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Archive for July, 2012

Does Severe Weather Always Mean Severe Energy Costs?

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The onset of various extreme weather conditions has created a new question for businesses and organizations: Are these events the new normal?  When volatile storms and record setting temperatures strike, they can directly impact energy prices due to high demand, further straining one of the largest budget items for manufacturers, office building owners, government facilities, universities and colleges.

While scientists and meteorologists cannot predict if severe weather will become a normal, cyclical occurrence, there are energy efficiency


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Update on California’s Renewable Portfolio Standard

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Recently, the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation (CREPC, for short) in California held a seminar on the status of the state’s Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS). While the seminar contained many valuable data points on the efforts of the state’s electric service providers to meet the RPS requirement, the slide shown below was particularly helpful in summarizing the complex requirements around RPS.

Image Source: CREPC

As a refresher, the California CPUC presently mandates that all electric service suppliers provide at least 20% of their energy from renewable sources…
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How Our Lagging National Energy Efficiency Creates Opportunities

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It’s no secret that energy costs have become a top expense for many businesses and organizations around the country. Yet, the U.S. ranks ninth out of 12 major economies for energy efficiency, according to a new report released by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (the ACEEE 2012 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard). The report specifically mentions that the U.S. has made “limited or little progress toward greater efficiency at the national level.”

While this paints a grim picture, it also presents an enormous opportunity for the U.S. to improve its energy efficiency and for businesses…
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Natural Gas Futures Rise on Heat and Outages

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As another heat wave stressed the power system in the Midwest and East, several nuclear plants across four states were shut down early Wednesday morning, due to unforeseen maintenance issues. On Tuesday, system wide PJM demand set a 2012 record of 155,100 MW which was above the expected 2012 peak of 153,780 MW. New York City also experienced elevated load as Con Edison reported a new 2012 peak of 12,836 MW but below the all-time max of 13,189 MW recorded in July 2011. Four nuclear reactors were pulled offline Tuesday and Wednesday for various maintenance-related problems. Nation-wide nuclear outages were…
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Green Energy Ingenuity

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An aerial view of the project. Photo courtesy of Belectric.

Policy and financing mechanisms have played a large part in encouraging the growth of the U.S. solar market, which more than doubled in 2011 and is on pace to beat industry expectations again in 2012, adding an estimated 3.3 GW of new capacity, according to EuPD Research.

While these figures aren’t surprising – more and more of our customers rely on-site solar to better manage their energy costs – policy and financing…
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Video: Baltimore Convention Center Helps Make Charm City a Greener Place to Meet

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Many cities around the country recognize the importance of implementing energy efficiency measures. A common obstacle, of course, is financing.

Through an energy performance contract (EPC) the Baltimore Convention Center is implementing $10 million in water and energy conservations measures guaranteed to provide $18 million in energy cost savings throughout the term of the agreement. The conservations measures will help the convention center to green its meeting spaces and help to support Baltimore’s goal of reducing city government electric power use by 20 percent by 2015.

EPCs are a great option for…
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