Controlling Energy Demand Earns Dollars
By Michael Gordon

New York State is inviting every medium and large business into a very lucrative market. It financially rewards users who take measures to reduce or to better control their energy consumption. A networkof agencies and private sector participants has cobbled together a stable patchwork of market incentives, rules of reporting and of participation. These initiatives are appropriately supported by net surcharges on those who do not seek to reduce or to better control energy consumption.The effect is a system that is quite navigable for end-users. If you are a business who, for instance, owns an energy management system (EMS), you can enroll for payments through such programs as the New York Independent System Operator’s Special Case Resources (SCR) program. Payments depend only on your willingness to occasionally change the EMS settings to reduce use on 24-hour notice. These payments will be large if the commitment is large, small if the commitment is small.

Installing Capability
If you have no such system, and no other way to control consumption, you may install such capability for very little investment, through such programs as New York State Energy Research Development Authority’s Program Opportunity 620. Further, long-term energy conservation commitments are supported with very substantial state reimbursements for the cost of these projects. This support can turn a project with a one-year payback into one with as little as a two-month payback. Each of these opportunities is supported by state reimbursement for metering your facilities.

Many Benefits
Is this network of support sensible? More than sensible, it is essential.SCR programs keep the lights on without fouling our environment with constant construction of new power plants or the utilization of existing power plant polluters. Load control and energy management systems prevent price explosions in the wholesale market such as those that drove up San Diego prices and offered such fertile turf for the market Enrons to exploit. How can a business take advantage of these seminal programs? There are new specialists that serve this market, “Curtailment Service Providers,” or “CSP’s.” A CSP focuses entirely on your energy buy and on your ability to earn dollars from identifying strategies to reduce that buy. You can easily identify a quality CSP: it is paid in relation to how many dollars it finds to support your efforts. A quality CSP is also neutral with regard to the technology you install. If you identify a CSP with qualified efficiency professionals that openly earns its living from a share of your proceeds, you are operating within an incentive structure that is designed to work for you. If that CSP also scrupulously avoids cash flow alliances that could bias the advice you receive, you will pay nothing to participate in these programs, you will earn substantial dollars for your agreement to participate when called, and you will find that many of your energy upgrades are paid for. You will have served the state and your business well.To start learning about market structure, eligibility, or returns, e-mail Michael Mindell, at Consumer Powerline, one of the CSP’s, at: mmindell@consumerpowerline.org

Michael Gordon is the president of Consumer Powerline Inc.

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