efficiency affords
for margin expansion while meeting manufacturing production or occupancy
comfort goals. Improved energy efficiency is also needed to meet
publicly stated carbon or energy reduction goals and to demonstrate top
customers the commitment to operational efficiency. 3M, Alcoa, Applied
Materials, AT&T, Best Buy, Briggs and Stratton, Cinemark, Eastman
Chemical Company, General Electric, Genzyme, Niemen Marcus, Millipore,
Pfizer, Staples and hundreds of others have established corporate energy
management programs lead by a Corporate Energy Manager.</div>
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These companies are
realizing 5-20% energy savings through coordinated capital allocation
for retrofits, no or low cost operational changes, utility incentives,
shared best practices, and shared corporate services.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
While some specific job
responsibility differs, for the most part these positions are
responsible for shepherding increased energy efficiency company-wide,
across all sites and plants and ensuring alignment between company goals
and local execution.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Most corporate energy
management program are in their infancy as companies establish an
understanding of their total energy spend across facilities, identify
top energy consuming assets, leverage any energy procurement and demand
response opportunities, develop software tools for monitoring energy
costs and ensure energy accountability with senior management, line
managers, and facility managers.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
An energy management
program and role require new skills. Organizations are traditionally
staffed to optimize manufacturing production ("don't slow down the
line") or occupancy comfort ("keep the hotel guest, office works or
students happy"). Facility management and operations teams are skilled
at ensuring operational reliability. But they often may not have the
time, skills or corporate mandate to focus on energy management across
all corporate operations. New skills are also needed to act upon the
flood of new data from the increased use of energy management software
that pulls together energy cost and use data from utility bills and
submeters.</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Ten years ago very few
companies had a Corporate Energy Manager. Today perhaps twenty percent
do, and in five years we expect the vast majority of large companies
will have staffed this position as the profit enhancement from energy
efficiency is simply too great ignore and the return on investment for
the program is often less than one year.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
For those just starting a program, the Energy Star has a decent <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001XNCQ4aHJSWeLpJtVRo3eyejZ2XCLd24pY2PbiIsHmf-IVtdNIn_wpRwKJBIemWTCFVouqsE8yYn9epr24yGhQ-s-1yIpYvBUn0CAP6QnkY7B_jVN68oGV2Af5weOKift_e_jmreUUwTMblrxj7YoYw67W1wTqn6sLxX3Mjqmntg=" shape="rect" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">framework.</a> </div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
What do you think about
this new role? If you are involved with energy management, consider
taking our Corporate Energy Manager survey (info below).</div>
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<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<strong>Take the GreenBiz/Groom Energy Corporate Energy Management Survey</strong> </div>
We have partnered with GreenBiz on a survey to better understand the
role of the Corporate Energy Manager. If you involved with energy
management, please take this 10 minute survey. In return, we'll send you
summarized results so you can benchmark your program (no individual
company information will be shared). Take the survey <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001XNCQ4aHJSWeLpJtVRo3eyejZ2XCLd24pY2PbiIsHmf-IVtdNIn_wpRwKJBIemWTCFVouqsE8yYn9epr24yGhQ5oEDRTywvP7fJ_yg-GakvKEUkObOeMJS86SBrLPMlMOzxMKxmOKHOg=" shape="rect" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">here</a>.
