Monetizing Energy Efficiency: Creating Additional Value Streams for Your Customers

Much is transforming the global energy landscape these days. Building technologies are progressing from single point solutions to system and platform-based solutions utilizing the latest in smart digital technologies and the Internet of Things. Utilities are reshaping entire business models and strategies to integrate and enable a swiftly growing and diverse stock of distributed energy resources. These are just two of the more visible market evolutions. But as with most industry transformations, change does not happen all at once.

Large groups of buildings (of all sizes) lie along the continuum of advancement with regard to building technologies. Most organizations realize the potential benefits of energy efficiency; however, there are still hurdles that could prevent these types of projects from moving forward. According to a recent Guidehouse Insights report, Energy Efficient Buildings Global Outlook, these hurdles include confusion about which technologies to adopt, what internal resources would be required to manage an advanced building, and how to best understand and calculate payback and ROI to get a project approved.

On the supply side, utilities are also realizing the benefits of making the buildings in their service territories more efficient. Utilities must be concerned with their conglomeration of generation assets to ensure a reliable future energy supply. Energy efficiency and demand-side management (DSM) are two ways that utilities manage this critical task. In fact, at less than 3 cents/kWh, energy efficiency is the most cost-effective source of energy compared to all other sources of generation.

For decades, utilities have had success reaching large commercial and industrial and even residential customers with incentive-based DSM programs like energy efficiency and demand response. PJM is an example of a regional transmission organization (RTO) that understands and actively pursues energy efficiency initiatives to include in its regional capacity planning. Over time, PJM has encouraged over a gigawatt of annual energy efficiency projects in its current and future capacity markets.

The one hurdle faced by utilities and RTOs is awareness of these programs. Small- to medium-sized businesses, energy service companies (ESCOs), and even larger commercial customers may not be fully aware of the availability of these programs. Incentives can go a long way toward clearing energy efficiency project hurdles. For example, utility and RTO incentives may be the final project piece that enables payback and ROI calculations to meet internal financial requirements. Organizations can benefit from working with outside specialists in this area to help understand what is available and how best to assess and include incentives in efficiency and sustainability initiatives.

Join the Conversation

Guidehouse Insights is hosting a free webinar, Monetizing Energy Efficiency: Creating Additional Value Streams for Your Customers, on December 12 at 2 p.m. EST. I will be joined by Meg Kelly, Senior Director of Energy Efficiency, and Russ Newbold, Director of Sales Operations at CPower. Learn the benefits of utilizing PJM capacity credits as a value to you and your customers.

The webinar will help end-use customers—and ESCOs that serve customers—learn what capacity credits are, how to attain them, and how to make them a part of the value chain to earn more energy efficiency project business. This webinar will outline how to benefit from these credits and, for ESCOs, how to add value to proposals all the way through receiving the payments.