Energy Management Plans

We work with your organization to develop an energy management plan that will reduce consumption and realize savings.

Building Use and Operating Guidelines

SMR conducts building-specific inspections and provides guidelines that improve your building?s operational efficiencies.

Meter Feasibility Studies

We work with you and your utilities to identify sites that would benefit from interval data meter points.

Program Performance Monitoring

SMR measures and reports the performance of your energy-saving programs.

Program Training and Support

We provide our technical expertise to assist you in the implementation and training of your energy-saving programs.

Energy Efficient Incentive Plans

We work with you to develop incentive plans to promote and ensure the success of conservation programs that you have implemented.

Heating/Cooling Zone Maps

After reviewing mechanical diagrams of your facility, we develop HVAC zone maps that improve the energy utilization for that building.

The Utility Manager Service Bureau

The Utility Manager™ (UM) Service Bureau processes and pays utility bills for organizations with multiple sites that receive hundreds, or even thousands, of bills each month.

Overview

When processing utility bills, a typical A/P department does not identify the errors or capture the detailed cost and usage data essential for energy managers to make informed decisions. SMR?s UM Service Bureau makes this easy. We assume all bill processing duties, from data entry to bill payment. Our utility bill processing experts capture key cost and usage information enabling organizations to effectively manage their utilities and realize significant savings. Should there be any questions on utilities, rather than the hundreds or even thousands of vendors organizations currently deal with, we serve as a single point of contact.

Benefits

• Recovers 1-3% of utility spend in the first year and 0.5% annually thereafter with bill and tariff audits
• Exceeds 99.9% accuracy on utility bill data capture
• Eliminates late fees ? ES pays all late fees
• Provides timely utility bill data entry
• Maximizes interest earned on cash flow with just-in-time bill payment methods

How it Works

Utility bills are redirected to the SMR office where they are typically entered into our customer?s database within 48 hours of receipt with an accuracy rate that exceeds 99.9%. Each bill is run through a 23-point system check to detect anomalies, after which historical and ongoing billing errors are identified and fixed. ES uses a just-in-time payment method that allows organizations to hold on to their money until the day the bill is processed by the utility. Not only does this payment method maximize the client?s cash flow, but late fees are essentially eliminated. Any late fees that are incurred are paid by ES. All this adds up to significant savings for the customer.

The Utility Manager Procurement Pro

Overview

The Utility Manager™ (UM) Procurement Pro is the first software application for managing energy contracts in the deregulated environment. The application tracks key contract provisions and the dates of critical contract events. UM Procurement Pro monitors transportation/distribution costs, commodity costs, and usage to determine whether they are in line with contractual obligations and alerts the user of any discrepancies. The application also streamlines the assembly of data required to solicit deregulated energy contracts and helps in the evaluation of alternative offers. UM Procurement Pro can reside on an individual PC or on a network.

Benefits

• Ensures negotiated energy deals are being followed through billing audit and contract compliance verification
• Saves money by identifying incorrect billing from suppliers
• Provides helpful alerts to ensure compliance with contract notice and usage provisions
• Simplifies the task of assembling the data required to solicit alternative energy supply proposals
• Gives a single reference source for the data required to manage energy contracts
• Enables comparisons of alternative offers on an apples-to-apples basis
• Facilitates smooth transitions when suppliers are switched

UM Procurement Pro is the result of a collaborative development effort between ES and the auditors.

How it Works

• Collects and stores data about an organizations sites, local distribution companies (LDCs), and alternative energy suppliers (AESs)
• Stores and creates a ready reference for data that describes an energy contract, including effective dates, expiration, terms, price, penalties, consumption parameters, renewals, and other essential descriptive data
• Collects and stores historical energy use and cost data as required for bill auditing and negotiation of energy supply contracts
• Enables the import of data from utility accounting software and other data sources
• Enables the import of energy index pricing data for bill auditing and energy supply offer analysis
• Calculates the cost of proposals received from AESs for comparison and evaluation purposes
• Audits LCD and AES billing, whether bundled or separate, for billing errors and contract compliance
• Provides alerts in advance of contract expiration and other key dates and events
• Enables management of multiple client databases for energy purchasing advisors
• Reports data flexibly

Facility Management

ES's Utility Manager™ (UM) software and service solutions provide the tools for facility managers to improve their operational efficiencies. Our solutions capture detailed cost and usage information at the site level, perform complex analysis, and identify areas of inefficiency. Through our web-based reporting tool, facility managers can then produce site-specific customized reports, charts, or graphs that can be shared with other facility managers or various departments within the organization.