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-32250471163373963222013-03-20T17:27:00.001-04:002013-03-20T17:27:13.509-04:00NAEM Survey: Common Approaches to Managing EHS and Sustainability Data<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<strong><br /></strong></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1ubNu29dl9aPqnXJKJ_ORt3Dr_uff_7_M8SgifH6n6w6jc5wpgSJ-7MMZeagchQk51jzJqX-4gsWj8-pfLCM6WjbxgjMYAvH-2PYHNS_a-EUexMSc0rh4oUVXm5YqncViYCx7BPBB2em/s1600/2013-03-20_17-26-30.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS1ubNu29dl9aPqnXJKJ_ORt3Dr_uff_7_M8SgifH6n6w6jc5wpgSJ-7MMZeagchQk51jzJqX-4gsWj8-pfLCM6WjbxgjMYAvH-2PYHNS_a-EUexMSc0rh4oUVXm5YqncViYCx7BPBB2em/s1600/2013-03-20_17-26-30.png" /></a></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
NAEM recently published a
free, useful report about how large companies are managing EHS and
sustainability data. Here are some highlights of the report from 116
large and mostly US companies (69% of respondents had revenue from
$1-25B). This summary and the full report will help EHS and
sustainability professionals benchmark their approaches and investments.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Key findings from NAEM Survey on Managing EHS and Sustainability Data</div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Large companies
continue to use a variety of software approaches (in-house,
off-the-shelf software and a combination) to solving the data management
problem</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Companies with a high level of EHS risk are more likely to use supported, off-the-shelf software products</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The average age of off-the-shelf products is 4 years</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Top
two features for internally developed solutions are accident/incident
management and incident reporting, where the top two features for
off-the-shelf products are chemical/MSDS management and
accident/incident management</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Supply
chain monitoring, managing product regulations, and product
footprinting are the largest unmet needs, but there are very few unmet
related to health and safety </li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Maintenance
cost average $75,000 for companies with 80,000 employees but could go
as high as $175,000 (the license revenue cost were not asked in this
version of the survey)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Integration
is uncommon, with around 50% of companies have EHS/Sustainability
software that is not electronically integrated with the business system
(such as ERP)</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">On average, 20% of employees access EHS and sustainability data systems</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Top 3 reasons for investing in data management system are</li>
</ul>
<ol><ol>
<li>Improve EHS and sustainability performance</li>
<li>Improve communications about EHS and sustainability activities</li>
<li>Improve corporate-level visibility of EHS and sustainability performance</li>
</ol>
</ol>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Greenhouse gas emissions reporting is tracked by internally developed systems at 40% of the companies</li>
</ul>
I found this report very useful and it comes from a highly qualified
list of respondants. The high percentage of internally developed
software is surprising and I fully expect that over the next 3 years the
majority of companies move to SaaS or hosted version of software. The
full report is available for free <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001QbIJXdS2PaGmFA3wxsxplEnPVdXTxFBDfFaWBUFSOE_eIKwFEf9BysbBXIyan47kvjxbfotvcpJ_TjiswHGKGe0ncHRWnOXaro0whFAKkCtRTgvME5zyuIZLrcqELj0tUIwpUNfKqensKWbVMn74ppAHXthln3F2GTqjaXX8CLSM6UT6BjMiDo4yWTBOLnKcKm-rXfhN6v9AqUVZGoZAGK3yoQWjKiua" shape="rect" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">here</a>. Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-73522078673840693732013-03-01T16:26:00.001-05:002013-03-01T16:26:19.313-05:0055% Energy Reduction, Really? Yes - the Power of LED and On-Bill Financing <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie0fh7jprheq-b7ha5wyDqx76Yq98y1RiF6BIdv74sSUd_fgNyo0k3P09YgIQympWDncdo42xivdDBKDw6RMPSmxBBmDYm0DILQukJQIgaJLCq55AXbssSEKD_Phv1QHtJJHk_o8R3pOEt/s1600/LED-light-Atlas-Box.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="113" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie0fh7jprheq-b7ha5wyDqx76Yq98y1RiF6BIdv74sSUd_fgNyo0k3P09YgIQympWDncdo42xivdDBKDw6RMPSmxBBmDYm0DILQukJQIgaJLCq55AXbssSEKD_Phv1QHtJJHk_o8R3pOEt/s200/LED-light-Atlas-Box.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">LED Lighting with Controls</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<strong></strong><a href="http://www.atlasbox.net/">Atlas Box and Crating</a>, a
Groom Energy customer, cut its energy use by half and was able to take
advantage of on-bill financing from the local utility.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Using multiple technologies (upgrades to lighting, compressed air, and other technologies), Atlas Box <span>reduced
the total energy consumption at its two manufacturing locations by 1.25
million kilowatt-hours - 55% of its total energy consumption. Much of
this savings is generated by the use of LED lighting with controls.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Not only do these
projects provide a strong financial return but they also allow Atlas Box
to reduce its carbon emissions, which is important to its top customers
like EMC who encourage suppliers to become more sustainable.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
The local utility,
National Grid, provided on-bill financing which enabled the company to
avoid using its capital dollars for the upgrades.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
These projects demonstrate the power of new technology to drive large energy savings with strong financial returns.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
If you would like to learn more, join us for a case study with Atlas Box representatives on March 12 at 2p EST. Register <a href="https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/208455074">here</a>.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-36363993732921054472013-01-24T17:01:00.002-05:002013-01-24T17:01:41.203-05:00Is Energy Management a Subset of Asset Management?<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<strong></strong>As more organizations
automate internal processes related to sustainability, EHS and energy
management, asset management is another area that overlaps. Companies
can expect more energy management features in asset management software
and may, in some situations, be able to meet their needs with a single
application rather than two.
