Energy conservation is a topic that seems to have no shelf life. For several years now, this topic has been at the forefront of everyone’s attention, including the government, both state and federal. Millions of dollars have been dedicated to steering consumers toward energy efficiency. A good portion of the money has gone into grants under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, and many entities are applying for projects underthese grants. The Energy Services Division (ESD) at ERC is in prime position to help customers effectively take advantage of these energy efficiency programs. For example, we have successfully secured grant money for two cities here in Western Pennsylvania and we are always working to find more opportunities for our clients. Below is a brief summary of some of the opportunities we are currently pursuing with a lot of success.

Throughout the state of Pennsylvania, under mandate from the Public Utility Committee, electric distribution companies (EDC) are required to reduce their output on the electrical grid. To meet the reduction requirements, the EDC are providing excellent incentives for clients to install energy efficient equipment. Rebates are available in several areas, including but not limited to lighting upgrades, HVAC upgrades, installation of energy efficient motors or refrigeration equipment, street lighting upgrades, and even performing energy audits. ESD has the capability to handle all of these items, and we are currently working with several businesses in the Western part of the state, in addition to getting quotes out to other businesses throughout the state. (read more)

Normalizing Energy Data
submitted by: Lynn Campbell, Joshua Genova

Everyone’s heard about global warming and you hear things like “I don’t remember a summer this hot,” or “this January was colder than last year, where’s the global warming?”  So, now it’s called Climate Change. 

Well, that’s on a big scale.  One thing we can agree on is that the weather changes.  From one year to the next, even from one minute to the next.  I think we can all agree that the weather can affect how much energy you need to heat or cool your building.  So if it’s changing from minute to minute, how can you know if all the money saving projects and procedures you put in place are paying off?  First you have to take weather out of the picture.  (read more)
 

Energy Efficiency is a Profit Center for your Business
source: articlesbase.com

Saving businesses money by reducing energy use has significant rewards, but they are often overlooked in favor of more immediate, tangible returns. One of the overlooked benefits of energy savings programs is that they rarely have a one year return, but instead generate bottom line profits year after year.

Often company executives are in the dark when it comes to understanding the amount of money they actually pay for energy. They know with great certainty exactly how much they pay for each component that is used to create the widgets they sell, but they don’t know how much power their buildings and processes consume. And that is a significant gap in their business model.

This article shows how, by investing in energy savings, a business can make significant returns to the bottom line, year after year. (read more)

Energy in America

How many light bulbs does it take to change the world?
source: fastcompany.com

In the next 12 months, starting with a major push this month, Wal-Mart wants to sell every one of its regular customers--100 million in all--one swirl bulb. In the process, Wal-Mart wants to change energy consumption in the United States, and energy consciousness, too. It also aims to change its own reputation, to use swirls to make clear how seriously Wal-Mart takes its new positioning as an environmental activist.

It's a bold goal, a remarkable declaration of Wal-Mart's intention to modernize and green up a whole line of business using market oomph. Teaming up with General Electric, which owns about 60% of the residential lightbulb market in the United States, Wal-Mart wants to single-handedly double U.S. sales for CFLs in a year, and it wants demand to surge forward after that.

Diane Lindsley, the hardware buyer who decides what goes in the lightbulb aisles at Wal-Mart, thinks 100 million swirls is perfectly reasonable. "Yes," she says, "it's rational, I think." Before she started buying bulbs for Wal-Mart just three years ago, Lindsley didn't even know what CFLs were. Now she pauses in a way that suggests the kind of determination Wal-Mart can bring to bear when its buyers decide they are going to sell Americans something. "We have plans in place to where it may not take that long." (read more)