Facility managers use our solutions to:

• Identify cost-saving opportunities at the site level
• Capture, analyze, and report site-based cost and usage information
• Profile interval meter data highlighting:
  • utility consumption for any piece of equipment
  • section of building
  • entire building
  • group of buildings
  • entire organization
• Determine energy performance of specific sites; or compare performance of select sites or all sites together
• Establish utility benchmarks for forecasting and budgeting purposes
• Troubleshoot problem areas
• Detect energy inefficiencies
• Develop energy-saving plans and reports
• Determine energy cost savings for the month, year to date, and previous year

With the use of our tools, facility managers can track their site's performance, implement conservation programs, and see the savings those efforts are realizing. Additionally, as an Energy Star Partner, ES can assist facility managers in achieving Energy Star Certification for the buildings that they manage.

Accounting

ES's Utility Manager™ (UM) software and service solutions benefit accounting personnel by improving the efficiency and cost effectiveness of utility bill processing and payment. By outsourcing this function to our UM Service Bureau, accounting departments can significantly reduce transaction costs by:

• Eliminating late fees completely
• Recovering overcharges with our bill review and rate audits
• Maximizing cash flow with our just-in-time payment methods

In addition, our UM software solution captures key cost and usage data and easily downloads it into existing accounting software programs for General Ledger and Accounts Payable functions. The software also features flexible calculation methods for:

• Cost Allocation
  This feature enables accurate and efficient distribution of cost and usage across multiple facilities or across multiple customers within a single facility. Allocation can take place across multiple general ledger accounts with invoice data being exported to A/P systems.
• Cost Accrual
  This feature generates and tracks accruals at the account level of detail then rolls this information up to the General Ledger level enabling accounting personnel to record accurate period expenses. ES can generate an accrual entry using a number of factors including estimates of not yet billed utilities, payments issued, payments settled, and payments awaiting disbursement.
• Forecasting & Budgeting
  The software enables users to easily create, update, and manage forecasts based on current and historical costs and usage. Forecasts can be automatically adjusted as needed to incorporate any future rate changes. Budgets can be created that mirror the respective forecasts. Users can then compare their actual costs against their forecasts.

With our UM Online application, accounting personnel can create customized and detailed reports and analysis to meet their specific needs.

Rate Optimization

Utility suppliers offer a multitude of rate schedules that may be applied to a particular consumer’s account. These rate schedules are constantly changing – i.e., new rates are added and existing ones are modified or eliminated.

The application of each specific rate schedule to a particular consumer’s usage profile results in a different cost. Most consumers are surprised to learn that utility suppliers are not required to apply the most cost effective alternative to their account. The responsibility to analyze, identify and request the most cost effective rate falls on the consumer.

Who chose the current rate schedule for your service? Have your usage profile or operating characteristics changed since your last rate review? Does your organization have the resources and expertise to analyze all of the available rate alternatives and optimize your expenses?

Rate analysis and optimization requires access to a utility supplier’s rates, a detailed understanding of rate design as well as one’s overall usage profile, and systems to compare multiple scenarios. Based upon our experience, very few businesses want to maintain the internal expertise or resources to perform this task.

It is for this reason that we offer a rate analysis and optimization service to our clients. The objective of this service is to identify and implement the most cost effective rate alternative available, thereby reducing the client’s annual energy and/or telecommunications expenditures. This is not a one-time service. Once we have optimized a client’s current purchasing arrangements, we monitor changes in the available rate schedules and the client’s usage profile to ensure that the client continues to purchase their utility services under the most cost effective rate option.

Conservation

In today’s dynamic energy markets, erratic and volatile pricing are a fact of life which significantly impact your operating costs and profitability. Today’s fuel prices are at record levels not envisioned by architects and engineers that designed buildings 10 or more years ago.

Unfortunately, we believe that fuel prices, at least in the foreseeable future, will continue to increase therefore making it imperative that businesses find additional methods to reduce their energy expenses.

As a direct result of these circumstances, ES Consulting has developed an energy audit program to complement its core services - i.e., cost control, audit, rate optimization, procurement, on-line data management and market research.

As part of our energy audit program, ES Consulting will undertake the following tasks:

Obtain basic building information - determine audit goals, review planned and historical building modifications, prepare facility equipment list, etc.

Review facility electrical distribution system - identify primary and secondary distribution voltages, check transformer ratings and maintenance procedures, review distribution panel and branch circuits, check log books for equipment outages or load additions or reductions, etc.