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Energy management and
asset management have different initial aims. Energy management seeks to
reduce the energy cost of operating building and factory equipment and
is typically the purview of the facilities, energy or operations team at
the local, and increasingly, the corporate level. Asset management
intends to avoid downtime of production lines and facilities and to save
costs and is used by the facilities or operations team at the local
level. Historically, energy management and asset management have been
separate processes with separate software solutions.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
However, more teams are
realizing a connection between energy management and asset management.
Real-time energy consumption and other attribute monitoring can be used
to detect problems with roof-top units (RTU) and other HVAC equipment,
motors, and fans as well as to identify energy savings opportunities.
Several companies now have their asset management team coordinate work
with the energy management team.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
With real-time monitoring of equipment, operators aim to <span style="text-decoration: underline;">proactively</span>
recognize opportunities quickly and to apply preventive maintenance
actions before responding to outright equipment failure. Both asset and
energy management requires identifying assets, monitoring real-time
equipment usage, and alerting operators of problems. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Software vendors are responding to this emerging need. <span> </span>Traditional
asset management vendors such as IBM/Maximo and Infor have added
initial energy management capabilities and energy management vendors who
utilize interval data are adding basic asset management capabilities to
their core products.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
A single software
product for each process makes sense. A single master list of
equipment (name plate info, age, drawings, etc.) can be used for both
asset management and energy management. Proposed and completed
maintenance and energy projects can be tracked in one system. Operators
and facility managers will receive the same type of alerts and work
orders for both maintenance and energy improvements.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Such an approach doesn't fit all situations and associated vendor capabilities are still nascent in many cases. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
But energy and
maintenance leaders should monitor this trend and may find situations
where it make sense to add light weight asset management to an energy
management implementation or conversely to supplement an asset
management deployment with energy monitoring capabilities.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-74142209074887818072013-01-10T14:53:00.001-05:002013-01-10T14:56:30.467-05:00Public GHG Reduction Goals Drive Energy Accountability<b></b><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSp7d6IpIV7VAyKM0PTEj_1n85S7ssZ_osF2sFGLtC-6L3z84Hd4Q060FkWzpf3nTh0ArGbrPyi1VZ4yBNnyZIDcVGWmAjc8hyphenhyphenae34vlnYjCTBZ0UFu-aT8pN3yaqbOPwmKnJrGfvIrfOQ/s1600/Screen+Shot+2013-01-10+at+2.55.36+PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSp7d6IpIV7VAyKM0PTEj_1n85S7ssZ_osF2sFGLtC-6L3z84Hd4Q060FkWzpf3nTh0ArGbrPyi1VZ4yBNnyZIDcVGWmAjc8hyphenhyphenae34vlnYjCTBZ0UFu-aT8pN3yaqbOPwmKnJrGfvIrfOQ/s320/Screen+Shot+2013-01-10+at+2.55.36+PM.png" width="320" /></a></div>
In our travels and
client work, we note material differences in energy accountability in
organizations with public GHG reduction goals compared to ones without
public goals. Examples abound but include Applied Materials, City of
Boston, Harvard University, and Sanofi to name just a few. Energy and
sustainability leaders need to leverage these public goals when they
have them and to advocate for public goals if their organization lacks
one. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
These public and often
BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals from the Collins and Porras book, Built
to Last) reduction goals provide many tactical benefits and drive energy
accountability and reduction. Here are some examples of specific
behavior changes driven by public goals that we have seen in the last
six months:</div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A yearly review of
the GHG goal and energy reduction plans by the Board of Directors at a
large company. Before establishment of the GHG reduction goal, the Board
did not review energy reduction plans.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Corporate-level
tracking of energy projects to ensure coordination and achievement.
Previously, energy projects were considered "maintenance" and were only
of concern at the local level.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">An invigorated
cross-functional, Energy Governance Committee to monitor quarterly
progress against energy goals and to guarantee accurate and timely
energy data distribution to budget owners.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Senior management
at one Fortune 500 company established a goal to stay in the top
quartile of their industry in two well known sustainability ratings.