Review facility HVAC systems -- identify type of heating and cooling systems, examine current maintenance procedures, examine cooling towers, circulating pumps and fans, investigate the use of VAV boxes, identify location of vent and fresh air makeup for excessive or reduced level of activity, etc.

Review implemented energy cost reduction programs -- review any past energy cost reduction programs to insure proper operation and to avoid duplication of effort.

In addition to the above, our energy audit will generally include the review and verification of a facility’s conditioned space, total square area, exterior wall area, energy usage data and trends, tenant information (if applicable), energy management systems, lighting, plug load, and heating and cooling degree days, etc.

Upon completion of our energy audit, ES Consulting will provide you with a detailed report of its findings and recommendations. We will prioritize low cost/no cost projects and then move on to other higher cost projects. During the process ES Consulting will also investigate available rebates or options that can reduce or eliminate the cost of an energy cost reduction project.


Energy Audits Get Hot Again

After decades as a staple tool for making quick and often inexpensive fixes to home or business energy use, home energy audits are gaining popularity -- thanks to spiking energy costs as winter rolls in. One Midwest utility is reporting a doubling of the waiting time for an audit this year -- from four to six weeks to as much as 12 weeks -- and a Virginia-based energy consultant says his audit business has quadrupled.
Sorensen, a 48-year-old spokesman for the Albany-based New York State Consumer Protection Board, just decided to invest in his first home energy audit. He uses natural gas to heat his 1839 farmhouse, which previous owners restored more than 15 years ago. When he saw "scary forecasts of energy prices," Sorensen figured it was worth paying $350 for advice from the Troy (N.Y.)-based consultant Enhanced Living.

SPENDING TO SAVE.  Two of their experts came to his house in recent weeks and spent an afternoon testing it in various ways. They put a machine against his door that sucked air out of his house, so it could measure the amount that leaked back inside through the cracks. They looked at the insulation in his attic, which had settled, and suggested replacing it.

After they had performed all their tests, they advised Sorenson to spend about $8,000 in improvements that they said would eventually lead to energy savings he could pay off within years. He could use Enhanced Living to do the improvements but plans to shop around for price quotes from others as well.

"I can't recall the precise numbers, but it's well worth the investment," Sorenson says. "There's also my old bones that need to be kept warm and cozy."

OLD HOMES, NEW TECH.  It's clear what's driving interest in audits. Even after a recent sell-off, Henry Hub natural gas spot prices have traded this week at around $11.18 per million British thermal units (BTUs), compared to $5.88 million for the week of January 7, 2005. Heating oil is now priced at around $1.59 per gallon, compared to $1.22 during the first week of 2005.

Putting that into consumer terms, the Energy Dept. is forecasting that the average household will spend $306, or 41%, more for natural gas this winter compared to last year. The agency also thinks households will likely spend $325, or 27%, more for heating oil this winter.

"People with older homes are getting them fixed," mainly due to improvements in consumer awareness, technology, and revisions to building codes, says Terry Logee, who works in Energy's Office of Building Technologies. The average U.S. household now consumes 101.3 million BTUs, compared to 106.4 million five years ago, according to estimates in Energy's Buildings Energy Data Book for August, 2005. In 1980 the average household consumed 124.8 million BTUs (see BW Online, 9/20/05, "This Cold House" and "Does Your Home Burn Money for Fuel?").

THE RIGHT TESTS.  Some people are putting more effort into these improvements than others. On the cheaper end of the spectrum, a wide range of information is available on how to do a home energy audit yourself. Bruce Hahn, for example, will e-mail you a free checklist explaining where to look for the leaks in your house if you write him at ahf@americanhomeowners.org.

Hahn, the president of the American Homeowners Foundation -- a nonprofit in Arlington, Va., with only a couple people on staff -- says he has gotten so many requests that he recently had to work about 12 hours a day and also on the weekends just to keep up with fulfilling them. You can find similar information from the Energy Dept.

A do-it-yourself test can range from noticing the cold draft blowing in your attic to checking the insulation in your wall by probing it with a stick. But such methods can only go so far. To find out precisely how much your walls are insulated, you need to know how to use expensive equipment such as infrared scanners that can see and measure the temperature variations in your building.

SEALED TOO TIGHT.  Lee O'Neal, the president of the Chantilly (Va.)-based energy consultancy Nspects, says the high-precision energy audits he provides for between $300 and $500 are key. If you do the audits yourself the wrong way, he says you can end up trapping carbon monoxide into your home and poisoning the occupants as a result.

O'Neal says he saw a house last week that the homeowner had already sealed up so tightly, the air inside felt as moist and humid as in summer. Instead of advising further sealing for the house, O'Neal told the homeowner to put in more ventilation. But he says most of the houses he audits end up reducing their energy consumption by 25% to 30% after they carry out his recommendations. He has seen a spike of 130 requests for home energy audits during the past month, compared to only around 30 during the same period of last year.

The amount of savings you're going to get in return for your investment in an energy audit depends on you and your home. If you want an educated guess on this question, you can use Energy's online Home Energy Saver tool.

GOVERNMENT HELP.  The site will ask you to input details about your home, such as the number of refrigerators you keep in it. Once you've provided that information, it will estimate what an average home like yours spends on energy and how much less that might be if you updated its efficiency. For example, the average 50-year-old two-story house in New York City spends $2,267 a year on energy, compared to $1,451 for an efficient one.

Some lower-effort items can give you good bang for your buck. Some of Energy's home energy audit suggestions include:
• Locating air leaks around windows, electrical outlets, and other spots. Reducing potential drafts can produce up to 30% in energy savings.
• Checking the insulation in the ceiling and walls to make sure it meets required minimums. Adding more, particularly in the attic, can be relatively easy.
• Inspecting heating systems annually to make sure they're operating at peak efficiency.
• Replacing energy-intensive lightbulbs with more efficient fluorescent models.

Your upgrades might be subsidized, depending on where you live. For example, the Wisconsin state government will give local homeowners a $100 rebate if they have a home energy audit performed, which typically costs between $200 and $400 through a state program sponsored by the energy-efficiency initiative "Wisconsin Focus on Energy." The state offers additional incentives for those who implement their audit's recommendations, including a $150 rebate for installing certain energy-efficient furnaces.

LONGER WAITS.  Starting Jan. 1 you can also get 10% of your cost or a maximum $500 federal tax credit for various home improvements, such as installing new insulation or windows, under the Energy Tax Incentives Act of 2005, which President Bush signed in August (see BW Online, 9/26/05, "Go Green and Save"). For more information on government incentives that promote renewable energy, see www.dsireusa.org.

In Montana, ratepayers will lay out $1 million this year to fund home energy audits sponsored by NorthWestern Energy (NWEC ), or less than 1% of the Sioux Falls (S.D.)-based utility's total revenues in Montana. NorthWestern Energy says it has the budget to perform about 2,500 residential on-site audits each year, and it has had so much demand recently that it's already scheduling appointments three months ahead. Normally the wait is in the four- to six-week range at this time of year, according to a spokesman.

The Raleigh (N.C.)-based Progress Energy (PGN ), which sponsors home energy audits for its customers in Florida, expects to receive between 36,000 and 37,000 requests for them this year. As of Oct. 31, Progress Energy already had 32,709 audits completed, compared to 30,126 at the end of October, 2004.

In other states, like Arizona and Nevada, most homeowners pay for energy audits out of their own pockets without any help from utility- or state-sponsored programs.

WASTED EFFORT.  If you end up getting an audit, make sure you can trust the person giving it. Tempo Industries in Irvine, Calif., learned that the hard way. Its administrative services manager, Jule Hughes, got a phone call in 2003 from USRA, a utilities auditor. A representative from USRA said his Laguna Hills (Calif.) company would charge $1,499 to evaluate Tempo Industries' energy costs and make recommendations on improvements. If they didn't achieve 15% savings as a result, Tempo would get its money back.

Hughes figured that meant USRA might help her company save at least $3,000 a year on its energy bills, so she accepted. Tempo makes low-voltage lighting products and it had already done many energy-efficiency fixes on its own, such as using motion-sensor lights and computer-controlled air conditioning in its offices. USRA spent about a year evaluating Tempo's savings strategies before coming up with other ideas that would cost thousands of dollars to implement, such as upgrading all the motors in the production machinery.

Hughes says none of the ideas were practical, requiring take decades to recoup the initial investments involved. When she called USRA to ask for a refund, nobody answered her phone calls or voice-mail messages. Hughes finally complained this spring to the Better Business Bureau, which has many similar gripes on record from other USRA customers.

"Don't just trust the references they show you," Hughes says. "Do your own research." USRA did not respond to phone messages requesting comment for this story.

KEEP YOUR DOLLARS.  You can also find a list of home energy auditors that have been certified by the Residential Energy Services Network, a San Diego-based nonprofit. The Better Business Bureau also maintains public records of complaints filed against companies.

With a good energy audit, you might just find some dollars that have been leaking away, this year more rapidly than ever.