This reputational goal strengthened the business case for investment in
energy projects.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">At a food
manufacturer, the account team that sells to Walmart now reviews energy
efficiency projects for the upcoming year so they can demonstrate
operational improvements to Walmart and other large customers committed
to a greener and leaner supply chain. While not directly a public GHG
reduction goal, meeting customer expectations for GHG and energy
improvements provides similar organizational benefit. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">In response to a
BHAG GHG reduction goal at a major U.S. city, the city's leadership team
including the Mayor invested in a comprehensive energy management
program (additional staff, projects and technology). The City previously
did not systematically focus on energy reduction.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">A multinational
combined corporate staff responsibility for energy procurement, energy
consumption and GHG reduction into one team for better cross department
coordination and senior management visibility.</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Conversely, organizations lacking a public GHG reduction goal often see energy management efforts atrophy. Two instances:</div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">At a large
manufacturer, the sustainability team was reduced to one person and
folded into the EHS team as energy and GHG reduction became less of a
priority for senior management as public discussion waned. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">The highly
successful energy and sustainability team at one company is disbanded
after the company was acquired by a larger company that did not have a
public GHG or energy goal.</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
In short, public goal
GHG goals are effective tools. While not easy to secure, these goals
drive operational improvements in energy use. More management teams and
Boards need to establish and support them.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5257492102279927027.post-62746449283095909192012-12-19T16:07:00.002-05:002012-12-19T16:07:45.157-05:004 Trends in Energy Management Software (EMS) Vendor Market in 2012<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
In 2012, we've seen many
changes in the vendor market for energy management and sustainability
software. Energy and sustainability leaders need to be aware of these
changes as they evaluate vendors in 2013. Here are four notable
trends. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">1. BMS vendors begin to open up their closed, proprietary building control systems.</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Led by <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001aFYbhVQUxFPuILO5lFRwA4rDoU7K_1IwtfIVsYtGrfkJxiW3E8UHJ8Ymg9-IIXDcf7RyAJyGHzowLRknTHH7A3ieERSYLNfcpaEex2bn3Z2dhSTSj1nrJyhS77t7ef5HHvDdbJjQqot_YeIqYaV6LtW2aEjeTUPybRdlZGyzIMMxRYCdYo-3os5p9eL1GX9TIWUkuxJuEHM=" shape="rect" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">Johnson Controls</a>,
BMS control manufacturers begin to add API and other ways to allow
customers to open their BMS data and controls to non-BMS vendors.
Control manufacturers are slowly catching up to the realities of an
open, multiple vendor approach to monitoring and controlling energy and
assets. Industry-accepted communications standards, low cost
communications and innovative sensors and meters are driving a move from
"dumb" facilities and operations with no visibility to "smart"
facilities and operations that are networked and digitally communicate
usage trends and remotely control assets. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">2. High profile, venture-backed startups switch CEOs and business models in search of a winning approach</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
A number of the high
profile venture-backed startups went through CEO changes, layoffs, and
strategy changes as they adjust their expense levels and approaches to
actual customer needs and market demand. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
After raising $45M, Hara
is on its third CEO in 18 months and is offering free trials and free
versions of its software (similar to Noesis Energy which raised $14M).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
C3, which raised $89M,
downsized and switched its messaging and focus from large commercial
customers to utilities with its acquisition of Efficiency 2.0. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Initially backed with
$17M, SCIenergy merged with Transcend, the energy financing startup with
the Transcend CEO now running the newly combined entity.</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
SeriousEnergy, which
raised $130M and tried to combine varied businesses including
manufacturing high performance windows, energy management software and
energy financing, downsized and experienced significant management turn
over (some of it detailed in this GTM <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001aFYbhVQUxFPuILO5lFRwA4rDoU7K_1IwtfIVsYtGrfkJxiW3E8UHJ8Ymg9-IIXDcf7RyAJyGHzowLRknTHH7A3ieERSYLNfcXV9bdmGD-wP9h_kq11wSdwBsMNbyqok2491VUpTYsSWuyV2tNNA3927eNhMkgOHS3961b2U7-wvZi80TzM6Pm-_7YxUT4qnU" shape="rect" style="color: blue; text-decoration: underline;" target="_blank">article</a>).</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
</div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">3. Acquisitions by large companies hit the market</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Schneider Electric's
acquisition of Summit Energy seems to be going well as we receive
numerous inquires about it from companies. Schneider Electric now
offers a very broad energy management set of offerings from meters, to
controls, to utility bill management and to procurement. The Siemens'
acquisition of Pace Global is also watched by many. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Look for other large firms like Honeywell and Johnson Controls to make acquisitions in 2013. </div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<span style="text-decoration: underline;">4. Innovative firms continue to raise money</span></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Innovative and often very focused startups raised money in 2012. Some notable ones are: </div>
<ul>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">First Fuel, energy data analytics, raised $10m in Series A</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Outsmart, energy monitors, raised $1.5M in Series B</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Powerit Solutions, energy controls, raised $8.5m in Series B and C</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Stem (formerly Powergetics), energy storage, raised $10M in series A</li>
<li style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">Urjanet, utility bill aggregation, raised $4m in Series B</li>
</ul>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
The need for
organizations to lower costs and to improved operations continues to
drive purchases of energy management solutions. Purchasers need to be
aware of the changing vendor landscape to ensure the most intelligent
and least risky purchase decision.</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com2